THIS WEEK'S ACTION for DECEMBER 4-5, 1992
West notes by Keith Instone; East notes by Mike Machnik.
The biggest rivalry in the CCHA (and one of the biggest in college
sports) is this week: the green of Michigan State against the blue
of Michigan. U of M leads the all-time series, 104-90-6. Kent travels
to Lake Superior for the first time ever for a pair. The Lakers swept
the Golden Flashes 2 years ago in Ohio. Ferris State goes south to
The Ohio State University for a double-dip. The Bulldogs escaped the
Barn with a win (and a tie) last season, their best performance there
in at least 6 years. Western Michigan is looking to gets some points
against Illinois-Chicago, a team they went 2-0-2 against last season.
And in the series most-dependent on the officiating, Miami and Bowling
Green play home-and-home. Miami is tops in the league in power play
and penalty killing while BGSU is at the bottom of both. A weekend of
specialty-team play could be trouble for the Falcons.
In limited WCHA play, the majority of the play will again be on the
Upper Penninsula of Michigan. Michigan Tech hosts Minesota-Duluth and
Northern Michigan hosts Denver. North Dakota also travels to Wisconsin,
so in general, the action is in the eastern half of the league. Good--
there are no late scores to worry about.
In the ECAC, all teams are involved in league play except Dartmouth and
Vermont. St Lawrence and Clarkson travel to the Capital District to
play at RPI and Union. RPI swept the visit of the North Country teams
last year, both 4-3 ot wins, but SLU did gain a nonleague win over the
Engineers in the RPI Invitational. Cornell and Colgate go to New England
for games at Harvard and Brown. Colgate, which won its first game of the season
against York on Saturday, will look for its first ECAC win.
Travelling partners Yale and Princeton will play a home-and-home against
each other to both begin and complete their season series against each
other. Yale won the season series 2-0-0 last year. Vermont will host
fellow Green Mountainers Middlebury in a non-DivI game, while Dartmouth
is off.
Hockey East's big matchup finds second-place Northeastern visiting still
unbeaten Maine (11-0-1) for a pair of league battles. As some have
mentioned, the Huskies are a team that has given Maine fits over the
last few years. Maine won the season series 2-1-0 last year, but NU
handed Maine one of its three regular season losses back on 1/24/92, 4-3
at Northeastern. Maine won the only game at Alfond, 4-3. Total goals
scored in the three games: Maine 12, NU 10. Historically, this has
been a pretty close series; NU leads the all-time set 21-16-5. Maine
holds a 7-1-1 record in the last 9 games, but prior to that, from 1986-90,
NU was 7-4-4 against the Black Bears during Maine's rise to national
prominence. NU last won at Alfond way back on 12/12/87, 5-3, but the
Huskies did earn a tie there on 1/11/91, 6-6. Since that NU win, Maine
is 6-0-1 at home against the Huskies - and that came after NU had gone
five straight games at Alfond without a loss (3-0-2) from 3/2/86 to
12/12/87.
The other six HE teams are paired up and playing home-and-home sets.
Boston College and Providence renew their series for the 94th and 95th
times; BC leads 63-28-2. The teams split last year, 2-2-0. UMass-Lowell
meets New Hampshire with Saturday's game at UNH due to be shown on
Manchester, NH's channel 9 (WMUR-TV). UNH won the series 2-0-1 last
year but had to come from behind for one win at Lowell. Lowell leads the
all-time series 13-10-6. Finally, Boston University and Merrimack meet
for the 29th and 30th times with BU leading the all-time series 26-2-0.
However, Merrimack gained its first real win over the Terriers last
season (5-4 at Merrimack), as the other win came when BU had to forfeit
a 9-0 win in the early 1970s. The Terriers won the other two games the
teams played last season to finish 2-1-0 against Merrimack in 1991-92.
Each Alaska school is hosting a Canadian school. Alaska-Anchorage hosts
Calgary for a pair while Alaska-Fairbanks does the same with Brandon.
Air Force is off this weekend while Army travels to Villanova for a
single game.
12/04/92 Calgary at Alaska-Anchorage NI
12/04/92 Brandon at Alaska-Fairbanks NI
12/04/92 Providence at Boston College HE
12/04/92 Cornell at Brown EC
12/04/92 St Cloud at Colorado College WC
12/04/92 Colgate at Harvard EC
12/04/92 Western Michigan at Illinois-Chicago CC
12/04/92 Kent at Lake Superior CC
12/04/92 Northeastern at Maine HE
12/04/92 Boston University at Merrimack HE
12/04/92 Bowling Green at Miami CC
12/04/92 Michigan State at Michigan CC
12/04/92 Minnesota-Duluth at Michigan Tech WC
12/04/92 UMass-Lowell at New Hampshire HE
12/04/92 Denver at Northern Michigan WC
12/04/92 Ferris State at Ohio State CC
12/04/92 St Lawrence at RPI EC
12/04/92 Clarkson at Union EC
12/04/92 Army at Villanova NI
12/04/92 North Dakota at Wisconsin WC
12/04/92 Princeton at Yale EC
12/05/92 Calgary at Alaska-Anchorage NI
12/05/92 Brandon at Alaska-Fairbanks NI
12/05/92 Merrimack at Boston University HE
12/05/92 Miami at Bowling Green CC
12/05/92 Colgate at Brown EC
12/05/92 St Cloud at Colorado College WC
12/05/92 Cornell at Harvard EC
12/05/92 Kent at Lake Superior CC
12/05/92 Northeastern at Maine HE
12/05/92 New Hampshire at UMass-Lowell HE
12/05/92 Michigan at Michigan State CC
12/05/92 Minnesota-Duluth at Michigan Tech WC
12/05/92 Denver at Northern Michigan WC
12/05/92 Ferris State at Ohio State CC
12/05/92 Yale at Princeton EC
12/05/92 Boston College at Providence HE 2:00
12/05/92 Clarkson at RPI EC
12/05/92 St Lawrence at Union EC
12/05/92 Middlebury at Vermont NI
12/05/92 Illinois-Chicago at Western Michigan CC
12/05/92 North Dakota at Wisconsin WC
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Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors
(Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.) *HMN*
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