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NCAA Hockey 101: Colgate, Union start strong; Ohio State's stopper

Via Union College

(Ed. Note: Ryan Lambert is our resident NCAA Hockey nut, and we decided it’s time to unleash his particular brand of whimsy on the college game every week. So NCAA HOCKEY 101 will run every Tuesday on Puck Daddy. Educate yo self.) 

In two short weeks, this college hockey season has already proven weirder than most.

It has, in fact, been very strange indeed. Upsets abound. Teams that were supposed to be pretty good this season have been abject, while some that were supposed to be doormats have been pretty decent.

It's obviously still early in the season yet and thus sorting through some of these things isn't always going to be easy. Weird results happen all the time. But with that having been said, it's important to keep in mind that even the goofiest October loss can end up costing you a plum spot in the NCAA tournament, making it all the more important to pummel weak opponents early and often. So the question is: Did your team do that?

ECAC already shaping up as expected

Coming into the season you had to figure that the ECAC was a two-horse race between Union and Colgate. The latter was picked to win the conference by its coaches, and the former is the reigning national champion. All other contenders for the crown couldn't have been considered all that legitimate.

And through two weeks here, we have a pretty safe vision of that potential future becoming reality. Union is 4-0 after having defeated some pretty soft competition: annual cellar-dweller AIC, a bereft UNH, and now a road sweep of Maine this past weekend. These were all games the Dutchmen should have won, and they largely did so comfortably. Aggregate scoring on the season has them leading all opponents 18-6 through 240 minutes of hockey, which you take.

But as to Colgate, things should have been a little tougher, and yet they're making things happen pretty convincingly. Last week they split a pair of 3-1 scores at St. Cloud St., where it's not all that easy to pull points, but this week at home, they crushed Northeastern with a pair of 3-0 shutout wins at home. Now, it must be said that Northeastern really isn't all that good (despite their having been picked to finish fourth in Hockey East); they've played three games, scoring just twice (when their first game was already 5-0) and conceding 12. So no, I wouldn't say that sweeping the Huskies is in any way particularly impressive. But for the Raiders to shut them out twice is extremely difficult given the level of offensive talent they have (in theory),

The thing with handicapping the ECAC early is that the Ivy League schools won't start their schedules for weeks to come, and consequently any sprinting off the line done by teams early on has to be viewed with a bit of measured skepticism. However, as with the last few years it's hard to think of the Ivies as being particularly large threats to the league's regular-season or postseason crowns (surprise 2013 national champ Yale not withstanding), and so if Colgate and Union can continue to go through non-conference opponents in anything resembling this fashion, the rest of the ECAC might not pose that big a challenge.

Ohio State keeps pace with Miami for one reason

If you're looking for a No. 1 star on Saturday, if not the entire weekend, one need look no further than the big intra-state rivalry game between Miami and Ohio State.

Miami is a considerably better team than Ohio State, as evidenced by their sweep. But the RedHawks are given to flights of fecklessness against opponents they should destroy, and despite that have started the season 3-1 against Bowling Green and Ohio State.

Now, you can say, “Hey, 3-1 really isn't bad at all!” and you are of course correct. However, that third win should have been a lot more lopsided than it ended up, because Buckeyes undrafted sophomore netminder Christian Frey kept things together more than anyone could have expected.

Final score in the game was a 2-1 Miami win, but Frey stopped 60 of 62 (.968) in his only start of the weekend, following Chicago draft pick Matt Tomkins' allowing five on 33 the night before.

What's funny about the game is that Ohio State scored 5:38 into the first period and tried to grind out a one-goal win, at Miami, for the next 54:22, and it almost worked. Miami scored two in 1:40 midway through the second period to ruin the storyline.

Frey is now 1-1 on the season, having faced 92 shots in 119 minutes, and allowing just 6 goals. Poor kid has been under siege.

Guentzel, Vecchione keep scoring

It is, again, early in the season (with some teams having played just one game, or even none), but the national scoring race is already heating up thanks to a pair of sophomores: Nebraska-Omaha's Jake Guentzel (a Penguins prospect), and Union's Mike Vecchione (a '95 birthdate who's still technically draft-eligible).

Each has nine points in just four games, leading the nation in that category. Guentzel has four goals, Vecchione three. The teams against which Vecchione has done it were, again: AIC (1-1-2), UNH (1-1-2), and Maine (1-4-5 in two). Guentzel, meanwhile, faced Minnesota State (2-3-5 in two), and Western Michigan (2-2-4 in two).

While it's unreasonable to expect this type of production all year, it would nonetheless be awfully surprising to not see them both near the top of the national scoring charts when mid-March rolls around. Both were near-point-a-game players as freshmen (0.92 for Guentzel, 0.89 for Vecchione), and this is just a continuation of their development.

However, neither one leads the nation in points per game. That honor goes to Chicago prospect and Vermont's probable All-American defenseman, Mike Paliotta. Like Vecchione, his team has played nothing but opponents it should beat in three games so far (which it has, as Vermont is a perfect 3-0). But Paliotta has driven those wins, playing stalwart defense in his own end, and adding 2-5-7 to the mix in the attacking zone, giving him a nation-leading 2.33 points per game among players that have played more than twice.

(Not to be remiss, let's still mention that BU's Jack Eichel (2-2-4) and Sharks prospect Danny O'Regan (2-1-3) have only played once, while Michigan State's Matt Berry (4-2-6) is on just two games).

Lowell impresses in another big matchup

After having knocked off then-No. 5 Boston College last weekend, No. 9

UMass Lowell entered the weekend against No. 13 Quinnipiac. That, once again, made this the most meaningful matchup, in terms of rankings, on the weekend.

And once again, it was the River Hawks coming out ahead, taking three points from their highly regarded opponents (the Q has been one of the best possession teams in college hockey over the last few years) , behind a 6-3 home win and a shock 3-all draw on the road.

Lowell's offense continued to hum along, and is now at 14 goals in three games (which seems not-at-all sustainable, given they've been outshot 86-72 in those). But the manner in which they've dominated at home (11 goals for) could have led one to suspect they could still struggle on the road, which they did to some extent. Quinnipiac put 38 shots on net in 65 minutes, and held Lowell to just 22.

Still,  with the goalie pulled and 1:18 left in regulation, undrafted Joe Gambardella scored his third goal in as many games (his first not into an empty net) and Lowell ground out the win. They were outshot 8-1 in just five minutes of overtime.

TSN <3 NCAA

As part of the Canadian sports network's continued efforts to provide hockey viewing options to people nationwide, TSN recently partnered with College Hockey Inc. to provide Canadians with 37 college broadcasts this season.

This is, obviously, a big deal.

College hockey is a high-quality product which is typically not available on TV in Canada, and hasn't been for several years. Now, though, Canadian fans will be able to watch at games regularly all season long. This will give them a glimpse not only at their teams' various prospects, as well as Eichel and probable No. 3 pick Noah Hanifin (playing for Boston College), but also the roughly 1 in 3 college players who are from the Great White North in the first place.

The full schedule is available here. Seriously, if you're Canadian, set your DVRs. Er, PVRs. 

Somewhat arbitrary ranking of teams which are pretty good in my opinion only (and just for right now but maybe for a little longer too?)

1. Minnesota (inactive)

2. Colgate (swept Northeastern, didn't allow a goal)

3. UMass Lowell (took three points from Quinnipiac)

4. Union (swept Maine in Orono to stay undefeated)

5. Providence (technically inactive, but drew the US Under 18 team Thursday)

6. Boston College (pummeled RIT in Rochester)

7. North Dakota (swept Colorado College, winning 10-3 on aggregate)

8. Vermont (swept Clarkson in a home and home)

9. Nebraska-Omaha (swept at Western Michigan)

10. Alaska (moved to 4-0 beating Air Force and Penn State)

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.