Each week during the season, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Milestones for Bobcats
Quinnipiac set a record in a milestone game.
The second-ranked Bobcats (23-2-3) beat Union 1-0 behind 16 saves by Yaniv Perets to earn a shutout victory. That shutout was Quinnipiac’s 13th of the season, which set a men’s Division I single-season record in the process.
Perets has been in the net for 10 of those 13 shutouts, while Dylan St. Cyr has been responsible for the other three.
But the shutout wasn’t the only event of significance on Saturday night in Hamden. The game also happened to be the 1,000th of QU head coach Rand Pecknold’s career. Pecknold is 549–326–97 all-time behind the bench since 1994 – all with Quinnipiac. He’s the 19th head coach in men’s division 1 history to reach that number.
2. Colgate takes five points from Cornell
Cornell’s winless skid continued this weekend, as Colgate beat the Big Red 3-2 on Friday at home in Hamilton, N.Y., before rallying for a tie and a shootout win on Saturday in Ithaca.
The Raiders (10-14-3) never trailed in Friday’s game, and Ethan Manderville’s power-play goal with less than 10 minutes to go gave them the victory. On Saturday, Cornell (13-6-4) scored in the first and second periods but the Raiders’ Alex Young and Jeff Stewart each scored in the second period to tie it. Colgate’s Mitch Benson stopped 32 shots to send it to a shootout, then stopped both shots in the skills competition to help the Raiders earn five points in the series.
No. 11 Cornell hasn’t won a game since a 2-1 overtime win over Quinnipiac on Jan. 22, and is winless in regulation since their sweep of North Dakota at the beginning of January.
3. Denver sweeps St. Cloud in wild series
The No. 4-ranked Pioneers (20-5-1) took all six points against the seventh-ranked Huskies (14-9-1) to stake their claim atop the NCHC standings.
In Friday’s game, Denver fell behind 3-0 early but scored four times in both the second and third periods en route to a 8-5 victory. The Huskies had, at one point, taken a 4-2 lead in the second period on Kevin Fitzgerald’s second goal of the game. But Carter Savoie had a hat trick, Brett Stapley had two goals and an assist and Bobby Brink had five points assured the Pioneers won the wild game.
Saturday’s 2-0 victory was dramatic for different reasons. Carter King scored in the second period and Cole Guttman in the third while Magnus Chrona’s 22 save-shutout gave the Pios the victory.
4. Omaha rallies to split at North Dakota
Denver’s sweep gave them a five-point lead in the NCHC standings, but they were helped out by Omaha’s (17-11) comeback victory over North Dakota (15-11-1) on Saturday night in Grand Forks.
After the Fighting Hawks won 4-1 on Friday night, they looked poised for the sweep Saturday, with Riese Garber and Judd Caulfield’s goals giving them a 2-0 lead after two periods. But Pennington Davis and Kevin Conley’s goals in the first 10 minutes of the third period tied it before Brannon McManus scored the game-winner halfway into overtime.
5. Big Ten sweeps
All three of the Big Ten series on the weekend ended in sweeps for the home team.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota beat Michigan State 4-2 and 3-1. In South Bend, it was a similar story, with Notre Dame beating up on Penn State, 7-2 and 3-0. In Columbus, Ohio State needed overtime to beat Wisconsin 4-3 on Friday but had no such troubles on Saturday, as the Buckeyes beat the Badgers 6-2.
Because Michigan was idle, Ohio State leapfrogged them in the standings with their sweep. The Buckeyes are in first place with 42 points, but the second-place Wolverines are on 39 points and have two games-in-hand. Third-place Minnesota also has two games-in-hand on the Buckeyes; the Gophers have 37 points and are a series-sweep away from overtaking OSU as well.
6. Beanpot preparation
As Northeastern, Boston College, Boston University and Harvard get ready for the 69th Beanpot on Monday, three of the four got some positive momentum and earned a victory over the weekend.
Defending champions Northeastern tallied four goals in the third period to knock off Vermont 5-4. Sam Colangelo, who scored the game-winner, had a three-point night to lead the Huskies.
Boston University beat Maine 4-0 behind 27 saves by Vinny Duplessis and two goals and an assist from Robert Mastrosimone.
Harvard was also victorious, beating Dartmouth 3-1 on goals from Jack Donato, Matthew Coronato and Austin Wong.
The lone Beanpot team to lose on the weekend was Boston College. The Eagles, who haven’t won a game since New Years, lost at home to UMass Lowell 3-2. The Eagles failed to hold onto a 2-1 third period lead and lost their ninth consecutive game.
7. Mavericks continue streak
Despite missing head coach Mike Hastings and top scorer Nathan Smith – who are at the Olympics with Team USA – Minnesota State showed just how deep they are with 3-1 and 5-0 victories at Bowling Green.
The Mavericks, who have won 16 of their last 17 games, have opened up a 13-point lead on second-place Michigan Tech, who only took five of six points against St. Thomas this weekend.
8. AIC closes in on AHA title
American International took four points from RIT this weekend, meaning the Yellowjackets (15-10-2) need just seven points to clinch their fourth-consecutive Atlantic Hockey regular-season title.
AIC routed the Tigers 7-0 Friday behind Justin Young’s two goals and Jake Stella’s three assists. On Saturday, though, the teams battled to an entertaining, back-and-fourth 4-4 draw. Gianfranco Cassaro scored twice for the Tigers (13-11-4) and Luka Maver tallied two for the Yellowjackets. It was the Tigers who earned the extra point with a 2-1 shootout win.
The Yellowjackets are now 11 points ahead of second-place Canisius with six games left. They could hypothetically clinch the AHA hockey title this weekend if they can sweep Army West point and if other results go their way.
9. Beavers snap losing streak
Bemidji State snapped a six-game losing streak, beating Northern Michigan 5-3 on Saturday night to salvage a split and earn their first victory since Jan. 14.
The Beavers (14-16) went 4-for-4 on the power play, with Elias Rosén scoring the game-winning goal and adding three assists.
Meanwhile for NMU, AJ Vanderbeck added to his nation-leading 19 goals with a goal for the Wildcats (15-12-1), who beat the Beavers 2-1 on Friday.
Vanderbeck is one of five players in the country who have 19 goals. He’s joined by CCHA rival Ryan Sandelin of Minnesota State as well as Matthew Kopperud of Arizona State, Ethen Frank of Western Michigan and Cameron Wright of Denver.
10. Alaska stays hot
Despite being left in the cold by their former conference compatriots in the new CCHA, the now-independent Alaska Nanooks have stayed hot this January. The Nanooks are 5-3-1 since the calendar turned to 2022 and have won three in a row.
Their most recent series was a slightly-chippy series sweep against fellow independent Arizona State. The Nanooks won 5-3 on Friday and 4-3 on Saturday, with Gustavs Davis Gringals stopping 38 and 39 saves, respectively, on each night. Saturday’s game featured a second-period donnybrook and 10-minute misconduct penalties for two players on each team.
The teams will be getting to know one another well next month, as the Sun Devils (15-16) make the return trip to Alaska in two weeks to complete their (very unusual) home-and-home series. The Nanooks actually have eight games remaining on their schedule – the series against ASU, two series against fellow independent Long Island (one home and one away), and a home series next week against St. Thomas.
