Union and RPI played for the Mayor’s Cup on Saturday night and it turned out to be a wild one.
A brawl broke out at the conclusion of the game that led to 141 penalty minutes between the teams and eight suspensions.
Among those suspensions is a two-gamer issued to Union coach Rick Bennett, who went after RPI coach Seth Appert near the benches. Both coaches had to be restrained and Bennett inadvertently punched an RPI player during the skirmish.
Union’s Matt Bodie was suspended for two games, while forward Daniel Ciampini and forward Eli Lichtenwald each were suspended for one game.
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RPI’s Bo Dolan, Ryan Haggerty, Mike Zalewski and Luke Curadi all will have to serve one-game suspensions.
“The actions during the post-game incident of both Rensselaer head coach Seth Appert and Union head coach Rick Bennett were reviewed by the league office,” the ECAC said in a statement. “After conferring with administrators from both Rensselaer and Union, the league supports the two-game suspension of Dutchmen head coach Rick Bennett for his involvement in the post game incident, which was initially rendered Sunday by the college.”
Union, 16-5-3, and RPI, 10-10-4, are both at St. Lawrence and Clarkson this weekend.
Gophers win tourney
Minnesota extended its unbeaten streak to 12 games by winning the first-ever North Star College Cup over the weekend.
The event featured the Gophers, St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State-Mankato. Bemidji State will be rotated in beginning next season.
The Gophers, who haven’t lost since a Nov. 24 decision to the Bulldogs, tied Minnesota Duluth in the championship and earned the trophy by winning a shootout.
But the Bulldogs were hardly losers in the event.
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Duluth, 4-1-2 in the last seven games, has surged to No. 14 in the Pairwise Rankings, in position to earn an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs are 10-9-3 overall.
St. Cloud State still has the top Pairwise Ranking of all National Collegiate Hockey Conference teams at No. 6. UND is at No. 17, needing to move up in order to get into the NCAAs.
Hobey Gaudreau?
The Hobey Baker Memorial Award won’t be handed out for a couple more months, but it appears the race may already be over.
Boston College junior forward Johnny Gaudreau is running away from the field and putting up huge numbers.
Gaudreau has 50 points in 25 games, an average of 2 points per game. No college hockey player in the last 10 years has put up 2 points per game. The closest is Miami’s Andy Miele, who had 1.82 points per game in 2010-11. He won Hobey that year.
Interestingly enough, one other player is ahead of Miele’s pace: St. Lawrence forward Greg Carey.
Carey has 44 points in 24 games, an average of 1.83 per game. Boston College’s Kevin Hayes has 45 points in 25 games, an average of 1.80 per game.
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