NCAA men's hockey midseason report
The GIST: With only two and a half months until college hockey’s national tourney, the fellas have been bringing bedlam to the ice. Here’s who’s acing their tests and who’ll need a whole barrel of late-season apples.
The weekend: Mid-January must be for drama because the men’s score sheet was a gongshow of upsets all weekend. Taking the most hits? The No. 1 Quinnipiac Bobcats, who dropped first to No. 16 Cornell in a 4–0 shutout on Friday, snapping the Bobcats’ 17-game win streak, and second to unranked Colgate 3–2 on Saturday. Ouch.
- Also stumbling? No. 3 Denver, who fell twice to their rival No. 4 St. Cloud State after being outscored nine to three in the weekend series, and No. 11 Merrimack, who followed up a 5–1 blow with a 1–0 heartbreaker, both against unranked Northeastern.
Shooting for the Frozen Four: Unlike the women, who will hoist their hardware on March 19th, the men will be lighting lamps until April 8th. But only 16 teams (six conference champs plus 10 at-large selections) will glide into the playoffs hoping to watch the Frozen Four from the ice in Tampa, FL.
- After this weekend’s chaos, the teams with the clearest arguments to make the Frozen Four are No. 2 Minnesota and their deep roster, No. 5 Boston University (thanks to their tough schedule), No. 4 St. Cloud State and, despite suffering a sweep, the defending champs No. 3 Denver.
Elsewhere on the women’s ice: As much as the men made mayhem, the women kept the weekend close to the status quo, with only No. 15 Boston College having a pair of bad days, losing to unranked New Hampshire 5–3 on Friday and unranked Maine in a 2–1 overtime battle on Saturday.
- Still making a power play for the gals’ Frozen Four? Defending champs No. 1 Ohio State, dynasty No. 3 Minnesota and No. 2 Yale, who extended their win streak to 12 games against fellow contender No. 4 Quinnipiac this weekend. Cold as ice.
