Thursday, November 20, 2025

Men’s Notes: Who Will Blink First in Ultra-Tight CCHA?

Four CCHA Teams Still Unbeaten in Regulation Time

In terms of the college hockey conference races, we’re still in early days. No school in the country has reached double-digits in number of conference games played, and the Ivy League schools are only two weeks into their seasons.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t already compelling league races unfolding.

Look no further than the top of the CCHA standings where five teams are currently jockeying for position and four of them (below) have yet to lose a game in regulation. So far, the margins are razor-thin:

Bemidi State (17 pts): The Beavers, tied with Bowling Green for first place, have started 5-1-2 in the CCHA with that lone loss coming in overtime last Saturday at Michigan Tech. In fact, six of their eight league games have required overtime.
Bowling Green (17 pts): After erupting for 14 goals in last weekend’s sweep of Ferris State, the Falcons find themselves tied with BSU atop the CCHA standings. BGSU’s only conference loss so far was, ironically, in overtime against Bemidji State. The Falcons have gone into extra time in half of their eight league games.
Michigan Tech (15 pts): The Huskies are hot on the heels of the league’s co-leaders with two games in hand, going unbeaten (5-0-1) in their first six CCHA games. They went head-to-head with BSU last weekend, and both matchups required overtime: a 2-2 tie (BSU won the shootout) and a 2-1 MTU victory.
Minnesota State (12 pts): The Mavericks are the fourth CCHA team without a regulation loss. Their only setback so far was a 4-3 overtime defeat at the hands of St. Thomas, which was the first of four straight MSU games that needed the extra period.

Having not even reached Thanksgiving on the calendar, there remains plenty of runway for all nine CCHA teams. But if the early season results are any indication – 41 percent of the league’s games have needed overtime – the race for the MacNaughton Cup promises to be a memorable one.

Daily Scoreboard | Weekly Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

A Buhr in Opponents’ Saddles:

No player in college hockey this season has enjoyed a more explosive seven-day stretch than Union senior F Brandon Buhr (Burnaby, British Columbia), who has racked up three points in each of his last three games.

That outburst began with a one-goal, two-assist performance in a Nov. 8 win over St. Lawrence, a box score he then replicated in a Nov. 14 victory over UMass Lowell. The following night, Buhr tallied a natural hat trick in a 6-0 blanking of New Hampshire. All three of his goals came during the second period, two of them on the power play and the other on a penalty shot.

Buhr is the only player in the country this season with three consecutive three-point games, and he’s the first Union skater to do it since Olivier Bouchard in October 2005.

Lund-er Pressure:

Niagara senior D Ethan Lund (Sr., Calgary, Alberta) scored halfway through overtime on Tuesday to give the Purple Eagles a 2-1 Atlantic Hockey America win over RIT.

It was just the sixth career goal in 85 collegiate games for Niagara’s captain, but exactly half of those goals have been game winners.

The goal also put an end to RIT’s nine-game winning streak, the third-longest of its Division I era.

Get Shorty:

Dartmouth scored its first three short-handed goals of the year in Friday’s 6-1 win at St. Lawrence, tying RPI for the most in a single game this season.

The Big Green scored four shorties in 33 games in 2024-25.

Spengler Cup Roster Finalized:

The team that will represent NCAA Division I men’s hockey at the 2025 Spengler Cup is now fully known.

Organizers for the U.S. College Selects announced last week the final seven additions, finalizing the roster at 25 players (15 forwards, seven defensemen, three goalies). Click HERE for the complete roster.

The Spengler Cup takes place December 26-31 in Davos, Switzerland. For more information, visit www.spenglercup.ch/en.

Rank and File:

This week’s schedule features five series between teams currently ranked among the top-20 in the national polls:

#1 Michigan State vs. #7/8 Wisconsin (FRI/SAT)
#10/11 Maine at #15 Boston College (FRI/SAT)
#12 Northeastern vs. #18/19 Boston University (FRI/SAT)
#16 Providence vs. #17/18 UMass (THU/SAT)
#17/19 Cornell vs. #20 Union (FRI/SAT)

Click HERE to view the entire schedule for the week.

SID Corner:

Via Cornell SID Marshall Haim, when F Gio DiGiulian (Fr., South Burlington, Vt.) lit the lamp in last Friday’s 4-1 win over Brown, he became just the third Cornell freshman in program history to score a goal in four of his first five NCAA games.

The only other Big Red rookie skaters to accomplish that feat were Kent Manderville (1989-90) and Gary Cullen (1981-82).

Notebook Quotebook:

“We play in the first game on Friday and it’s a school game. So, like all the kids are there and they’re screaming and going nuts the whole game. (Last time, with Clarkson) they sang ‘Baby Shark,’ that was the big one. So, I’m sure they’ll be doing a bunch of ‘6 / 7’ that weekend.”

— Union head coach Josh Hauge (Bethel ‘02) on his team’s upcoming participation next weekend in the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland (source: College Hockey News).

NHL Note of the Week:

Florida D Jeff Petry (Michigan State, 2007-10) and St. Louis D Justin Faulk (Minnesota Duluth, 2010-11) both played in NHL career game No. 1,000 earlier this week. They became the fifth and sixth active NCAA alumni to reach that milestone:

Most Career NHL GP by Active NCAA Alumni
1,097 – James van Riemsdyk, New Hampshire
1,086 – Jonathan Toews, North Dakota
1,051 – Nick Leddy, Minnesota
1,025 – Ryan McDonagh, Wisconsin
1,000 – Justin Faulk, Minnesota Duluth
1,000 – Jeff Petry, Michigan State
970 – Charlie Coyle, Boston University
970 – Alex Killorn, Harvard
939 – Brock Nelson, North Dakota
938 – Reilly Smith, Miami

The all-time leader in NHL games played among NCAA alumni is Wisconsin (1981-83) great Chris Chelios, who appeared in 1,651 career contests across his 26-year Hockey Hall of Fame career.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

A trio of netminders – Michigan State’s Trey Augustine (Jr., South Lyon, Mich.), Providence’s Philip Svedebäck (Sr., Stockholm, Sweden) and Minnesota State’s Alex Tracy (Sr., Chicago) – all reached the 50-win plateau for their NCAA careers last weekend … Ferris State’s Josh Zary (Sr., Nanaimo, British Columbia) became just the second active player in the country (Michigan’s T.J. Hughes) with 50 career goals when he got the Bulldogs on the board in Friday’s loss to Bowling Green. Zary finished the game with two goals and four points … Friday’s game between host Denver and visiting Colorado College was witnessed by a Magness Arena record-crowd of 7,073 fans … CC won an NCAA season-high 52 faceoffs (83 attempts) in Saturday’s overtime loss to DU, claiming 62.6 percent of the draws … Vermont blocked 27 shots in Friday’s loss at Maine, tying the NCAA season-high shared by Boston University (Nov. 1), Northern Michigan (Oct. 17) and New Hampshire (Oct. 10).

Longest Active Team Winning Streaks:

9 games, Michigan State (began Oct. 10 vs. New Hampshire)
6 games, Dartmouth (began Nov. 1 at Stonehill)
5 games, Denver (began Nov. 1 vs. Alaska Anchorage)

Longest Active Point Streaks:

11 games, F Stiven Sardarian (Michigan Tech)
- 4-13—17, began Oct. 4 at Minnesota
9 games, F Gavin Morrissey (Wisconsin)
- 3-7—10, began Oct. 17 vs. Minnesota State
7 games, D Cole Hutson (Boston University)
- 3-7—10, began Oct. 24 vs. UConn
6 games, 5 players tied

Longest Active Goal Streaks:

3 games, 8 players tied

Conference Websites

College Hockey Inc. Resources:

Did you know? 93% of NCAA Division I men’s hockey players earn their degree!