Weekend College Hockey Review
#1 ranked North Dakota went into a series against unranked St. Cloud State this weekend and was severely upset by the Huskies. Out of the six points available, St. Cloud State took five, capped by a regulation win over North Dakota Saturday night. St. Cloud has been knocking on the door of the Top 20 for some time now; their strong weekend against arguably the best team in college hockey should push them through.
In the Big Ten, shockingly, Wisconsin swept their weekend series against #9 Arizona State. After winning a 7-6 barnburner at the Kohl Center on Friday night, the Badgers defended their home arena again Saturday night, winning 6-2. The Badgers, already locked into last place in the Big Ten despite having Cole Caufield, K’Andre Miller, and Alex Turcotte, showed the team that they could have been this season. However, they really only showed up for two series all season: against Minnesota Duluth at the start of the season, and this series. The rest of the year has been full of abysmal hockey for the Badgers.
Bobby’s Top-Four Rankings:
- Minnesota State
- North Dakota
- Cornell
- Boston College
Nashville Predators News
Breakdown: Nashville Acquires Defender Ben Harpur
A nice breakdown by Eric, this move is really all about Tinordi’s future and helping the Admirals’ blueline.
NHL Trade Deadline: Chuck Fletcher could target a player from his past
I don’t see this happening, but leave it to a bunch of people in Philadelphia to try and get their hands on a Predator that fans don’t want to see leave.
Around Hockey
Roundup: Penn State Will Wait and See on Big Ten Title
The Big Ten conference tournament’s #1 seed is still up for grabs. With Penn State not playing conference games next week, Ohio State University (I’m an alumnus, I had to) and Notre Dame are still in the mix. The Buckeyes trail the Nittany Lions by four points, so a sweep of Wisconsin will put them above Penn State. The Fighting Irish trail Penn State by six points, so they’ll need to sweep in regulation both nights.
Rankings roundup: How the top 20 NCAA hockey teams fared, Feb. 21-22
My recap was sparse because I’m taking the Illinois bar exam tomorrow. Here’s a more thorough recap of the college hockey weekend’s biggest games.
Capitals Acquire llya Kovalchuk From Montreal
Remember when the NHL’ers used to do good commercials?
A remake of this with Kovalchuk now would be excellent.
Updated: Tampa Bay Lightning have signed defender Zach Bogosian
If you looked up “pylon” in a dictionary, you’d find Bogosian’s headshot. The Predators dodged a bullet on this one, folks; guy’s got wheels that’d make Fred Flintstone’s car look fast.
Can Maple Leafs recover from ’embarrassing’ loss to Zamboni driver?
I’m 99% sure that the NHL bylaws state that, if a Canadian team loses to an emergency goaltender, said team has to relocate to the sunbelt. Hey, I don’t make the rules here, folks.
Trade Bait: Canes’ search intensifies for ‘D’
What a title, TSN, what a title.
Really, I’m not up to date on how serious their goaltending injuries were on Saturday night, but shouldn’t they be looking for another goalie?
City of Raleigh proclaims Tuesday ‘David Ayres Day’
Oh yeah? Well in Milwaukee we celebrated Fred Usinger’s Day yesterday and everyone was able to get free brats all day downtown. Meanwhile the Old German Beerhall tapped a keg of free beer at 4:00pm. Checkmate, southerners.