Providence’s unexpected sweep of Merrimack means an end to the Warriors’ brief run as the #1 team in the country in the USCHO poll.  Notre Dame falls all the way from 2nd to 7th after being swept at home by the now surging Northeastern Huskies.  Pretty much the same on the USA Hockey/USA Today poll.  Boston College is the highest ranked Hockey East team at 3rd.  Merrimack dropped to 5th while Boston University moved up to 11th after splitting with BC.  Making their debuts on the poll this year are Lowell at #17 and Providence at #20.  If this season wasn’t disappointing enough for Minuteman fans, seeing those schools ranked is a kick in the gut.  Don’t get me wrong, I always like to see Hockey East get national recognition and there are a lot of good fans within those fanbases that I’m happy for.  But those are the only two teams that UMass finished ahead of in Hockey East last season.  Yet now, despite not being expected to do much and changing their coaches during the offseason, they’re ranked and fighting for home ice in the conference.  UMass of course is three games below .500 and, with Maine’s success this past weekend, now sitting by themselves in 9th place.

Yale, Wednesday’s opponent, is ranked 17th.

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With their sweeps Lowell and Providence as well as Maine and Northeastern were well represented in this week’s Hockey East awards.  Maine’s Spencer Abbott had a weekend most hockey players can only dream of.  Five goals, including both game-winners, four assists, and a +3 rating.  Wow.

Steve Guzzo and Mike Pereira were both named Top Performers for their efforts against Harvard.

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With tomorrow being a game preview day here at the Fear The Triangle offices, here is this week’s Recruit Update a day earlier than usual.

Kenny Gillespie – RW – Omaha Lancers (USHL) – 2012
14 GP / 2 G / 3 A / 5 Pts / 23 PIM / +2
According to the Lancers’ Twitter account Gillespie did not play due to injury this past weekend.

Willy Smith – LW – Springfield Pics (EJHL/EmpJHL) – 2014
EJHL:  11 GP / 1 G / 1 A / 2 Pts / 9 PIM
Empire:  14 GP / 5 G / 12 A / 17 Pts / 16 PIM
Smith played for the Pics’ Empire league team this past weekend, gaining an assists in two overtime losses.  For the time being I’ll be showing his stats at both levels as he’s bouncing back and forth.

Shane Walsh – LW – Dubuque Fighting Saints (USHL) – 2012
19 GP / 5 G / 6 A / 11 Pts / 0 PIM / -6
Walsh did not register a point as the Saints swept their games this weekend.

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The Daily Collegian has the game recap from Friday as well as their game notes.

And here’s the view from Harvard’s student paper.

Jon Quick was named the NHL’s third star for last week.  Quick leads the league in shutouts, is second in save percentage, and 4th in goals against average.

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In addition to Wednesday being triangle jersey ugly sweater night at the Mullins, it’s also Teddy Bear toss.  What’s a Teddy Bear toss you ask?

So to those clowns who were enjoying throwing crap on the ice last weekend, you better be the first ones in line at Wal-Mart to buy a bear to throw on Wednesday.