College Hockey Notebook: Regular Season Fully Back From Break

With the holidays behind us, it’s now full steam ahead for college hockey.

The college hockey world shut down for a few weeks due to the holidays, but now everyone is back in action and all eyes are laser focused on the remainder of the regular season before conference tournaments start dropping puck in March.

The newest national polls are out and it looks fairly similar, but there’s a new team in the top five. Minnesota State maintained its grip on the nation’s top spot followed by Quinnipiac, Western Michigan, St. Cloud State and North Dakota. Michigan held the No. 3 spot in the national polls last week, but dropped down to No. 6 this week.

This is just the beginning of what likely is to be a wild few weeks.

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Who’s Playing Well?
Denver senior forward Brett Stapley took home the Hockey Commissioners Association’s National Player of the Month award for December after netting five goals and recording nine points in just five games throughout the month. Minnesota State netminder Dryden McKay earned the National Goaltender of the Month award while Wisconsin defenseman Corson Ceulemans was named college hockey’s top rookie throughout the month.

Local Spotlight
Boston University, Merrimack, New Hampshire, Harvard, UMass and Holy Cross all earned wins over the last week.

Boston College forward Marc McLaughlin was named the Hockey East Player of the Month for December after recording four goals and two assists in four games for the Eagles. McLaughlin also was named to the Ledyard Classic All-Tournament Team.

Both UMass and UMass Lowell had games postponed over the last week due to COVID-19.

National News
No. 1 Minnesota State extended its impressive winning streak to seven as they completed a home-and-home sweep of in-state rival No. 8 Minnesota Duluth to maintain its tight grip on the top spot in the nation.

Michigan, who had the No. 3 spot on last week’s national polls, dropped down to No. 6 this week after losing to Ohio State 6-1 and tying Michigan Tech 0-0 before its clash with Western Michigan was canceled in the Great Lakes Invitational.

NESN Game of the Week
Boston College is set to take on Boston University in women’s hockey action on NESN’s Game of the Week set to take place Friday night. All coverage can be found right here on NESN beginning at 7 p.m. ET.