College Hockey   CC Tigers and USAFA Falcons Hockey

Air Force junior goalie Jason Torf was named to the Jewish Sports Review’s Division I All-America team. 

He is joined by  Lake Superior State junior defenseman Zach Sternberg and junior forward Dan Radke;  Princeton junior forward Andrew Calof, Robert Morris freshman forward David Friedmann and senior goaltender Eric Levine,  and Bentley sophomore defenseman Steve Weinstein.

Blues forward and former Tiger Jaden Schwartz had a short stay with Team Canada for the 2013 IIHF World Championships.The Canadians lost in the quarterfinals only a day after Schwartz arrived.

Schwartz previously participated in IIHF competition at the 2011 and 2012 World Junior Championships.

In 45 games this season, Schwartz scored seven goals and six assists for the Blues (13 points). He had a plus/minus rating of -4 and registered four penalty minutes. Schwartz was drafted by the Blues in the first round (14th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft. The  tournament ends May 19.

Here is a roundup blog post on Minnesota-Duluth captains, team awards and 2013-14 schedule.

Minnesota State renovations include shrinking its ice sheet from Olympic size to a hybrid close to the NHL.

The Maverick fans should be thankful their coach search went so well. The school also announced its 2013-14 schedule.

The lawsuit involving former Alaska-Anchorage coach Dave Shyiak has been ‘exaggerated’ according to the player hit in the incident.

The USHL Sioux City coach is moving on to work for Ohio State.

Sioux City forward Jake Guentzel, younger brother of former Tiger Gabe and a Nebraska-Omaha signee, was named the 2012-13 USHL Rookie of the Year after finishing sixth in league scoring and tying a USHL Tier 1 era (2002-present) record with a 21-game point streak.

Amarillo beat Wenatchee 5-0 in the NAHL Robertson Cup championship game less than a day after losing 7-0 in pool play to the same Wild. You may recall some accusations were flying that the Bulls threw that earlier game. The Wild have since announced they are moving to Hidalgo, Texas to become the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees.

The final Western Collegiate Hockey Association meetings this past weekend in Florida were a bittersweet occasion for Colorado College coach Scott Owens.

It served as the transition for the WCHA-founding Tigers as CC enters the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference it helped form last summer.

”It was not awkward but it was a little sad and a little more business-like (than usual),” Owen said. “The league was already meeting with the new members and the NCHC metearlier in the week.”

The transition affects the WCHA as well. Longtime commissioner Bruce McLeod, who has led the league for 20 years, said this coming season will ‘”probably” be his last, multiple sources have reported.

The NCHC met with all eight schools fully presented – athletic directors, coaches, faculty representatives – on hand for the first time and gave an update on the league office’s progress.

“You can’t believe all the things that need to be done to set up a new league,” Owens said.

The officiating program grabbed plenty of attention on a full slate. The deadline to apply to hockey operations head Joe Novak and supervisors of officials Don Adam to become a league official is May 15.  A system that would hold officials accountable and get them better training si expected.

“I think the fans will be pleased with the changes,” CC athletic director Ken Ralph said.

The league bylaws, postseason tournament and the 18-game TV package with CBS Sports Network also drew praise.

“I could not be more pleased with our first meetings in Naples,” NCHC Commissioner Jim Scherr said. “It was great to get everyone in the same place and on the same page as we prepare for our inaugural season. We have some tremendous individuals at each of our institutions that are highly motivated and very professional. We are just a couple of months from dropping the puck on opening weekend and I could not be more excited to get the season underway.”

The American Hockey Coaches Association annual meetings followed with talk of changing the NCAA regionals from neutral sites to the home arena of the regional top seed sites as last done in 1996. Tweaking the Pairwise rankings was discussed with no action made on either topic.

“About 35 to 40 percent of the Western coaches wanted to look at institutional sites but a lot like the neutrality,” Owens said. “We talked about other ways to help attendance, such as lowering ticket prices and student ticket discounts. I would like to see permanent western sites so fans can plan on attending in advance.”

No rule changes were proposed for the NCAA to consider.

Incoming CC freshman Sam Rothstein, pictured in white, scored Saturday for Sioux Falls to force tonight’s decisive Game 5 in its USHL playoff series against Lincoln.

Air Force associate coach Mike Corbett made his case to the Alaska-Anchorage fan base during his day of interviews up North.

National Collegiate Hockey Conference opponent Minnesota-Duluth is bringing in seven freshmen this fall, including one to replace departed sophomore defenseman Chris Casto.

UMD also picked up a former Division III defenseman from St. Scholastica, which is down the street from campus. In all likelihood, he will join the program next fall.

Miami coach Enrico Blasi signed a 10-year contract, resulting in a six-year extension of his current deal. The RedHawks have made the NCAAs nine of the past 10 years including two Frozen Four appearances.

According to multiple reports, including the Denver Post, former Maine standout and current Dubuque coach Jim Montgomery, 43, is the new Denver coach.

The USHL coach is a former assistant coach at RPI and Notre Dame. A press conference is scheduled for 11 a.m. MT on Monday.

Montgomery is Maine’s all-time leading scorer (301 points). Both current DU assistants are expected to be retained.

Montgomery was a favorite to take over in Orono after that Hockey East program fired Tim Whitehead earlier this week. That makes George Gwozdecky, who was fired by Denver earlier this month, the likely leading candidate to take over the Black Bears.

Former Alaska-Anchorage coach John Hill wants his old job back. The other candidates include Air Force associate coach Mike Corbett.

Denver junior Nick Shore has left the program to sign with the Los Angeles Kings.

Yale blanked Quinnipiac 4-0 to claim its first NCAA championship as senior Bulldogs goalie and birthday boy Jeff Malcolm out-performed Hobey finalist Eric Hartzell.

Hobey Baker winner Drew LeBlanc signed with Chicago hours after receiving the award as college hockey’s best player. The SCSU honoree makes it nine WCHA players in the past 12 years to win the sport’s top award. Ben Hanowski moved on to the Flames.

Here is a list, started by the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Schlossman, that I have added to this morning in an attempt to keep up with the offseason comings and goings.

 NCHC early signings

Denver

Scott Mayfield, so, D, N.Y. Islanders

Juho Olkinuora, so. G, Winnipeg Jets

Nick Shore, jr., F, Los Angeles Kings

Minnesota Duluth
Chris Casto, so, D, Boston Bruins

Nebraska Omaha
Andrej Sustr, jr, D, Tampa Bay Lightning

North Dakota
Derek Forbort, jr, D, Los Angeles Kings

Western Michigan
Dan DeKeyser, jr, D, Detroit Red Wings

Big 10 early signings

Michigan
Jacob Trouba, fr, D, Winnipeg Jets
Jon Merrill, jr, D, New Jersey Devils

Minnesota (four of top 5 scorers)
Mark Alt, jr, D, Philadelphia Flyers

Zach Budish, jr, F, Nashville Predators

Nick Bjugstad, jr, F, Florida Panthers

Nate Schmidt, jr, D, Washington Capitals

Erik Haula, jr, F, Minnesota Wild

Ohio State
Chris Crane, jr, F, San Jose Sharks

NCHC departures (seniors)

Colorado College

Andrew Hamburg, F, ECHL San Francisco

Joe Marciano, D, ECHL Orlando

Rylan Schwartz, F, San Jose Sharks

North Dakota

Corban Knight, F, Florida Panthers

Danny Kristo, F, Montreal Canadiens

Andrew MacWilliam, D, Toronto Maple Leafs

St. Cloud State

Ben Hanowski, F, Calgary Flames

Drew LeBlanc, F, Chicago Blackhawks

Western Michigan

Dane Walters, F, San Jose Sharks

Luke Witkowski, D, Tampa Bay Lightning

Tickets remain available for all three games for the WCHA playoff series between Colorado College and Denver. Keep in mind most CC fans sit in sections 5, 6 and 7. There is no TV for the series but it is available on Pioneer Vision.

CC’s seniors leads Division I with 65 goals; the most for any senior class. Here is the breakdown: Rylan Schwartz (15 goals), William Rapuzzi (15), Mike Boivin (14), Scott Winkler (13), Andrew Hamburg (6) and Joe Marciano (2).

Here are preview notes for the six WCHA playoff series this weekend.

Click on the school’s name (bolded) to go to its article:

No. 7 seed Nebraska-Omaha at No. 6 Minnesota State

No. 8 Colorado College at No. 5 Denver. Here are Three Things to Watch about that series.

No. 9 Minnesota-Duluth  at No. 4 Wisconsin

No. 10 Michigan Tech at No. 3 North Dakota

No. 11 Bemidji State at No. 2 Minnesota, which also debuts its video series “Pride on Ice.”

No. 12 Alaska-Anchorage at No. 1 St. Cloud State.

Here is the TV/video stream availability for all six WCHA playoff series.

The All-WCHA honors will be coming out soon. Here are some sample ballots from bloggers on how they would have voted: Goon’s World, Western College Hockey Blog and Bucky’s 5th Quarter.

Air Force hosts Canisius in the Atlantic Hockey Association quarterfinals. Here are the Falcons’ preview notes, 3 Things to Watch and the Gazette preview.

The 2012-13 CCHA All-Conference Teams were announced Wednesday.

I bolded players from Miami and Western Michigan since those teams will be CC opponents in the NCHC next season.
First Team

Position        Name, Year, School      First   Totals

Forward Austin Czarnik, SO, Miami       8       46

Forward Anders Lee, JR, Notre Dame      7       44

Forward Riley Barber, FR, Miami 5       40

Defense Jacob Trouba, FR, Michigan      8       43

Defense Dan DeKeyser, JR, Western Michigan      6       36

Goaltender      Brady Hjelle, SR, Ohio State    6       39

Second Team

Position        Name, Year, School      First   Totals

Forward Tanner Fritz, SO, Ohio State    2       32

Forward Ryan Carpenter, SO, Bowling Green       1       22

Forward Andy Taranto, SR, Alaska        2       20

Defense Luke Witkowski, SR, Western Michigan    3       26

Defense Bobby Shea, SR, Bowling Green   2       25

Goaltender      Frank Slubowski, SO, Western Michigan   4       27

Vote Values: 1st place = 5, 2nd place = 3, 3rd place = 1

Honorable Mention (next six point totals, regardless of position with first team-votes in parentheses): Ryan Dzingel, SO, F, Ohio State, (2) 17; Domenic Monardo, SR, F, Lake Superior, (2) 16; Kyle Bonis, SR, F, Ferris State, (1) 16; Matthew Caito, FR, D, Miami, (1) 15; CJ Motte, SO, G, Ferris State, 14; Bryan Rust, JR, F, Notre Dame, 11.

Others receiving votes:

Forwards – T.J. Tynan, JR, Notre Dame, (1) 8; Chase Balisy, JR, Western Michigan, 8; Cody Kunyk, JR, Alaska, (1) 6; Matt Thurber, SR, Northern Michigan, 4; Dane Walters, SR, Western Michigan, 4; Cristoval Nieves, FR, Michigan, 1; Reed Seckel, SO, Northern Michigan, 1; Garrett Thompson, JR, Ferris State, 1.

Defensemen – Robbie Russo, SO, Notre Dame, (1) 9; Mac Bennett, JR, Michigan, (1) 8;  Colton Parayko, FR, Alaska, 8; Jason Binkley, SO, Ferris State, 6; Simon Denis, SO, Ferris State, 6; Craig Dalrymple, FR, Ohio State, 4; Steven Spinell, SR, Miami, 4; Trevor Campbell, SO, Alaska, 3; Scott Macaulay, SR, Northern Michigan, 3; Curtis Gedig, JR, Ohio State, 1; CJ Ludwig, JR, Northern Michigan, 1.

Goaltenders – Andrew Hammond, SR, Bowling Green, 8; Jared Coreau, JR, Northern Michigan, 6.

With Friday’s 5-3 win over Michigan Tech, St. Cloud State was the first WCHA team to clinch home ice in the playoffs.

This is the second straight season the Huskies earned home playoff ice.  The Huskies’ first round opponent will be determined by the results of the remaining regular season contests.

Here is the game recap from the St. Cloud Times.

No. 16 Wisconsin picked up a big bounce-back win at No. 13 Nebraska-Omaha.

Here are all the links you’ll ever need on North Dakota’s home win over Bemidji State.

No. 10 Denver’s penalty kill was impressive in its 2-0 road win over No. 2 Minnesota.

Attendance was poor for Minnesota-Duluth’s 4-2 home win over Alabama-Huntsville.

Alaska-Fairbanks scored in overtime to deflate the Alaska-Anchorage seniors’ hopes of winning the Governors Cup for the first time.

Here is the full game story on CC’s 4-1 home win over No. 9 Minnesota State. Air Force also picked up a big league win but did not clinch second place just yet.

Keep in mind that Saturday is CC’s Senior Night with a pregame ceremony planned honoring the seven seniors. Fans are asked to arrive 10-15 minutes early. Tickets remain available.

It promises to be a crazy final night for the CCHA’s last  regular season:  Miami, Western Michigan and Notre Dame are all still vying for the regular-season title, while Bowling Green, Michigan, Lake Superior and Northern Michigan are still in contention to host a first-round playoff series.

Former Tiger Jaden Schwartz, pictured, took advantage of playing St. Louis’ top line by recording a goal and assist for his first multi-point NHL game.

Here are the updated WCHA standings:

Click here for a video interview with Alexander Krushelnyski.

Click here for the video of Krushelnyski’s first goal and the excellent Mike Boivin pass that set it up.

CC 4, No. 9 Minnesota State 1

Colorado College hopes to finish the season strong. The Tigers took a big step in that direction with a dominant third period against No. 9 Minnesota State-Mankato.

CC broke a 1-1 tie with three third-period goals, two by junior Alexander Krushelnyski, to down the Mavericks 4-1 Friday night before an announced crowd of 6,481 fans at World Arena.

“We got better as the game went on and Mankato showed why they have 20 wins so far this season,” Tigers coach Scott Owens. “This was a good team win. We have room to get better. I am proud of how the guys played tonight.”

The game-winner came only 2:59 into the final period when Tigers wing Archie Skalbeck gutted out a greasy goal.  The junior won a puck battle with Mavericks defenseman Zach Palmquist  in the slot and lifted the puck past freshman goalie Stephon Williams’ left shoulder to give the Tigers the 2-1 lead and their second power-play goal of the game.

The hard-work score exemplified how the Tigers bounced back from a lackluster performance last Saturday.

“We didn’t think we played very well last Saturday and we wanted to come out and play a good hard game tonight,” Skalbeck said. “Everybody is pretty happy about tonight and hopefully tomorrow we can come out with a better mindset then we did last Saturday and come out with a sweep here. “

For more of the game story, go to gazette.com/sections/sports/cchockey/ later tonight.

NOTEBOOK

Former Tiger Sauer garners national award

Former Colorado College player and coach Jeff Sauer will receive the 2013 Legend of Hockey award from the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation at its annual banquet May 22 in St. Paul, Minn.

Sauer is the only person to coach 31 seasons in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and is also the winningest coach.

The former Tigers player joined coach Bob Johnson as an assistant at CC in 1966, then followed Johnson to Wisconsin for a similar role in 1968. Sauer was head coach at CC from 1971-82 until taking over the Badgers.

Sauer became the first coach to win the NCAA tournament title in his initial season.  He won a second title in 1990. Sauer retired in 2002. Sauer is fifth all-time in games coached (1,244) and is eighth overall in wins at 655. In league play at Wisconsin, Sauer’s teams finished amongst the top three teams in 14 of his 20 seasons and won league titles in 1990 and 2000.

Sauer will coach the U.S. national deaf and sled hockey teams at their world championships this month and next.

Past honors include the Distinguished Achievement Award from USA Hockey in 2000 and the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding contributions to hockey in the U.S. by the NHL in 2011.

Senior Night is Saturday

Tiger fans are asked to arrive about 10 minutes early for the pregame ceremony honoring the seven seniors on the CC team. They are: Mike Boivin, Andrew Hamburg, Joe Howe, Joe Marciano, William Rapuzzi, Rylan Schwartz, and Scott Winkler. Tickets remain available.

Winkler breaks out of funk

CC senior Scott Winkler put in a strong performance, recording a goal and assisting the game-winner by Archie Skalbeck to help the Tigers tie the game and pull ahead.  It was Winkler’s first points since two goals at North Dakota on Jan. 12.

“He did a nice job,” Tigers coach Scott Owens said. “He was pretty good down low. That was good to see.”

Playoff intensity already

The odds are most Tiger fans will not get to see their team play live this postseason, but they got a little taste of that intensity during Friday’s game.

An important 5-minute power play that led to the tying goal was set up by a kneeing call against MSU’s Matt Leitner and a 5-minute contact to the head and game misconduct (available Saturday) against Zach Lehrke.

While Mankato played a physical game, most of CC’s penalties were due to fatigue, with both Eamonn McDermott and Mike Boivin caught out on the ice too long during the third period, Owens said.

CC finds room over final 40 minutes

Minnesota State’s 1-2-2 defensive formation proved sound in the first period, limiting CC to one shot through the first few minutes and keeping the puck below the Tigers’ goal line early.

CC handled the forecheck better after the first few minutes and started to develop better scoring chances, prompting MSU to take a timeout with 5:49 left in the opening stanza after its fourth icing call.

CC continued to find more room, eventually leading to three high-end scoring chance including a 3-on-1 shorthanded breakaway that went awry when Alexander Krushelnyski paused and then missed the net less than a minute into the third period.

He more than atoned for it with two goals later that period.

“He will definitely get less grief about that now,” Owens said, then laughed.

Slap shots

An opening goal by Rylan Schwartz was immediately waved off after the referee ruled the senior knocked the puck in with his hand after a scramble and rebound in front of the MSU net. … It was CC’s fourth win over a Top 10 team in the past six weeks.

WCHA Roundup

No. 10 Denver 2, No. 2 Minnesota 0

MINNEAPOLIS — Sophomore goaltender Juho Olkinuora stopped 33 shots while sophomore forward Ty Loney scored a goal and an assist to lead Denver to a 2-0 win against Minnesota on Friday night at Mariucci Arena.

No. 7 St. Cloud State 5, Michigan Tech 3

ST. CLOUD — St. Cloud State (20-12-1, 17-7-1 WCHA) stayed in control of first place in the WCHA with a big 5-3 victory over Michigan Tech (10-17-4, 6-15-4 WCHA) on Friday at the National Hockey and Event Center in St. Cloud, Minn.

The victory increased SCSU’s league points to 35, which keeps the Huskies three points ahead of second-place North Dakota (32 points) with three regular-season games remaining. A SCSU win and losses by UND and Minnesota would clinch the MacNaughton Cup for the Huskies for the first time since joining the league in 1990.

No. 16 Wisconsin 4, No. 13 Nebraska-Omaha 3

OMAHA — Sophomore forward Brendan Woods scored the game-winner at 18:18 of the third period to lift Wisconsin to a 4-3 victory against Nebraska Omaha on Friday night at CenturyLink Center.

No. 6 North Dakota 4, Bemidji State 2

GRAND FORKS — Sophomore forward Mark MacMillan scored two goals and an assist and junior forward Mitch MacMillan added a goal and an assist to lead North Dakota to a 4-2 win against Bemidji State on Friday night at Engelstad Arena.

Minnesota-Duluth 4, Alabama-Huntsville 2

DULUTH — Sophomore forward Justin Crandall and sophomore defenseman Chris Casto each registered a goal and an assist to lead Minnesota Duluth to a 4-2 victory against Alabama-Huntsville on Friday night at AMSOIL Arena.

Alaska-Fairbanks 2, Alaska-Anchorage 1 OT

FAIRBANKS — Garrick Perry scored his second of the season late in the second period for UAF while Alex Gellert forced overtime with a power-play goal in the third.  Cody Kunyk scored the game-winner 2:10 into the extra time.

Colorado College 4, No. 9 Minnesota State 1

Minnesota State              0              1              0              –1

Colorado College              0              1              3              –4

First period – No scoring. Penalties – none.

Second period – 1. MSU, Margonari (Leitneer, McInnis) 3:38; 2. CC, Winkler (Boivin, Schwartz) 12:43 (PP). Penalties – MSU, Leitner, kneeing, 10:29; MSU, Lehrke, 5-minute contact to the head, game misconduct, 10:54; CC, Hamburg, holding, 13:49; CC, Bradley, roughing, 16:16; MSU, Blueger, roughing, 16:16.

Third period –3. CC, Skalbeck (Winkler, Harstad) 2:58 (PP); 4. CC, Krushelnyski (Boivin) 9:26; 5. CC, Krushelnyski (McDermott) 16:36 (SH, EN). Penalties – MSU, Gaede, tripping, 1:23; CC, McDermott, boarding, 11:34; CC, Boivin, tripping, 16:20.

Power play – MSU 0-3, CC2-4. Shots on goal – MSU 11-5-16 – 32; CC 6-9-12 –27. Saves-minutes – MSU, Williams 6-8-9 – 59:44; CC, Howe 11-4-16 – 60:00. Referees – Sterns, Bokai. Linesmen – Keltie, Staudte. Attendance – 6.481.

CC senior goalie Joe Howe has quietly gone about carving out a place in the program’s record books as the 4th all-time career saves leader.

Same questions, but much different situation for Minnesota State this season. Here is the Mankato Free Press’ capsule look at the series.

Of course all the other league series bear watching, especially the first two listed:

No. 16 Wisconsin at No. 13Nebraska-Omaha: The Badgers’ up-and-down season is best exemplified by the past week: On Feb. 18, they were basking in the afterglow of an outdoor win over No. 2 Minnesota. Seven days later, they are choking down the ashes of an OT loss to undermanned Penn State. How will the Badgers bounce back? UNO is approaching the weekend as a dress rehearsal for the WCHA playoffs.

No. 10 Denver at No. 2 Minnesota: The Pioneers are taking a similar approach; the playoffs have already begun.  David Makowski has been an offensive bright spot for the Pioneers. The Gophers’ only senior is featured.

To sum up, eighth-place CC is five points behind sixth-place UW and DU and must make up those points in the four remaining games. Next weekend, UW hosts North Dakota while DU entertains Alaska-Anchorage. CC travels to Michigan Tech. The Tigers’ home playoff ice hopes are slim, but not mathematically impossible. They need a lot of help.

Bemidji State at No. 6 North Dakota: BSU is trying to right the ship in time for the playoffs. The Beavers have only won one game in Grand Forks in program history, and that was back in 1970. The Beavers have defeated UND just once, a 1-0 WCHA win at the Sanford Center on Nov. 20, 2011. Interestingly enough, UND senior Danny Kristo, one of the more dynamic players in the WCHA, has never recorded a point against BSU, his father’s alma mater. The games between the two schools will continue.

North Dakota’s Dillon Simpson is featured to lead off the weekly NCAA college hockey notebook while Mark MacMillan gets a look by The Hockey Writers web site. Here is more from the Herald beat writer.

Michigan Tech at St. Cloud State: The Huskies are looking to build toward the playoffs while SCSU senior Drew LeBlanc continues to have an outstanding senior season.

Alabama-Huntsville at Minnesota-Duluth: The Chargers’ coach is from northern Minnesota. UMD’s Keegan Flaherty and his hockey family are profiled here. Here is a series preview capsule by the news-Tribune’s Kevin Pates.

Alaska-Anchorage vs. Alaska-Fairbanks: The Seawolf seniors want to hoist the Governors’ Cup for the first time.

Here is a look at what the USCHO expert thinks will be the NCAA Tournament field before this weekend’s game get underway. Inside College Hockey weighs in what looks like a dynamite Toledo regional: Miami, North Dakota, Notre Dame and RPI, winners of nine of its last 11 games.

This weekend’s USCHO predictions can be found here. Four WCHA and three CCHA games are on TV tonight.

The final regular-season weekend for the CCHA is previewed here. Miami looks to clinch the title this weekend. Western Michigan sophomore goalie Frank Slubowski is featured.

Women’s ice hockey playoffs start tonight with at least two locals involved:

St. Cloud State junior Molli Mott leads the No. 7 seed  Huskies with 22 points (13 assists)  into a road series at runner-up Wisconsin. Penn State captain Taylor Gross, second on the Nittany Lions with 21 points (15 assists), is headed to College Hockey America third-seeded RIT for a best-of-three playoff series.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. –   Kyle De Laurell scored two goals as Air Force beat RIT, 5-3, in an Atlantic Hockey Association game Friday, Feb. 22, at the Frank Ritter Arena in Rochester, N.Y.

With the win, Air Force remains in second place in the league with 31 points. RIT fell to seventh place with 23 points. Air Force can clinch a first-round bye on Saturday with a win over RIT.

“This was a great win for us,” head coach Frank Serratore said. “We had to come from behind to win on the road and you have to be able to do that if you aspire to be a champion. We played a great third period.”

It was Air Force’s first win at RIT in five games.

Air Force (15-10-7, 13-6-5 AHA) and RIT (12-14-15, 10-10-4) conclude the two-game series on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. ET in Rochester, N.Y.

Here is the Denver Post’s game story on No. 10 Denver’s 5-4 home win over No. 6 North Dakota and the USCHO.com recap.

No. 2 Minnesota, now only a point back in the WCHA standings, had to mount a strong third period to put away ninth-place Minnesota-Duluth.

Here is the St. Cloud Times’ take on Friday’s 4-3 win by Colorado College. and the Gazette game story. Columnist David Ramsey talked to unhappy Tiger fans.

Now that Air Force is one win away from making the AHA quarterfinals, the Falcons are ranked at No. 31 in the Pairwise Rankings while CC moved up from No. 31, to 30 and now into a tie for 29th. Looks like both teams will have to win their postseason tournament to make the NCAAs.

No. 2 Minnesota 5, Minnesota-Duluth 3

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Junior forward Erik Haula scored twice and three other players registered two-point games to lead Minnesota to a 5-3 win against Minnesota Duluth on Friday night at Mariucci Arena.

The win moves UM into a two-way tie for second place with idle Nebraska-Omaha with 30 league points while UMD remains at 20. St. Cloud State remains in the WCHA lead with 31 points.

No. 10Denver 5, No. 6 North Dakota 4

DENVER — Sophomore forward Daniel Doremus and senior forward Chris Knowlton each had a goal and an assist to help Denver edge past North Dakota with a 5-4 win on Friday night at Magness Arena.

The win puts DU and Wisconsin, which plays nonconference games against Penn State Sunday and Monday, into a tie for sixth place with 27 points, five ahead of eighth-place Colorado College.