Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Down goes No. 1
After the season’s second weekend of play, we might see a new team atop the USCHO Division I Men’s Hockey Poll.
Top-ranked Boston University, which needed overtime to defeat Bentley last week, dropped a 6-4 decision to New Hampshire on Saturday in a game that saw the lead change three times.
Sophomore forward Morgan Winters scored two goals to pace the Wildcats, who defeated a No. 1 team for the first time since the 2003 Frozen Four, when UNH upset top-seeded Cornell in the national semifinals.
2. Heir apparent(s)
Who will probably succeed the Terriers in the top spot?
Second-ranked Minnesota swept St. Thomas, 6-5 in OT and 3-0, paced by three goals from Jimmy Snuggerud, who had the overtime game-winner on Friday and a pair on Saturday.
Denver, ranked third coming into the weekend, was idle.
Boston College, ranked fourth and the remaining team to get a first-place vote coming off last weekend’s win over then top-ranked Quinnipiac, downed Long Island 4-2 on Friday.
3. Breaking the ice
North Dakota hosted and won the 2023-24 Ice Breaker Tournament with a 2-0 victory over Wisconsin on Saturday. It was the 173rd all-time meeting between the two schools.
UND senior goaltender Ludvig Persson, a transfer from Miami, stopped all 29 shots he faced for the victory, North Dakota’s second Ice Breaker championship in five tries.
The third-place game between Army West Point and Bemidji State went down to the wire, finally settled in the Beavers’ favor, 3-2, on a Lleyton Roed goal with 59 seconds remaining in the third.
4. A different story
Last season, Omaha opened its season hosting Niagara, which shocked the Mavericks with a pair of 4-3 victories.
This past weekend, the Purple Eagles again visited Omaha to open the season, and history didn’t repeat.
UNO won easily on Friday, 8-1, but Saturday’s contest was a 2-1 nail-biter that wasn’t decided until Jo Lemay’s game winner midway through the third.
They don't ask how!🚨#OmahaHKY pic.twitter.com/GK8kyHLZIy
— Omaha Hockey (@OmahaHKY) October 15, 2023
5. First dub
Newcomers Augustana achieved several firsts on Saturday: the first home game in program history, the first goal in program history, and most importantly, the first win in program history.
After being shut out twice at Wisconsin to open their inaugural season, the Vikings defeated Bowling Green on home ice, 3-2.
Arnaud Vachon’s goal with 2:56 left sealed the win for the Vikings and coach Garrett Raboin.
The Game Winner.
Vachon seals the deal on to mark an important milestone in Augustana hockey history ⚔️pic.twitter.com/EEa8iLU2lU
— Augustana Men's Hockey (@AugieMHockey) October 15, 2023
Hunter Bischoff opened the scoring with the first goal in program history at 14:53 of the first.
Augustana goaltender Zack Rose made 25 saves for the win against his former team. He spent his previous four years at Bowling Green.
6. Brick wall at Brick City
The sellout crowd (10,556) at Rochester’s Blue Cross arena went home happy after Rochester Institute of Technology’s 3-0 win over Notre Dame on Saturday.
RIT won its fifth consecutive Brick City homecoming game, this time behind a 36-save performance by junior goaltender Tommy Scarfone, who recorded his sixth career shutout.
Carter Wilkie and Cody Laskosky each had a goal and an assist for the Tigers, who killed off six Notre Dame power plays, including two minutes of five-on-three in the first period and a five-minute major that spanned the second and third.
7. Strong start for Holy Cross
Is it too early to look at the 2023-24 Pairwise Rankings?
Of course it is. But it’s kind of cool to see Holy Cross at the top.
The Crusaders, who last year were picked to finish last in Atlantic Hockey but made it all the way to the conference’s championship game, have opened this season 3-0, including a weekend home-and-home sweep of No. 20 Connecticut by scores of 2-1 and 2-0.
On Friday in Worcester, Jack Ricketts’ shorthanded goal at 6:32 of the third broke a 1-1 tie, and the senior provided a late insurance goal in Saturday’s 2-0 victory in Storrs.
Goaltender Jason Grande made 50 combined saves for the Crusaders in the two games, including all 28 in the shutout on Saturday.
8. UMass rebounds
After getting routed 7-2 by sixth-ranked Michigan on home ice on Friday, Massachusetts came back to earn a split with the Wolverines thanks to a 6-3 victory on Saturday.
The Minutemen scored all six of their goals in the third period to erase a 2-0 Michigan lead.
Lucas Vanroboys netted a pair of empty-net goals to seal the UMass victory.
On Friday, Michigan got two goals each from Garrett Schifsky and Dylan Duke in the 7-2 win.
9. Scorefest in Duluth
Northern Michigan and No. 17 Minnesota-Duluth combined for 23 goals in their weekend series, with the Bulldogs coming away with regulation and shootout wins.
On Friday, after a 5-5 tie through overtime, the Bulldogs sent their fans home happy with a (meaningless) shootout, non-conference victory.
Duluth took Saturday’s game, 8-5.
Tanner Lash had five goals for the Wildcats on the weekend, while Ben Steeves had a pair of goals each night for the Bulldogs, including the game-winner on Saturday.
10. More upsets
Three more top-10 teams suffered losses this past weekend as the eighth, ninth, and 10th-ranked teams all stumbled.
In Colorado Springs on Thursday, Air Force upset No. 8 Michigan State 6-5. The Falcons jumped out to a 3-0 lead and then held on for the win.
The Spartans earned a split with a 5-3 win on Friday.
No. 9 Michigan Tech could muster only a shootout win in a weekend series in Alaska, dropping a 4-1 decision to the host Nanooks on Friday and earning a 2-2 tie (and shootout victory) on Saturday.
And finally, tenth-ranked St. Cloud State was swept by Minnesota State in Mankato, 3-2 in overtime on Friday and 5-1 on Saturday. The Mavericks opened the season 2-0 under new head coach Luke Strand.
St. Cloud fell to 1-3, which includes a pair of overtime losses.
