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Back to Class: And a goalie shall lead New Hampshire

Casey DeSmith - UNH

We’re taking you “Back To Class” for our roundup of the weekend’s action in college hockey. Look for more college hockey on NBCSN Friday, November 30 with a monster doubleheader featuring BU vs. BC and Denver vs. Wisconsin.

Before the season began, New Hampshire wasn’t really on the national radar. When the USA Hockey/USA Today preseason poll came out, the Wildcats didn’t crack the Top 15. They got votes, but only enough to put them 21st in the country and three other Hockey East schools were ranked above them. With just 58 college hockey programs, that’s not too impressive.

A funny thing happened with Dick Umile’s program: They started shutting down everyone thanks to sophomore goalie Casey DeSmith.

DeSmith is the only guy New Hampshire has played in goal this year and he’s all they’ve needed. He’s 8-1-1 with a microscopic 1.19 goals against average and an astounding .961 save percentage.

Over the weekend he had his third straight shutout of the season, a 3-0 win over UMass-Lowell, something that hasn’t happened since 1928-29. He also set a new school record keeping teams off the board for 203:32 straight minutes, a mark that stood for over 40 years.

They’ve already beaten Boston University and St. Cloud State twice and BU head coach Jack Parker says UNH is “the other best team in Hockey East.” For a team that had low expectations, they’re proving the experts and coaches very wrong so far this year and have climbed to sixth (and possibly higher) in the nation.

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No peace in the mountains: No. 2 Denver and No. 14 Colorado College had a typical raucous weekend of games, but it would be the Pioneers who came away with the first weekend sweep of their bitter in-state rivals since 2005. Friday’s wild 6-5 game followed by a 6-2 Saturday win helped show that Denver is for real out west.

Kudos to the little guy: Give it up to little Alabama-Huntsville for finally getting off the schneid earning their first win of the year, a 2-1 road victory over Lake Superior State. The Chargers were the last school to get a win this season. Perhaps knocking off a future WCHA team will help convince them to open their doors to the unaffiliated school rather than leave them for dead on their own.

Naughty, naughty: Alaska will be losing two scholarships thanks to a mild spanking by the NCAA. The mild violations were self-reported by the school and the hockey team wasn’t the only one to get dinged because of the faux pas. Here’s to hoping you’ve now got the Danger Danger song “Naughty Naughty” stuck in your head.

Darcy leaves Northeastern: Freshman forward Cam Darcy left the Hockey East school and is off to the USHL. That kind of move allows him to keep his NCAA eligibility. He had two assists in nine games with the Huskies.

Yerdon jinx: After talking up Dartmouth last week, the Big Green got bounced by Colgate 5-4 on Friday and needed a Mike Keenan (yes, that’s his name - no, it’s not Iron Mike’s son) goal late to tie Cornell 1-1 on Saturday. My bad, guys. Beware, New Hampshire!

(Photo: UNHWildcats.com)