College Hockey: Recapping the First Half in MN
Minnesota-Duluth’s Caleb Herbert (left) heads toward Minnesota captain Nate Condon during the championship game of the inaugural North Star College Cup at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. (Jim Rosvold)
Most seasons, the State of Hockey boasts some of the best teams in college hockey. Through the first half of the 2014-15 campaign, this season has been no different.
St. Cloud State has uncharacteristically struggled and Bemidji State has had a tough time, but the other three Division 1 teams are off to outstanding starts. Currently, Minnesota State-Mankato, Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota are all ranked in the top eight in the USCHO.com Poll and the top ten in the USA Today/US College Hockey Online Poll. More important than that is the PairWise rankings, which mimic the NCAA Tournament selection process. As of this writing, the Mavericks are the top team in the PairWise, with the Bulldogs clocking in at third and the Gophers in 11th.
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The Mavericks currently find themselves tied for first in the WCHA with the Michigan Tech Huskies. The Bulldogs are also a first place team, tied with the Miami Redhawks for first in the NCHC. Minnesota has only played one conference series in the Big Ten, winning one and losing in overtime in the second game at Michigan State. The Gophers schedule will always be a bit unusual, playing in the six team Big Ten. I still fully expect the Gophers to win the conference again.
The Mavericks had an unusual situation last weekend. The team had such a terrible outbreak of the flu, their Saturday night game against Princeton had to be cancelled. It is the first time I can ever remember a game needing to be cancelled due to wide-spread sickness. Needless to say, the break came at a very good time for their team.
I’ve done as best as I can to this point to shield my bias in this article, but I am a lifetime Duluthian and a UMD grad, so obviously I am a Bulldog homer. The Bulldogs actually got off to a fairly slow start at 3-4. They split their first four weekends of the season. The good news for them was that they had played a ranked team every game to start the season, so it did not hurt them too much in the polls. Since that start, UMD is 9-2, including a sweep at St. Cloud State as well as a home and home sweep of the Gophers. That made UMD 2-1 overall so far this year against the Gophers, as Minnesota won a 4-3 decision to start the season against UMD in a tournament at Notre Dame. This year’s Bulldogs squad is clearly their best since Jack Connolly’s Hobey Baker campaign in 2011-12, and has a chance to be their best squad since the National Championship team in 2010-11.
So in review, our state currently boasts last year’s national runners-up, who are very good again this year, as well as the third ranked team in the country and the eighth ranked as well (depending on who you ask). Should make for an exciting few months. Enjoy the rest of the season.