Odd Night

Things were curiously calm in the usually topsy-turvy CCHA last night, with team that was higher in the standings winning every game.

There was a bit of craziness in East Lansing though, as Alaska and Michigan State got into a postgame fight after Alaska took issue with MSU running goalie Wylie Rogers. The brawl has highlighted by Alaska coach Tavis MacMillan reportedly going after MSU head coach Rick Comley, who has been carbon-dated at being 243 years old.

How good of a reporter is CSTV's Elliot Olshansky? He was at this wild game before the fight even took place. He's got a lot of great pictures and thoughts.

It was a much different story in the WCHA, with the team lower in the standings winning all the games, except for Anchorage and North Dakota, who tied. Even Michigan Tech's win over the plucky Bemidji State Beavers can be considered a mild upset since the Beavers were ranked. Denver needed overtime to knock off Niagara.

All of those upsets meant that the impressive win streaks of both Minnesota and St. Cloud came crashing down.

Wisconsin beat Minnesota 2-1. Ross Carlson had powerplay goals in both the second and third period for the win.

St. Cloud lost their streak in epic fashion. Leading Minnesota State 4-1 in the third period, the Huskies gave up 5 straight goals, including an empty-netter to lose 6-4. It was Minnesota State's 5th straight win in St. Cloud. Travis Morin had the game-winning goal, along with two assists in the comeback, which made him the leading scorer in the WCHA.

For those curious about any aftermath of the incident last week, there wasn't much. Mankato got whistled for more penalties again, but this time they probably should have been. Most of the calls against them were legit, and St. Cloud is the best I've seen in the WCHA in terms of not clutching and grabbing, so it's hard to call too much on them. MSU head coach Troy Jutting was extremely, and somewhat oddly, subdued the entire game. Some people are making a bigger deal out of it than it is though, since it was pointed out that he was like that last Sunday as well, until after the game. Eric Means didn't make the trip with the team, though that was expected since it's common practice for teams to only bring one assistant on the road.

Minnesota-Duluth has seemingly come back from the dead and won their last three straight, including last night's win over Colorado College. Maybe it shouldn't be too big of a surprise since I think Colorado College played better than they were in the first half of the season, and Duluth played worse than they are in the first half, but it's nice to see the Bulldogs back playing good hockey. They've already matched their point total(6) from the first half of the season in the first three games of the second half.

Finally, Anchorage came back from a 3-1 deficit to earn a tie in Grand Forks. Not only was it nice to steal a point, but it was a great story for Anchorage. Forward Merit Waldrop traveled back to Anchorage this week for the birth of his son, then flew back to North Dakot and scored the game-tying goal.