Welcome to our weekly college hockey roundup looking back at the world of Division I hockey around the state.
This will be where you can find Saint Cloud State, UMD, Minnesota State, and Bemidji State men’s hockey results and analysis each week throughout the college hockey season.
In the first edition of 2014, we take a look at where teams stand heading into the meat of their schedule, and for those that were in action, what they were able to accomplish over the weekend.
WCHA MINNESOTA STATE: The Mavericks faced a large task on the weekend, with No. 2 Ferris State coming to Verizon Wirless Center.
The results they got in the WCHA matchup were hugely important, as they sent the conference leaders to their first two losses of the WCHA season.
Friday, the Mavericks got two goals in each period on their way to a 6-2 win, two lamp-lighters each from Matt Leitner and Johnny McInnis.
Saturday, MSU got three power play goals, two of which came from JP Lafontaine, and things got ugly in the third period of the 4-3 Mavericks win.
To see the scrum that took place and resulted in massive penalty minutes, go to the 8:15 mark of the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GfQ-Ysl00A
The Mavericks now rest just two points behind Ferris State for the conference lead, and are out of conference this weekend for the North Star College Cup.
NCHC ST. CLOUD STATE: The No. 3 Huskies struggled mightily against conference foe Western Michigan, and came out of the weekend winless.
Friday held a shootout, with five power play goals scored between the two sides, and a 5-5 tie the final result.
WMU scored four of the final five goals in the contest after SCSU held a 4-1 lead, the final of which came with three minutes to go in regulation.
Saturday, the Broncos were outshot 33-19, but snuck two past SCSU goalie Ryan Faragher while his Western Michigan counterpart, Lukas Hafner, stopped 32 Husky shots for the 2-1 win.
SCSU remains on top of the NCHC standings, but the table looks awful tight after the weekend’s results, with four of the seven other conference teams within three points of first.
NCHC MINNESOTA-DULUTH: Not much separated No. 16 Denver and the Bulldogs over the weekend, with both contests going to overtime.
Friday, the Pioneers’ Quentin Shore scored with just 45 seconds left in the extra session to give Denver the points.
Saturday, a record crowd at AMSOIL Arena of 6,889 was treated to a shootout between the two sides, this time with the home team sending the fans home happy via a 2-1 result in the shootout.
The game will officially go down as a tie, but for the sake of conference points, UMD takes two and Denver claims one from Saturday.
The Bulldogs are sixth of eight in the NCHC standings, while Denver trails SCSU by two points for the top spot in conference.
WCHA BEMIDJI STATE: The days of top-ranked North Dakota are gone, but they’re still no easy foe, as BSU found out this weekend.
The Beavers were able to scrape together a tie Friday despite being outshot 43-15, but Saturday No. 20 UND beat goalie Andrew Walsh four times in a 4-2 win.
BSU hangs onto fifth in the WCHA standings, one point behind Alaska-Anchorage for fourth and three ahead of Northern Michigan for their current spot.
The Gophers hosted the Hockey City Classic this weekend and earned a sweep of Ohio State, game recaps of which you can find here.
Until next week, we bid you adieu.
