Each week during the season, we look at the big events and big games around Division I men’s college hockey in Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
Jim: Well, Ed, this crazy early season has produced its first team to reascend to No. 1 in the USCHO.com poll. Michigan completed an impressive road sweep at Penn State while St. Cloud State took an overtime loss to Omaha at home, dropping the Huskies to the second spot.
Michigan is playing well again after dropping two games of four, losing against Western Michigan of the NCHC and Wisconsin. If you go back to those two games, Michigan was 1 for 9 on the power play. Against Penn State, Michigan was 3 for 7 with the man advantage and 6 for 19 over the last two weekends.
It does seem like special teams are a massive key to the Michigan attack. It doesn’t mean the Wolverines don’t have the talent to score at even strength, but if you take a penalty against Michigan, it seems like a scary proposition, no?
Ed: The talent Mel Pearson and his staff have assembled is indeed remarkable in this era of college hockey. But when you can roll out two power-play units each with multiple first-round draft picks, you’ve got a one-two punch with a man advantage that’s hard to defend against.
It’s worth noting that Pearson has used some different power-play combinations, splitting up a scary early-season power-play unit that was comprised of Matty Beniers, Thomas Bordeleau, Brendon Brisson, Kent Johnson, and Owen Power. Seems smart to spread the wealth a bit.
St. Cloud will now travel to Western Michigan and North Dakota, with a break in between at Thanksgiving. Brett Larson told us on our USCHO Game of the Week podcast that the goal for his Huskies was to win at least four games out of six, including last weekend. The Huskies would need to pick up eight points in these next two series to meet the target. What will St. Cloud need to do well to achieve that?
Jim: Wow, that’s a tall task. But if you’re going to be among the top teams – and I expect St. Cloud State to minimally be a top-five team all season – you have to find a way to win these games.
The one common denominator between Western Michigan and North Dakota is that both teams play pretty heavy games. You have to be prepared for physical play and understanding that there will be a lot of pressure on the puck handler the entire game. Honestly, though, St. Cloud matches up well with both, in my opinion. So maybe we just have to wait for these games to be played.
Let’s look at another team that I absolutely love how they’re played out of the gate. I think Rand Pecknold was prepared to ride Notre Dame transfer Dylan St. Cyr in net, but an early injury forced him to incorporate Yaniv Perets in net, who has been solid. The Bobcats have just a single loss to this point and this past weekend overcame a 3-0 deficit to Arizona State to win 5-3 on Friday.
I know it is very difficult to identify national contenders this early in the season, but Quinnipiac’s lack of quit last Friday checks a major box in my book. They have a belief in their own product, and that goes a long way.
Ed: I really like how Quinnipiac is playing. They’re dominating in almost every measurement, outscoring opponents by an average of 3.0 to 1.4 and outshooting them 37.4 to 17.7. And the Bobcats have won 58.5 percent of faceoffs. The one flaw so far might be the power play, which has scored at a measly .132, although the penalty kill has only allowed three goals in 32 tries.
It will be interesting to see how Pecknold handles that goalie tandem going forward. My question is whether he will continue to have them share ice time, or eventually land on one main starter?
Quinnipiac will see some competition for the top spot within ECAC Hockey and it looks like a prime candidate for that may be Cornell. It’s early in the season for the No. 10 Big Red, but their only loss was a close one to Harvard, and they’re fresh off an 11-3 thumping of Rensselaer.
It looks like no team is separating itself from the pack yet in Hockey East, though UMass has just one loss in the conference, and its cross-state rival UMass Lowell is a perfect 4-0-0 in league play. Who is impressing you so far in Hockey East?
Jim: That’s a tough question to tackle as I want to see certain teams in Hockey East play certain opponents.
Right now, the way UMass, UMass Lowell, Providence and Northeastern are all playing impresses me. But I also feel like some dark horses are waiting in the wings to pick off contenders. Merrimack has performed far above expectations thus far and UConn, absent last weekend, has opened plenty of eyes.
One thing you may have noticed is that I didn’t mention Boston University or Boston College on that list. I think both teams have a TON of potential, but I’m waiting for both to prove it. I loved BU’s pushback last weekend when their backs were against the wall against UMass. BU only got a single point in an OT game on Friday losing a shootout, then trailed 3-2 on Saturday despite leading 2-0 at one point.
Their comeback to force OT and then win in the extra 3-on-3 session could catapult this team. Those types of games always grab my attention. I’ll be watching closely as BU battles Northeastern this weekend.
I don’t know that the Saturday win will be a signature victory to get this team moving forward. But are there other teams in your eyes that need a signature win to get their season going in the right direction?
Ed: I guess it all depends on how one defines a “signature win.”
I’d define it as a victory against a team that you’re not favored to beat that serves to propel your team forward or turn around a season. Sometimes that might even require, to coin a phrase, a “signature sweep.”
At 0-4-0 in the Big Ten, Penn State could use at least a split this weekend at No. 7 Minnesota, a team that itself has been up and down a bit.
Arizona State is 6-6 on the season and likely needs to go something like 14-8 or better the rest of the way to be in NCAA tournament contention. A weekend sweep of No. 20 Bemidji State at Oceanside is a tall task, but certainly would make a statement.
And although No. 13 Western Michigan is 6-4 overall, the sweep at the hands of No. 11 Denver last weekend has put the Broncos at 1-3 in NCHC play. At least a split at home against No. 2 St. Cloud keeps WMU in the hunt in the league, but dropping to 1-5 would really start to separate them from the top.
At least a win – if not a sweep or a majority of points – against St. Cloud could prove in retrospect to be the signature weekend that propels the Broncos to postseason success.
