Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Michigan State gets first-ever B1G playoff win
After dropping the first game of their quarterfinal series against Notre Dame, the Spartans beat the Fighting Irish in two 4-2 games to advance to the Big Ten conference semifinals.
Saturday’s win was the first-ever Big Ten playoff win for Michigan State. The last time that the Spartans won a conference playoff series was in 2013, when Michigan State beat Alaska in two of three road games in the CCHA tournament.
MSU takes its first lead of the night on this play right off the faceoff. What an assist by Müller. pic.twitter.com/UFyaZgBhKF
— Michigan State Hockey (@MSU_Hockey) March 6, 2023
Freshman Tiernan Shoudy’s sixth goal of the season was the game-winner in Sunday’s contest. Dylan St. Cyr – who began his career with Notre Dame – made 108 saves in the three-game set.
The Spartans travel to take on top-seed Minnesota in a single-elimination B1G playoff game Saturday.
2. Ferris State upsets Bowling Green with two OT winners
For the first time since 2016, Ferris State advances to conference semifinal action, upsetting Bowling Green, 4-3 and 2-1.
The Bulldogs were the only lower-seed CCHA team to win on the road in quarterfinal play, winning each night in overtime after Bowling Green scored within the final two minutes of regulation each night to send the games to OT.
Nick Mardecchia had the Friday winner at 14:04 and Jason Brancheau had Saturday’s at 4:04, both even-strength goals. Goaltender Noah Giesbrecht made 71 saves in the series.
The Bulldogs will travel to face Minnesota State in a single-elimination semifinal match Saturday.
3. Connecticut prevails over Boston College for home ice
Connecticut’s 6-5 win over Boston College in the final game of the Hockey East regular season mirrored the conference’s season as a whole: wild, close and down to the wire.
Trailing 6-3, the Eagles scored two late third-period goals but couldn’t catch the Huskies, who will host UMass-Lowell in a single-elimination Hockey East quarterfinal game Saturday.
Justin Pearson had a hat trick for the Huskies and Jake Black had the eventual game-winner early in the third period.
4. Tigers in the hunt, in more ways than one
With 5-3 and 4-3 Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal wins over Mercyhurst, RIT is in the hunt for more than just an AHA title. To advance to the NCAA tournament, the Tigers need to win the Atlantic Hockey playoff championship for the tourney autobid that comes with it.
Trailing 3-1 in Saturday’s win, the Tigers began their comeback with Simon Isabelle’s goal at 18:13 in the second and tied the game at 3:46 in the third when Cody Laskosky netted his 13th of the season.
It was Gianfranco Cassaro from Laskosky who scored on the power play at 3:09 in OT to give the Tigers the win and the sweep. Cassaro also assisted on Laskosky’s game-tying goal.
JOJO DOES NOT MISS FROM THERE!!!!!!!!! #ROARTECH pic.twitter.com/4WatldwW0n
— RIT Men's Hockey (@RITMHKY) March 5, 2023
The Tigers will host Holy Cross this weekend in a best-of-three semifinal AHA tourney series. Holy Cross, the seventh seed in the AHA playoffs, upset No. 2 AIC with a pair of 4-3 wins, with Sunday’s Game 3 decided in OT.
5. Alaska at-large
The Nanooks are truly a team in charge of their own destiny. Playing as an independent team without a conference home, Alaska finished the season 22-10-2 after sweeping Lindenwood, 4-1 and 8-0, to cap a six-game win streak and solidify a sweet, slightly precarious spot at No. 13 in the PairWise Rankings.
A few upsets by underdogs lower in the PWR may hurt the Nanooks’ chances to make the NCAA tournament, but the odds are in Alaska’s favor.
The last independent team to make the NCAA tournament was Arizona State, in 2019.
6. A comeback in more ways than one
In two close games, Michigan swept visiting Wisconsin in the Big Ten quarterfinals, 5-4 and 7-4.
Both games were back-and-forth affairs, with Michigan having to come from behind in Friday’s overtime win, a game in which Wisconsin’s Mathieu De St. Phalle earned a hat trick,
Trailing 5-4 with 23 seconds remaining in regulation Friday, Michigan tied the game when Rutger McGroarty scored from Mackie Samoskevich, sending the game to OT.
At 9:06 in overtime, Steven Holtz had the game-winning goal from McGroarty. It was Holtz’s first career goal and was remarkable in more ways than one. Holtz, a junior defenseman, was in a medically induced coma in November with a bout of adenovirus that went through the Michigan team.
Steven Holtz expresses his reaction after his FIRST career goal tonight pic.twitter.com/ZWd6K2Kcku
— Michigan Hockey (@umichhockey) March 4, 2023
Saturday’s game was tied 4-4 until Nolan Moyle’s game-winning goal at 17:40 in the third, the first of three markers the Wolverines registered in the final three minutes of regulation.
The Wolverines will host Ohio State in a single-elimination B1G semifinal game Saturday.
7. Three AHA series take three games to decide
It took three games to decide three quarterfinal series in both Atlantic Hockey and the Big Ten.
In the AHA, No. 4 seed Canisius outlasted No. 5 seed Army, two games to one. After their 5-2 Friday win, the Golden Griffins lost 1-0 in overtime Saturday but shut out the Black Knights 3-0 Sunday, with Jacob Barczewski making 29 saves in his second shutout of the season.
Also in Atlantic Hockey, Holy Cross took AIC to three games, downing the Yellow Jackets 4-3 in OT on Sunday as Liam McLinskey netted the winner.
After dropping the opening game of their quarterfinal series 3-1, the sixth-seed Niagara Purple Eagles upset No. 3 Sacred Heart with wins Saturday and Sunday. The Purple Eagles went three-for-five on the power play in Sunday’s 7-3 win, in which they finished the game with five total unanswered goals.
Niagara will travel to Canisius for a best-of-three semifinal series this weekend.
8. Similar series, different results
In addition to Michigan State taking Notre Dame to the mat in the Big Ten, the series between No. 3 Ohio State and No. 6 Penn State went to three games – a repeat of last year’s Big Ten quarterfinal series but with different results.
The Buckeyes will advance to the Big Ten quarterfinals with their 3-1 win over visiting Penn State Sunday. Six minutes after Kevin Wall gave the Nittany Lions a 1-0 lead in the seconds and moments after Ohio State’s second goal of the game was disallowed, Cole McWard scored his seventh of the season on the power play to tie the game 1-1 at 12:08. At 15:38, Scooter Brickey netted the game-winner, his third of the season.
The Buckeyes beat the Nittany Lions 5-1 Friday, but Penn State won in overtime Saturday, 2-1.
Last year, Penn State ended Ohio State’s season by taking the final two games of the three-game quarterfinal series in Columbus. This season, the Buckeyes advance but the season isn’t over for the Nittany Lions, who are No. 8 in the PairWise Rankings and will play in the NCAA tournament.
Ohio State faces Michigan Saturday in Ann Arbor in a single-elimination playoff series.
9. The NCHC playoff field is set
Following the final weekend of regulation play, the NCHC quarterfinal field looks like this:
No. 8 Miami at No. 1 Denver
No. 7 Colorado College at No. 2 Western Michigan
No. 6 North Dakota at No. 3 Omaha
No. 5 Minnesota Duluth at No. 4 St. Cloud State
The series are best-of-three, and the winners advance to single-elimination semifinal games played Friday, March 17.
The seedings make for back-to-back series between the Fighting Hawks and the Mavericks. To end the regular season, North Dakota swept Omaha at home in two one-goal games, a 5-4 OT win Friday and 2-1 Saturday.
10. ECAC moves on to the quarterfinals, too
Following the first round of ECAC single-elimination playoff hockey, the league’s quarterfinal field is set for a weekend of best-of-three play.
This season, the league changed its playoff hockey to include a single game with seeds 5 through 8 hosting the seeds 9-12.
In that first round, two lower seeds advanced. No. 9 Princeton beat No. 7 Union, 6-4, and No. 10 Yale beat No. 8 Rensselaer 4-1.
Reseeded, the quarterfinals now look like this:
No. 8 Yale at No. 1 Quinnipiac
No. 7 Princeton at No. 2 Harvard
No. 6. Clarkston at No. 3 Cornell
No. 5 Colgate at No. 4 St. Lawrence
