Saturday Night Recap

Minnesota fans thought that a pair of victories over the Alaska-Fairbanks would be as simple as catching a punt snap, but Fairbanks continued their great weekend in Minneapolis with a tie against the Gophers. Minnesota walks away from their first series of the season without a victory. Fairbanks went with freshmen Chad Johnson in goal again tonight and he was impressive in his first college start. Fairbanks looks to have two great goalies that they can rely on at any time this season. Coach Tavis MacMillan has to be proud of what he saw from his team weekend. For Don Lucia, hopefully this weekend will serve as a wake-up call for his team that even though they may be the most talented team in the country, they are fallible if they get outworked like they did this weekend.

Colorado College rebounded from last night’s loss to Ohio State with a 1-0 shutout win. The Tigers looked a little tired in the third period on Friday night, but rebounded nicely with a great defensive performance for the win on Saturday. It sounded like a great series from both teams, and they probably each deserved a win.

Maine completed their sweep of Denver tonight, with a 4-2 win. It sounded like an ugly game, as Maine was having trouble with the ice at the Alfond Arena. The warm fall weather caused the ice to be soft, slowing down play. At one point, the teams had to stop the game and skate around in order to lift the fog over the ice. Also, Denver thug Geoff Paukovich was ejected from the game for running over Maine’s goalie. It was a tough weekend for the young Denver team, but should serve as good experience and help them down the road.

St. Cloud State and Northern Michigan also split their series. The Huskies finally founded some goal scoring from senior Joe Jensen, who scored both two goals including the game winner in overtime with 7 seconds left to play. Transfer Bobby Goepfert picked up the win in his first start at St. Cloud.

Bemidji State continued their dominance over the WCHA with their second straight sweep of a WCHA team. Tonight, they dominated Minnesota State, Mankato for a 7-3 win. These past two weekends have put to rest any argument about whether or not Bemidji has closed the gap with the rest of the WCHA. I would not want to have to face them in the NCAA tournament this season.

Finally, Nebraska-Omaha won the Maverick Stampede with a 5-3 win over New Hampshire. It’s a good win for the Mavericks, who are starting to prove that there will be life after Chris Holt. Freshmen Greg Barrett got the start tonight and played an impressive game, despite giving up a fluke goal when New Hampshire tried to shoot the puck around the boards, and it hit the glass in a weird way, causing the puck to go on net for a goal. Omaha picks up a nice win against a Hockey East team that should do pretty well this season.

Though the CCHA had a great weekend, Western Michigan can’t be included in that category. Robert Morris, fresh off a loss to the Penn State club team, went into Kalamazoo and beat the Broncos 5-2. It could e a rough season for the Broncos, and the last for coach Jim Culhane if they don’t turn things around quickly.