The Student Section: Regular Season Episode #7

Good Morning Wilderness! Wow! What great weekend of exciting college hockey. Well, unless you're a Gopher hockey fan. Then you're probably not all that happy that your favorite team lost a meaningless exhibition game to the USNTP U-18 team.

Huskies keep streak alive

The University of North Dakota hasn't had a series sweep against St. Cloud State Huskies at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center since the 1998-99 season. With Friday's 3-1 loss, UND will leave St. Cloud with that streak still intact.

On Friday night, junior forward Jonny Brodzinski was nothing short of amazing. UND had no answer for the Huskies power forward who scored (2g-1a—3pts). With the game tied at 1-1 after two periods, Brodzinski’s scored two goals in the third period to ice the game for the Huskies. Brodzinski also broke a three-game goalless streak. For his career, Brodzinski has scored 50 goals in 92 games.

UND junior forward Drake Caggiula scored the lone goal for UND. Caggiula came into Friday's game as the NCAA point's leader, but fell to second place after RIT Tigers forward Matt Garbowsky scored (2g-2a—4pts) against the Sacred Heart Pioneers.

Over the last four seasons, UND hasn't had a lot of success against the Huskies, but they did manage to earn a series split with a 3-2 win on Saturday night. Freshman forward Trevor Olson scored a pair of goals to pace UND.

With the win, UND improves to (9-3-1 and 4-2-0 NCHC). UND is 5-8-1 in their last 14 games against the Huskies. Next weekend, UND entertains the Nebrasak-Omaha Mavericks in an important two-game conference series.

With the loss, the Huskies drop to (5-6-1 and 2-3-1 NCHC). Next weekend, the Huskies travel to Bemidji to play the Beavers in a two-game non-conference series at the Sanford Center.

Michigan Tech unbeaten no more

The undefeated Michigan Tech Huskies Huskies entered Friday's game as the number one ranked team in the country. The Huskies were also sitting at number one in the Pairwise Rankings.

After Friday's 2-1 loss to the Minnesota State Mavericks, the Huskies are no longer undefeated and no longer are sitting in the top spot of the Pairwise Rankings.

The Mavericks scored two goals in third period by Brett Stern and Dylan Margonari to take game one of the series for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks would again win on Saturday night to sweep the Huskies. Forwards Jean-Paul Lafontaine and Matt Leitner led the way for the Mavericks with a (1g-1a-2pts) each.

"It was a road game, and we knew it would be hard," Matt Leitner said. "We knew there weren't going to be any tic-tac-toe plays. We had to get bodies to the front of the cage. ... We had to keep it simple." (Shane Frederick, Puckato)There's one thing for certain, after the Mavericks sweep of the Huskies, there will be a new number one team in the nation. Could the Mavericks be the new number one? With the win, the Mavericks improve to (9-3-0 and 7-1-0 WCHA).

Bulldogs remain hot

With their comeback win on Friday night, the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs have now won six games in a row. The Bulldogs entered the third period down by two goals to the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks.

With the win, the Bulldogs are now tied for the NCHC lead with the Miami RedHawks.

On Saturday night, the Bulldogs winning streak would come to an end as the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks would salvage a split with a 4-1 at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Austin Ortega led the Mavericks with a pair of goals and Ryan Massa stopped 39 shots to limit the offensively gifted Bulldogs to a single maker. Duluth falls to (9-5-0 and 5-3-0 NCHC).

This is an exciting time for college hockey. This past week, the Arizona State Sun Devils announced that they will move their club hockey program to division I. This is a positive development for college hockey. We now have an even number of division I hockey teams, and you're adding a high-profile school.

ASU will also become the southernmost division I college hockey team. Now you have a college hockey market in the southwest. This is a plus for the western schools in the WCHA and NCHC.

ASU's ascension to division I status could be the first domino to fall in west ward expansion. Some have speculated that with ASU adding hockey, other Pac-12 schools will follow suit and add division I hockey. Only time will tell if this happens.

ASU is the first Big-Five school to add college hockey since Penn State joined the Big Ten two seasons ago. With ASU adding college hockey, there's a good possibility that they will bring more exposure to whatever league they decide to join. The NCHC seems like the most logical choice.