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 --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] Color Voice of the Merrimack Warriors (Any opinions expressed above are strictly those of the poster.) *HMN*