Vegoe’s Top 20 – 12/2/2024

Michigan State certainly played like a top ranked team over the weekend even if their opponent Lindenwood currently sits 57th in the KRACH. The Spartans controlled both games outshooting the Lions 93-43 and shutting out their guests twice 2-0 and 4-0. Coach Adam Nightingale’s squad’s only blemish this year was a 3-0 loss to Boston College and they were able to split the series with them winning 4-3 the next night. They’ll finish off the first half of the season at Wisconsin and at Minnesota.

The next two teams in my top 20 both come from Hockey East with Boston College and Maine. The Eagles fell behind to Dartmouth on Friday, but scored four goals in the third period including a key power play goal which has been a struggle for them this season. It was not a good night for Jacob Fowler who made 13 saves on 16 shots. Maine took care of business sweeping Rensselaer.

The big series of the weekend was Michigan and Western Michigan and I think the Broncos came out a little ahead in my perspective despite the home team winning each game of the series. Western Michigan controlled the Friday game from start to finish and Wolverines goaltender Logan Stein said, “We just had no momentum throughout the game. They kind of suffocated us a little bit. Michigan did respond with a better game on Saturday to win 2-1 and committed to the defensive side of the puck. Their only goal against in the second game came with two minutes to go as the Broncos went with the extra attacker.

Michigan travels to Mariucci this weekend to play Minnesota — it’ll be a big test for two programs in contention for a No. 1 seed at the end of the season.

There were a bunch of idle teams in the Top 20 this week as Denver, Colorado College, St. Cloud, Minnesota State and Arizona State were off. One team that dropped quite a bit down my rankings this week probably wishes they had some idle time to heal up, North Dakota. The Fighting Hawks dropped a game to Bemidji State this week and then tied them in the second game to push their record to 7-7-1 on the season. Brad Schlossman noted that North Dakota finally broke a 5-on-5 scoreless streak of 136 minutes, 36 seconds Saturday, but they need to find some wins or they’ll be in trouble in the Pairwise Rankings. There are four  NCHC teams (Western Michigan No. 5, St. Cloud No. 7, Denver No. 9 and Colorado College No. 14) that seem in decent tournament shape headed towards the second half, but North Dakota ranks 26th which puts the Scheels Arena host on the outside looking in.

Besides the big Gophers-Wolverines matchup this weekend, we will also see Denver travel to play Western Michigan and Boston College play a home and home series with UMass-Lowell.