Monday, October 15, 2012

College hockey round-up

Over the weekend, a large chunk of the Division-I regular season got underway.

Flyers goaltending prospect Anthony Stolarz, picked 45th overall back in June, backstopped the University of Nebraska-Omaha to an appearance in the Icebreaker Tournament Finals at Sprint Center in Kansas City.

In a 5-1 opening victory against Army on Friday, he stopped 17-of-18 shots as the Mavericks rolled up 38 shots the other way.

On Saturday, in a 3-2 loss to Notre Dame, Stolarz gave up two goals on 12 shots in the first period, but rebounded to make 23 saves in all.

The Mavs return home for two games on Friday and Saturday hosting Northern Michigan in a WCHA/CCHA cross-conference matchup.

Defending national champion and preseason #1 program Boston College got a rude introduction to Hockey East play in its season-opener on Saturday. At historic Matthews Arena, Northeastern dealt Jerry York's club a 3-1 defeat thanks to freshmen Ryan Belonger, Kevin Roy and Colton Saucerman beating BC's Parker Milner once each. The loss knocked them down to third slot in the new weekly poll.

Second-ranked Minnesota blasted Michigan State by 5-1 and 7-1 scores and ascended to the top spot in the nation, while #3 Michigan rested after an exhibition win over Windsor earlier in the week. The Gophers gained 46 of the 50 available first-place votes after winning both of their games to start the year.

In other news, the Penn State Nittany Lions hung tough in their first weekend of  official D-I play, splitting a pair of overtime games against American International in Wilkes-Barre.

On Friday, Casey Bailey etched his name into the record books with the first goal in program history, coming at 4:37 of the second period in a 4-3 setback. One night later, it took David Glen just 38 seconds into the extra frame to add his name to the ledger with the deciding score in a 3-2 victory.

The Nits play two this coming weekend, at Buffalo State and home against RIT.

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