Each week, USCHO.com will pick the top 10 moments from the past weekend in our Monday 10 feature.
It’s the last full month of the college hockey season, but if its first weekend was any indication, it will be an exciting one. Conference regular-season champions are being crowned and playoff seeding possibilities are endless.
All that and more in this week’s Monday 10…
1. Minnesota and Michigan State are B1G’s co-champs of the regular season
With a 5-2 win at Notre Dame on Saturday night, Michigan State claimed its second consecutive B1G regular-season championship. The Spartans, selected No. 1 in the preseason conference poll, won back-to-back regular-season titles for the first time since the start of the conference in 2013-14, and for the fourth time in program history.
Lest the forgoing needlessly depress Minnesota fans, fear not — the Gophers won a share of the regular-season title too! With a 5-3 win at sold-out Penn State, Minnesota claimed its record seventh B1G regular-season trophy.
The Spartans will be the official No. 1 seed and receive a bye to the tournament semifinals, and will host the lowest remaining seed on March 15 at Munn Ice Arena. The Gophers will host Notre Dame in a best-of-three quarterfinal series starting Friday.
2. Make that five straight for Quinnipiac
The No. 12 Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey program clinched its fifth straight Cleary Cup as ECAC Hockey’s regular-season champ, defeating St. Lawrence 4-0 on Saturday night at Appleton Arena.
It was the fourth Bobcat shutout of the season. Jeremy Wilmer matched his season best with a pair of goals, his third such performance this season. Wilmer, Andon Cerbone and Travis Treloar all extended their points streak to six games.
Quinnipiac is 10-1-1 in its last dozen games at St. Lawrence. For their efforts, the Bobcats earned a week off before hosting best-of-three series in the ECAC quarterfinals beginning March 14.
Clarkson, Union and Colgate are the other ECAC Hockey automatic quarerfinalists.
3. Western Michigan wins first-ever conference title
Western Michigan, having won at least a share of a regular-season conference championship for the first time in program history the previous night, won the NCHC’s Penrose Cup outright and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming tournament with a point in its series finale vs. North Dakota on Saturday. The Broncos fell 4-3 in overtime, but combined with a 6-4 win over the Fighting Hawks Friday night, the point was enough for a four-point weekend.
The Broncos finish the regular season at Miami on March 7-8 in Oxford, Ohio.
4. Puck drops on AHA playoffs with three opening-round games
For fans itching to see some playoff hockey already, Atlantic Hockey America provided a soothing balm with three preliminary games.
American International kept its season — and its existence as a Division I program — alive with a 2-1 overtime win over RIT Friday night in West Point, N.Y. Casey McDonald scored the game winner for the Yellow Jackets.
On Saturday, Canisius was a 2-0 winner over Mercyhurst, and Air Force needed double overtime to eliminate a tenacious Robert Morris team, 4-3. Anthony Yu got the game winner with a power-play goal at 13:30 of the second OT.
The quarterfinals will be a best-of-three affair, featuring the following matchups: No. 8 AIC at top-seeded Holy Cross, No. 7 Air Force at No. 2 Sacred Heart, No. 6 Canisius at No. 3 Bentley and No. 5 Army at No. 4 Niagara.
5. No. 1 BC takes five of six from New Hampshire
Boston College, No. 1 in the USCHO men’s D-I poll as of this writing, had a drama-free time with New Hampshire at home Friday night, a 4-1 win before a crowd of 7,007 at Silvio O. Conte Forum.
The next night was a different story. The Eagles had to rally for a 1-1 tie before earning a shootout win, taking five of six possible Hockey East points.
BC enters the final weekend of the regular season with a 4-point lead over Maine in the Hockey East standings with one game to play, vs. Merrimack Saturday. The Eagles will need to do anything other than lose in regulation to clinch the No. 1 seed in the tournament. For Maine to finish No. 1, it will need to earn at least five of six possible points in a two-game series at Massachusetts, and hope BC goes points-less vs. Merrimack. BC holds the tiebreaker vs. Maine, having swept their only two meetings way back in November.
6. Minnesota State closes out CCHA slate with a bang
After losing a shootout at home vs. rival Bemidji State on Friday, Minnesota State responded resoundingly the next night with a 5-1 win.
The Mavericks will host Lake Superior State in a best-of-three series beginning Friday. Luc Wilson led the Mavericks offense Saturday night with two goals and one assist. Evan Murr chipped in one goal and one assist. Goaltender Eli Pulver stopped 23 of 24 shots for his first career win in goal.
7. Denver, St. Cloud State split
St. Cloud State goalie Isak Posch made 38 saves for a 2-1 win at Denver on Saturday night in NCHC action. It was St. Cloud’s first win vs. Denver in its last seven tries.
For Denver, graduate student Connor Caponi played in his 175th career game on Saturday, becoming the 53rd player in NCAA history to reach that milestone. Kieran Cebrian appeared in his 70th game with Denver. Aidan Thompson stretched his point streak to nine games (four goals/10 assists). Jack Devine (three goals/four assists) and Zeev Buium (goal/four assists) are now both on four-game point streaks.
Denver, which was a 3-1 winner on Friday, closes out the regular season next weekend with a home-and-home series vs. rival Colorado College.
8. Providence sweeps Merrimack
Providence won a pair of nailbiters vs. Merrimack over the weekend — 3-2 at home on Friday and 2-1 the next night in North Andover, Mass. — to improve to 10-3 in one-goal games this season.
Goalie Philip Svedebäck stopped 29 of 31 shots in Friday’s win. net, while Zach Borgiel was in net for Providence on Saturday and made 12 saves vs. his former club.
9. Ohio State, Michigan split
No. 8 Ohio State and No. 11 Michigan split their regular-season-ending B1G series over the weekend, with the Buckeyes tipping the Wolverines 2-1 on Friday and Michigan returning the favor the next night with a 4-3 win.
The Buckeyes finish the regular season at 21-11-2 overall and have a 14-9-1 B1G record, good for No. 3 in both the final standings and the upcoming tournament. Michigan is 18-13-3 with a 12-10-2 B1G mark and a fourth-place finish. Each team had a regulation and an overtime win in the series this season.
Both teams will host a home-and-home quarterfinal series next weekend. Michigan welcomes No. 5 Penn State and Ohio State hosts No. 6 Wisconsin.
10. UConn continues hot streak in Hockey East
Is there a team hotter than Connecticut right now? The Huskies took care of Hockey East’s other Huskies over the weekend (wins of 5-2 and 7-1 over Northeastern) to continue their scintillating 2025, earning their fifth win in a row to extend their current streak to 11-2-2 since the new year.
Looking for their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, UConn is now eighth in the PairWise. The Huskies are currently fourth in Hockey East, three points behind Boston University, and look to lock up a bye in the upcoming Hockey East tournament with one game left, at Vermont on Thursday.
