Hunter Sheppard leads the NCHC in wins, with 18.
Although there is still one more weekend of play, the St. Cloud State Huskies have won the NCHC and captured the Penrose Cup.
Even though the conference is out of reach, there still is a lot to play for with many teams in the conference vying for a spot in the NCAA tournament.
DU 17-8-7 (4) vs SCSU 21-6-5 (1)
This was the series to determine the winner of the conference. It was the number one ranked team in the nation against the defending national champions as the St. Cloud State Huskies squared off against the University of Denver Pioneers.
Friday was a close contest through and through.
With the goalies holding each other’s teams scoreless, the game entered the middle frame all knotted up at 0-0.
The Huskies finally broke the tie when Blake Lizotte scored his sixth goal of the season to give his team the 1-0 lead late in the second period.
With less than four minutes remaining in the third period, Adam Plant found the back of the net for the Pioneers tying the game at 1-1.
A winner was not found in the overtime periods and the game went to a shootout.
DU scored on their first opportunity in the shootout and won 1-0.
The following evening, SCSU once again kicked off the scoring with a short-handed goal from Robby Jackson.
Less than two minutes later, the Pioneers had tied the game at 1-1.
A lone goal by the Huskies in the second period sent the game into the final period with the Huskies clinging to a 2-1 lead.
Blake Hillman scored the game-tying goal five minutes into the third period making the score 2-2.
A goal just over halfway through the period, and a late empty-net goal from the Huskies ended the game with a 4-2 victory, and the Penrose Cup.
The Pioneers head home where they will face the Miami University ReadHawks. The Pioneers already have second place in the conference locked up and the games will not change their position in the NCHC standings.
SCSU heads up to Gand Forks, North Dakota where the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks await them. The Huskies have the conference locked up, but more pairwise points would help them secure the top seed in the NCAA tournament.
UMD 18-13-3 (7) vs WMU 14-16-2
The University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs have enjoyed a very solid 2018 so far. They have shot up the rankings and have all but secured their spot in the NCAA tournament. The Western Michigan University Broncos are trending the opposite way and have fallen out the national tournament race without winning the conference tournament.
You rarely see beat-downs like the Bulldogs put on the Broncos Friday night.
After a scoreless first period, the floodgates opened.
The Huskies scored eight unanswered goals on their way to an easy 8-0 victory in which they dominated every facet of the game.
Karson Kuhlman recorded a hat trick scoring his eighth, ninth and tenth goals of the season in the second and third periods.
Saturday was better for the Broncos, but still not much of an improvement from Friday.
The Bulldogs scored three goals in the opening period, one from a power play, to take an early 3-0 lead.
WMU scored on a power play of their own halfway through the second period cutting the Bulldog lead to 3-1, but they couldn’t muster another goal.
UMD scored another goal at the end of the second period making the score 4-1, then two more goals in the third period to cement the victory, 6-1.
UMD hosts the University of Nebraska, Omaha this weekend at Amsoil Arena. The Bulldogs currently sit at 8th in the Pairwise rankings.
The Broncos head to Colorado to face the Colorado College Tigers. Neither team has a shot at the national tournament unless the can win the NCHC tournament.
UND 14-11-9 (13) vs MU 11-17-4
While the Fighting Hawks were trying to claw their way up the pairwise rankings last weekend, the MU RedHawks were just looking to gain some traction before the conference tournament.
The Fighting Hawks looked to be headed to an easy victory early in Friday night’s game.
After scoring a goal late in the opening period, the Fighting Hawks had a 1-0 lead heading into the second period.
UND quickly added on to their lead with a 5×3 power-play goal from Christian Wolanin as well as a short-handed goal from Johnny Simonson extending the lead to 3-0 before the halfway point of the period.
That was all the luck UND had all evening.
Alec Mahalak scored his first goal of the season for the RedHawks to get them on the board bringing the score to 3-1.
In the final frame, two goals from MU in the opening four minutes of the period tied the game at 3-3. Neither team would score again in regulation and the teams headed to overtime.
Overtime didn’t last long. They didn’t even make it to a minute before a goal was scored.
Ben Lown scored the overtime goal and game-winner for the RedHawks to complete the comeback and win, 4-3.
UND struggled offensively despite the three goals scored. They only shot the puck 17 times all night and scored on one of their six power-play opportunities.
Saturday’s contest was similar to Friday’s game.
Neither team scored in the first period.
A short-handed goal from Josh Melnick and an early third-period goal from Kiefer Sherwood had MU sitting pretty with a 2-0 lead in the third period.
Seven minutes after MU’s second goal, UND had tied the game 2-2 with goals off the sticks of Hayden Shaw and Nick Jones.
The game went to a shootout with the RedHawks being the victors winning 1-0 in the shootout.
UND returns home for their last regular season matchup. They host the SCSU Huskies. The Huskies are trying to secure the top seed in the NCAA playoffs while the Hawks are vying for a better pairwise ranking.
The RedHawks face DU in Denver this weekend. MU will have to win the NCHC tournament if they wish to join some of the other teams in the conference in the national playoffs.
CC 13-14-5 vs UNO 16-14-2
Although neither the Colorado College Tigers or the University of Nebraska-Omaha have a chance to win the conference, the games were still exciting last weekend.
Friday night was an offensive shootout for the teams as they shot the puck a combined 75 times in three periods.
The Mavericks started the game strong. Two goals in the first period gave them a 2-0 lead early in the contest. On goal coming from Zach Jordan, his 15th goal of the season.
Two more goals in the second period gave them a commanding 4-0 lead heading into the last period.
The Tigers scored two goals in the first half of the third period from Trevor Gooch and Christiano Versich, but their comeback attempt was thwarted away by the Mavericks and UNO was victorious 4-2.
CC goaltender Alex Leclerc was pulled from the net after letting in three goals by a few minutes into the second period.
Tanner Ockey started the scoring Saturday night with a power-play goal with less than two minutes remaining in the period to give CC a 1-0 lead.
Two goals from the Mavericks, one from Tristan Keck while they were short-handed, in the second period gave UNO a 2-1 advantage.
Nick Halloran scored his 19th goal of the season in the third period to tie the game at 2-2 and send it into overtime.
After the overtime periods, a winner was still not found so a shootout was needed.
CC won the shootout 1-0 and walked away with the extra point.
The Tigers stay in Colorado Springs where they host the WMU Broncos this weekend. The teams split their matchup in January.
UNO heads to Duluth, Minnesota where they will face the UMD Bulldogs this weekend. The Mavericks and Bulldogs split their series earlier in the season in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Points Leaders:
1. Nick Halloran CC 42 2. Henrik Borgström DU 41
3. David Pope UNO 39
