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Checking in on the Big Ten-Hockey East Challenge |
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For the second consecutive season, the Big Ten and Hockey East will engage each other in battle through interlocking schedules. Fourteen of the 20 combined member schools are squaring off for conference bragging rights in a series of 20 games which began on the season’s first weekend and is set to end the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
This past weekend, Hockey East stalwart Boston University –- featuring much hyped American prospect Jack Eichel -- swept both Michigan and Michigan State, while UMass-Lowell split their two between the Wolverines and Spartans. That gave Hockey East a slim 6-5-1 edge through three-fifths of the schedule.
On Friday night in Lowell, Norm Bazin’s usually sound River Hawks suffered through their worst defensive performance since an 8-3 loss to Minnesota State in November of 2010, dropping an 8-4 decision to the Maize and Blue. Zach Hyman paced Michigan with a hat trick and two assists, while Dylan Larkin added a goal and three helpers. Adam Chapie aided UML with a goal and two assists in defeat. The Wolverines chased host starter Kevin Boyle, who surrendered six scores on 30 shots.
The next night, at Agganis Arena, the Terriers trailed No. 15 Michigan by a 2-1 count after 40 minutes of play but rebounded to claim a 3-2 victory. Eichel began the comeback with his strike at the 2:29 mark of the third, and Matt Lane netted his first of the season for the winner with 3:10 left in regulation.
BU opened up its weekend with a 1-0 decision against the Spartans, fueled by junior Matt O’Connor’s 29-save shutout, his first career collegiate whitewash. Ahti Oksanen’s goal at the 29-second mark of the middle period, assisted by Eichel, was all the offense the sixth-ranked Terriers needed to lock down the victory.
Eichel leads the Terriers in scoring with six points in the early going, while O'Connor's performances were enough to gain him Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Two teams in need of finishing the weekend on an up note then met on Saturday at Tsongas Arena, with Michigan State and UMass-Lowell engaging in a one-goal contest. It was Jeff Smith, not Boyle, in the nets for the River Hawks, and he turned in a 26-save effort as the hosts claimed a narrow 2-1 decision. Michael Kapla scored the deciding goal while shorthanded with less than a minute gone in the third, while Dylan Zink added No. 8 UML’s opening salvo just past the midway point of the first period.
The rivalry series takes a break this weekend before resuming on Nov. 7 as New Hampshire takes on Michigan State at the Whittemore Center and Notre Dame faces unanimous No. 1 Minnesota at Mariucci Arena. The following day, it’s MSU finishing up a two-game set at the Whit against the Wildcats.
Remaining games are as follows:
November 9: Notre Dame at Minnesota
November 14: Penn State at UMass Lowell
November 15: Penn State at UMass Lowell
November 28: Minnesota at Boston College
November 29: Minnesota at Northeastern
Last season, there were only 13 games on the docket, and Hockey East came away victorious with a combined 7-4-2 record. In the byzantine point system, it also won by an 18-11 count.
Boston College claimed the largest margin of victory, laying waste to Wisconsin in the tournament’s inaugural contest by a 9-2 count at Conte Forum on Oct. 18, 2013. Minnesota got it back for the Big Ten in the tourney’s final matchup, claiming a 6-1 rout of BC at Mariucci Arena on Oct. 27.
One contest that has been removed from the series is the Penn-State Vermont matchup, which won’t occur until January 31 in Philadelphia in the third annual College Hockey Faceoff. Last season, in the second all-time meeting between state schools, the Catamounts beat the Nittany Lions, 5-2, in late October.
Here are the results so far:
October 10
Ohio State 5, Providence 4 (OT)
UConn 2, Penn State 2
October 11
Ohio State 2, Providence 1 (OT)
Penn State 7, UConn 1
October 17
New Hampshire 5, Michigan 1
Michigan State 5, Massachusetts 3
October 18
Michigan 2, New Hampshire 1
Massachusetts 4, Michigan State 3
October 24
Michigan 8, UMass Lowell 4
Boston University 1, Michigan State 0
October 25
Boston University 3, Michigan 2
UMass Lowell 2, Michigan State 1
Gophers’ Shifty Fifty
For a program which has won zero national titles since 2003 and only made it to one national championship game since then –- last year’s 7-4 loss to Union College in Philadelphia –- the Minnesota Golden Gophers have certainly attracted a significant amount of in-season attention on a weekly basis in recent times.
Picked to retain the No. 1 spot again this week, Don Lucia’s team was rewarded with a unanimous selection, all 50 first-place votes, for the first time. Minnesota beat Bemidji State twice at home after a bye week to preserve a perfect record. But, at 4-0-0, the Big Ten regular-season champions aren’t even the only four-win, undefeated program in the country. Vermont has won its first four and placed only 13th, while Michigan Tech has come screaming out of the gate with four wins in succession but only reached No. 17 after being unranked to this point.
Last year, Minnesota ascended to the top of the rankings on October 21 and stayed there until December 9, came back one week later and stayed through February 10, then regained the top spot seven days later and kept it until the end of the NCAA regionals when toppled by Union.
In that time, the voters at USCHO saw fit to lavish all 50 first-place votes on three occasions, including back-to-back weeks from Oct. 28-Nov. 4. On six other weeks, the No. 1 spot came with at least 40 votes, and one special week –- beginning last December 9 –- Minnesota remained in first despite 22 votes to 27 for No. 2 St. Cloud State. Two seasons back, Minnesota hit the top of the chart in October with a whopping 46 votes, ended up with 47 and 48 in successive weeks in January, and even stayed at No. 1 in mid-March despite national runner-up Quinnipiac outpacing it in votes 27-22.
There's always a hint of suspected biases when the rankings are produced each week, particularly when a program unseats another at the No. 1 spot, and the rankings are solely an indicator of performance in a small window of opportunity. However, it's highly unlikely that one team, whether it's Minnesota or not, can be so dominant as to be near unanimous so often and remain at the top multiple times even when the first-place tallies no longer favor the No. 1 program.
On one hand, it's a testament to how well Lucia recruits and then guides his team through a long season, but on the other, it does call into question willingness to recognize another team on a hot streak. Here's hoping several other schools give the voters pause throughout the year when it might be the easy choice to keep the Gophers at the head of the rankings, and that they have the courage to elevate deserving schools when it's proven.
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