College Hockey: Another Crazy Week Of Games

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Another exciting week in college hockey. We are now in 2023 and we have four months until the Frozen Four. The number one team, depending on the poll, is between the University of Minnesota and Denver University. These two teams have gone back and forth all year. They have spent 14 weeks in the top 25. The other three teams in the top five are Quinnipiac, St. Cloud State, and Penn State. Penn State is the only team in the top five that has not been in the top 25 for 14 weeks. The Nittany Lions have only been it for 10. The teams that are ranked 6-10 are Merrimack, Boston University, the University of Michigan, Harvard, and the University of Connecticut. Let’s see how the next three months go to see if two of those teams will play for the national championship.

Hockey East

The top team in this division was Merrimack. They played twice this week and went 1-1 in the two games. On December 30th they played a struggling Dartmouth. The Big Green only has two wins on the season. Merrimack won the game in overtime 3-2. The other game was against Providence who is strong and ranked fourth in the division. The Friars dominated the Warriors 6-1. It was a big win for the Friars. The University of Connecticut, the second-ranked team in the division, also had two games. The Huskies won both of their games tying the Friars in points. Merrimack has played three fewer games than the Huskies. The Huskies beat Long Island which is an Independent school in college hockey. UConn beat them 2-1 in overtime and 5-3 in a home vs home series. Harvard had the largest win of the week 8-4 over Northeastern.

Atlantic League

RIT continues to be the top team in the division. The Tigers have a two-point lead over Sacred Heart. RIT also has two games in hand with the Pioneers. The Tigers struggled this week with the Penn State Nittany Lions losing both games 6-1 and 3-1. The Pioneers also played two games and won both. Both games were against Mercyhurst, who is also in the division first, and was a 4-3 final; in game two it was a 4-1 final. The third-place team is the American International Yellow Jackets who went 0-1-1. Both of their games were against Cornell, the first game was a 3-3 tie. In the second game, the Yellow Jackets got a beat down losing 8-4. Despite that, they are one point out of second place and three points out of the top spot.

Big-10

According to the stats, the Penn State Nittany Lions are on top of the division. Despite the University of Minnesota being the top team in college hockey. The Golden Gophers have two games in hand on the Nittany Lions. The top teams were the only ones that had a game last week. As I mentioned earlier, Penn State beat RIT twice. The Golden Gophers had one game which they won over Bemidji State, 2-1. Notre Dame had a game scheduled against the University of Alaska Fairbanks but there was no final from the game. I can see both Penn State and Minnesota continuing to try and overtake the other.

WCHA

Ohio State and Wisconsin, who are also both in the Big 10, are two and three in this division. The Buckeyes won both games over Lindenwood Lions. Both games had many goals scored the first one had 10 goals nine of them scored by Ohio State. In the second game, only six goals were scored by the Buckeyes. The Badgers played Quinnipiac and beat them 3-0. They have a game scheduled for New Year’s Day I report on that one next week. The Badgers are only four points behind Minnesota and Ohio State for the division lead. Let’s see if Minnesota Duluth can catch the Golden Gophers and Buckeyes.

CCHA

At the current moment, there are two teams tied for the top spot in the division. It is between Bemidji State Beavers and Michigan Tech Huskies. The Beavers have two games in hand on the Huskies. The Minnesota State Mavericks are only one point behind the Beavers and Huskies. There were three games this week and the only team in the division that won was the Bowling Green State Falcons. The St. Thomas Tommies and Bemidji State both fell. The Tommies lost to Minnesota Duluth 2-1 and the Beavers lost to Minnesota by the same score of 2-1. We are all interested in seeing who comes out of this division and represents it in Tampa, Florida.

This was an exciting week in college hockey. We move closer and closer to the Frozen Four. All five divisions had some games that were blowouts and some that were close. That is what I love about college hockey you never know who is going to win. The teams that you do not hear much about can make an impact. For example, at the WCHA and CCHA divisions. The fans of those teams are hoping that they are in Tampa and that we draw closer to the all-important conference championships. That will determine who will be in Tampa for all the marbles.