Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. B1G statement from Badgers
Big Ten opponents, meet Mike Hastings. Wisconsin’s new bench boss has coached at 3M Arena at Mariucci plenty of times, both as a friend (he was a Minnesota assistant in the 2008-09 season) and foe (he coached Minnesota’s instate rivals Minnesota State for 10 years and had a 3-5 record at Mariucci). But coaching behind the bench, in his first Big Ten series, against Minnesota archrivals Wisconsin? He’d never done that before this weekend, but he made it look easy, as the Badgers waltzed into Minneapolis and danced out with a series sweep of the top-ranked Gophers.
In Thursday night’s game, the Gophers scored 15 seconds in but from there it was essentially all Wisconsin. Mathieu De St. Phalle and Cruz Lucius each scored twice as Wisconsin won 5-2.
Friday night’s game was more back-and-forth. Wisconsin led 3-2 going into the third, but the Gophers’ Jimmy Clark tied it up less than two minutes in. However, Minnesota State transfer Simon Tassy delivered the dagger for the Badgers, scoring his second goal of the night with under three minutes to go to give Wisconsin a 3-2 victory.
The Badgers are now 7-1 overall–the program’s best start since the 2000-01 season–and will host Michigan in another Big Ten series next weekend. Minnesota, meanwhile, will have to regroup to host Minnesota Duluth in nonconference action.
2. Augustana turning heads already with tie at Denver, win at CC
Following their weekend road trip to Colorado this weekend, Augustana hockey posted this message on their X account: “You know? This hockey thing might work out.”
After the weekend they just had, the Vikings have every reason to be optimistic about the future of the program: In just its first year of existence, the Vikings went to Colorado and took five points from a pair of traditional college hockey powerhouses.
On Friday night, Augustana rallied from a 3-0 first-period deficit and came back to tie No. 2 Denver 5-5 thanks to Chase Brand’s extra-attacker goal with 20 seconds left in regulation; they skated to a scoreless overtime period and eventually won the exhibition shootout too.
On Saturday night, the Vikings jumped out to an early lead on Colorado College and held on in the third period for a 4-3 win, handing the Tigers their first loss of the season. The Vikings, who are now 3-2-1 after getting swept by Wisconsin in the first weekend of the season, haven’t lost since.
They travel to a struggling Michigan Tech next weekend hoping to keep up that unbeaten streak.
3. BC sweeps MSU
With Minnesota getting swept by Wisconsin and Denver failing to beat Augustana, it’s probable that Boston College will be the No. 1 team in the country this week.
And with good reason.
The No. 3-ranked Eagles swept No. 8 Michigan State in Chestnut Hill. On Thursday, BC’s Oskar Jellvik scored twice–including one shorthanded–and Will Smith added a goal and two assists to give the Eagles a 6-4 win. On Friday, Jack Malone and Cutter Gauthier each scored twice, and Mike Posma added another in BC’s 5-1 win. Freshman goalie Jacob Fowler made 64 saves, including 43 on Friday.
4. Maine upsets Quinnipiac
After a dark week in Maine, the Black Bears hockey team managed to offer at least a small ray of sunshine on Friday night.
Brandon Chabrier scored 3:50 into overtime on Friday night to lift the Bears to a 2-1 victory over the defending national champions, No. 5 Quinnipiac. Victor Ostman made 17 saves for the Black Bears in the win.
Maine couldn’t keep the momentum going in Saturday’s game, however. Although David Breazeale opened the scoring midway through the first, the Bobcats scored four unanswered goals by CJ McGee, Travis Treloar, Mason Marcellus and Sam Lipkin to earn the split with a 4-1 win.
5. Cornell opens with a sweep
The way Cornell handled Minnesota Duluth over the weekend, you’d never guess the Big Red were the ones just getting the season started and the Bulldogs were already five games into theirs.
But the No. 12-ranked Big Red looked impressive in sweeping the No. 11-ranked Bulldogs, beating them 4-1 on Friday and 3-0 on Saturday to kick their season off. Cornell scored three power-play goals on the weekend, including a pair of goals each from Kyle Penney and Gabriel Seger.
Cornell (2-0-0) held UMD (3-2-2) to just 26 shots on goal the entire weekend.
6. Harvard ties Dartmouth in opener
The other Ivies who finally started playing this weekend had mixed results.
No. 17 Harvard kicked off its season with a 1-1 tie against Dartmouth–followed by a marathon shootout for the extra conference point. Casey Severo scored for Harvard in the second period and Braiden Dorfman tied it for the Big Green midway through the third, but the Crimson got the extra point when Jack Bar finally scored in the 18th round of the shootout. Both goaltenders, Harvard’s Derek Mullahy and Dartmouth’s Cooper Black, stopped 25 shots.
Yale and Brown also opened their seasons this weekend, playing one another at Brown’s Meehan Auditorium on Friday night. The Bulldogs won 3-2 in overtime behind Rhys Bentham’s game-winning goal. Brown then turned around and defeated Stonehill 7-2 on Sunday afternoon. Princeton, the only team in the country so far who has yet to play a regular-season game, will open its season next Friday at Harvard.
7. Beavers lead CCHA early
It promises to be a wide-open, down-to-the-wire season in the CCHA, but the first weekend of conference play saw Bemidji State take control early with a home sweep of St. Thomas.
The Beavers won 3-2 and 2-0, with Lleyton Roed scoring three goals on the weekend for Bemidji State. He’s got six goals in six games so far. The Beavers’ Gavin Enright also helped BSU seal the wins. He entered Friday’s game at the start of the third period after starter Mattias Sholl went down with a lower body injury at the end of the second period. Enright allowed one goal in the period but made some solid saves down the stretch to preserve the 3-2 victory.
On Saturday, the senior made 29 saves for his first career shutout. In the other league series played last week, Ferris State and Northern Michigan split in Marquette. NMU’s Tanner
8. New Hampshire still going strong
One of the biggest surprises has been the strong start of New Hampshire.
The Wildcats have already defeated Boston University and Quinnipiac this season, and last week they continued their winning ways, beating No. 17 Northeastern 4-1 on Thursday and then toppling instate rivals Dartmouth 3-1 on Saturday night. improving to 4-1 (and 2-0 in Hockey East). That’s their best start since 2017-18.
Goaltender Jakob Hellsten started both games for UNH and made 39 saves in both games.
9. Seawolves like it in splitsville
Alaska Anchorage has yet to be swept this season.
Maybe that’s not impressive on its face, but just look at the Seawolves’ schedule: home against UMass Lowell, at Lake Superior State, home to Air Force and now at Penn State for a Thursday-Friday series–even more challenging coming from Alaska.
In Thursday’s game, Jared Whale’s 52 saves kept the Seawolves in the contest all night and they lost just 2-1.
Friday was a totally different story. In a game with 11 total goals–including six in the first period alone–the Seawolves won 6-5 behind three-point nights from Adam Tisdale (two goals and an assist) and Aiden Westin (a goal and two assists). The Seawolves return home this weekend for a big Governor’s Cup series against the Alaska Nanooks.
10. RIT on top after sweep
After suffering their first loss two weeks ago against Sacred Heart, RIT returned to the top of the Atlantic Hockey season this weekend after sweeping Holy Cross with a pair of 3-2 victories.
On Friday, the Tigers led 1-0 going into the third but a pair of Crusaders goals–a power-play one from Jack Ricketts and a shorty from John Gelatt–put Holy Cross up 2-1 with 10 minutes to go. But Simon Isabelle tied things up with just over five minutes to go in regulation and then Tanner Andrew buried the game-winner on a counterattack in 3-on-3 overtime.
On Saturday, Holy Cross scored 30 seconds into the game, but RIT rallied to score three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead going into the third. Jack Stockfish made it a one-goal game seven minutes into the third period, but the Tigers, led by Tommy Scarfone’s 40-save evening, held on for a 3-2 win.
