Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
1. Beavers batter Mavs to clinch MacNaughton
The last time a team other than Minnesota State had its hands on the MacNaughton Cup, the CCHA didn’t even exist. That was in 2017.
Since then, the Mavericks had won six in a row, straddling two leagues–the WCHA and the CCHA. And it just so happens that the last team to win the cup in 2017 is also the one to break Minnesota State’s six-season lock on the 111-year-old trophy.
This past weekend, Bemidji State emphatically battered their instate rivals to clinch their first CCHA title since 2017. The Beavers, who have taken points in eight consecutive games, came into the weekend needing one point to clinch a share of the cup and two to clinch outright. Instead, they took all six, winning 6-0 on Friday behind two goals and two assists from senior Jackson Jutting and a 28-save shutout by Mattias Sholl, then winning Saturday night’s game 2-0 behind yet another shutout–this time from senior Gavin Enright.
It was the first time in the 50-year, 145-game history of the Bemidji/Mankato rivalry that the Beavers have been able to sweep the Mavericks with shutouts in back-to-back games. The Beavers now have home-ice advantage throughout the CCHA playoffs, which begin next week when they take on No. 8-seeded Ferris State in a best-of-three quarterfinal matchup.
2. Fighting Hawks capture Penrose
The Beavers weren’t the only team in green to capture a league title this weekend. The second to do so was North Dakota, who swept Western Michigan 5-3 and 3-0 over the weekend to capture their sixth Penrose Cup in 11 seasons.
UND’s sweep, coupled with Denver’s sweep of St. Cloud State over the weekend, meant the Fighting Hawks were able to clinch the league title with a week left in the regular season.
Jackson Blake had two assists on Friday and a goal on Saturday to notch his 50th point of the season; he’s the first UND player since Brock Boeser and Drake Caggiula in 2015-16 to reach 50. Ludvig Persson was also huge for the Hawks, making 34 saves Friday and 35 Saturday to help his team lift the cup.
UND has one more weekend of regular-season play at Omaha before the NCHC tournament quarterfinals begin. They will take on Miami starting March 15.
3. Sparty wins first-ever B1G title
But wait, there’s more!
There was a third green-clad team to clinch a league title this weekend. Michigan State beat Wisconsin 5-2 on Friday night in Madison to win its first-ever Big Ten championship.
The Spartans used a pair of goals by senior Jeremy Davidson, a goal and two assists from Reed Lebster and 44 saves by freshman goaltender Trey Augustine to win their first regular-season league championship since they won the CCHA title in the 2000-01 season. The Badgers rallied to win 4-1 on Saturday night thanks to a pair of goals from both Sawyer Scholl and Carson Bantle.
MSU finished the B1G regular season with 52 points, just two ahead of the Badgers, and will have a first-round bye in the B1G playoffs, which begin next week. Meanwhile, the Badgers will host Ohio State in their best-of-three series.
4. Eagles clinch Hockey East
The final program to clinch a league title this weekend doesn’t wear green, but Boston College’s rivals are all green with envy following the Eagles’ 1-0 win over New Hampshire on Sunday night.
Senior defenseman Eamon Powell scored the game’s only goal midway through the third period and goaltender Jacob Fowler made 27 saves to help BC clinch its 18th Hockey East regular-season title and first since 2021 with a week remaining.
The Eagles, who have won 12 straight Hockey East games, have a seven-point lead over second-place BU and a 20-point lead over third-place Maine. BC takes on Merrimack in their regular-season finale next Saturday.
5. Colonials return to AHA playoffs with big upset
Atlantic Hockey playoffs started on Saturday, and they’re already off to a great start.
The highlight of the weekend (unless you’re a Bentley fan) was 11th-seeded Robert Morris knocking off seventh-seeded Bentley 4-3 in overtime late Saturday night. The Colonials, of course, are back on the ice this season after the school announced that the program would be shut down after the 2020-21 season. So when freshman Cameron Garvey’s goal with 10 seconds left in the first overtime period went into the back of the net, it was cathartic for RMU hockey fans, who are glad that the revived program is showing that it’s still committed to playing hard every week despite finishing last in AHA.
The Colonials will look to keep their Cinderella run going this weekend when they take on top-seeded RIT in the quarterfinals next week. In the other two AHA first-round games, the higher-seeded teams emerged victorious. Seventh-seeded Niagara beat 10th-seeded Army 4-1 while eighth-seeded Canisius topped ninth-seeded Mercyhurst 5-2.
This means that Canisius will travel to Holy Cross for their quarterfinal series this week, while Niagara will head to Sacred Heart in their series. The other AHA quarterfinal series will see fourth-seeded Air Force host fifth-seeded AIC.
6. ECAC playoff picture finalized
Even though Quinnipiac wrapped up the ECAC regular-season championship last weekend, there was still plenty to play for in the conference this weekend.
Coming into the final two games of the season, Dartmouth and Clarkson were tied for the fourth and final first-round bye in the ECAC tournament. In the end, Dartmouth managed to edge out Clarkson by a single point — Clarkson’s overtime win over Quinnipiac on Friday night opened up the door for Dartmouth, who took all three points from Brown on Friday then beat Yale in regulation on Saturday to clinch a first-round bye in the tournament for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
The Big Green join Quinnipiac, Cornell and Colgate in the top four. On the other end, Clarkson, Union, St. Lawrence and Harvard secured quarterfinal home ice; they will play Princeton, Yale, Brown and RPI, respectively, in the single-game first round next Saturday..
7. CCHA separated by five points
Although Bemidji State, as mentioned previously, ended up winning the CCHA by nine points, the rest of the league was incredibly tight: Second through seventh places were separated by just five points and the three of the four playoff matchups weren’t officially determined until after the final games on Saturday.
In the end, St. Thomas tied with Michigan Tech for second place and earned the No. 2 seed thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker. St. Thomas will host its first-ever playoff series at the Division I level next week, taking on Lake Superior State in the quarterfinals, while third-seeded Michigan Tech will host Bowling Green, a team they just swept a week ago on the road, in theirs.
Minnesota State nearly missed out on home ice altogether but were helped by Northern Michigan’s sweep of Bowling Green; the Mavericks will host fifth-seeded Northern Michigan in a rematch of last season’s CCHA Mason Cup title game won by MSU.
8. Gophers take four from Wolverines to set up B1G tourney
Minnesota came into the weekend needing just two points to clinch third place in the Big Ten. They ended up getting four.
The Gophers dominated Michigan 6-2 on Friday night to secure the No. 3 seed in the B1G tournament. Then they staged a furious comeback on Saturday night to force overtime before ultimately losing 6-5. Although both the Gophers and the Wolverines already knew they had home ice for the first round of the playoffs — Minnesota will host Penn State and Michigan will host Notre Dame — the most important thing about this weekend was the Pairwise positioning.
Minnesota, at No. 7 in the Pairwise, is in decent shape to make the tournament but Michigan, who dropped to No. 15 after Friday’s game but moved back up to 13 following Saturday’s results, still has work to do to make sure they get in. A B1G tournament title would make that discussion moot.
9. Pioneers creep ahead in NCHC standings
Denver is basically a lock for the NCAA tournament at this point, but their sweep at St. Cloud State, the Pioneers’ first since 2007, helped them leapfrog ahead of the Huskies for second in the tightly-packed NCHC standings and lock in home ice for the first round of the playoffs.
The Huskies, meanwhile, have lost three of their last four and dropped to No. 14 in the Pairwise–firmly on the bubble. They head to Minnesota Duluth in their regular-season finale needing some wins to clinch both conference points and Pairwise positioning.
Elsewhere in the conference, both Colorado College and Omaha are alive for the fourth and final home-ice slot. CC is four points ahead of Omaha and takes on rival Denver in a home-and-home this weekend; Omaha hosts UND.
10. Sun Devils still alive, barely
Following their controversial weekend in Alaska, Arizona State seemed to have run out time to climb the Pairwise, but that doesn’t mean the Sun Devils have given up.
They swept Long Island 4-2 and 4-3 in their final home games of the 2023-24 season. And although their prospects for an at-large bid look nearly impossible–they are currently No. 18 in the Pairwise–they are still breaking records.
The victories against LIU gave them their 22nd and 23rd victories (a program record). The final two games of the season see ASU traveling to Alaska to take on Alaska Anchorage. As of this writing on Sunday night, the Devils have, according to some predictions, a less than 1% chance of making the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid.
The math seems like it’s not on their side, but it’s a possibility. But first, they must beat the Seawolves on the road to stay alive.
