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#1 St. Cloud State Huskies 2 vs #14 Union Dutchmen 7

D Nick Perbix, STC: 0-0-0, -1, 0 PIM, 1 SOG
Season Totals: 17 GP, 1-8-9, +11, 6 PIM

The Dutchmen got a pair of goals each from Brandon Estes (undrafted) and Ryan Walker (undrafted) along with a 36-save performance from Darion Hanson (undrafted) as Union College routed the top-ranked Huskies in the opening match of the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh on Friday night. This marks the second consecutive game St. Cloud has given up 6+ goals since returning from the holiday break, losing last weekend in an exhibition game against the USA NDTP U18 club. St. Cloud was playing without forward Ryan Poehling (MTL, 2017 1st round pick), who currently leads the 2019 WJC tournament with 5 goals and 8 points. Kevin Fitzgerald (undrafted) scored both goals for the Huskies, the first a power play marker in the 2nd to cut the Dutchmen lead to 3-1, but Union would strike twice in the first 90 seconds of 3rd to blow open a 4-2 lead and squelch any hope of a final period rally by St. Cloud.

The Huskies drop to 13-2-2 (6-0-2 NCHC) and take on Robert Morris in the consolation game on Saturday night ahead of the trophy game between Union and Brown.

#8 Denver Pioneers 6 @ Wisconsin Badgers 3

F Cole Guttman, DEN: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 3 SOG, 6/10 FO
Season Totals: 17 GP, 8-6-14, +11, 8 PIM

The Pioneers broke open a 2-2 deadlock at the 2nd intermission on Friday night with 3 goals in the first five-and-a-half minutes of the 3rd period, led by Tyler Ward (undrafted) and Liam Finlay (undrafted). Bolt prospect Cole Guttman won 60% of his draws but failed to register a point.
Denver improve to 11-4-2 (4-4 NCHC) and look to complete the sweep against the Badgers Saturday night..

#20 Cornell Big Red 3 @ Princeton Tigers 2

D Alex Green, COR: did not play
Season Totals: 3 GP, 0-1-1, -4, 0 PIM
’17-’18 Totals: 29 GP, 2-8-10, +9, 23 PIM

Alec McCrea (undrafted) scored 78 seconds after the Princeton equalizer for what would be the eventual game winner as Cornell upset the #10 Tigers in ECAC conference play on Friday night at the Hobey Baker Rink. Bolt prospect Alex Green missed his ninth game of the season. The Big Red scored twice in the 1st to establish the early lead, but Princeton battled back with two points each from Matthew Thom (undrafted) and Mark Paolini (undrafted).

Cornell improves to 7-5 (5-2 ECAC) and continues their road trip Saturday night against a resurgent #5 Quinnipiac squad.

#9 Penn State Nittany Lions 4 @ Minnesota Gophers 2

D Ryan Zuhlsdorf , MINN: 0-0-0, -3, 0 PIM, 1 SOG
Season Totals: 15 GP, 0-1-1, -4, 2 PIM
’17-‘18 Totals: 38 GP, 0-9-9, +1, 40 PIM

F Sammy Walker, MINN: 0-0-0, -3, 2 PIM, 2 SOG, 3/10 FO
Season Totals: 18 GP, 4-7-11, +7, 10 PIM

Rough night for Lightning prospects Sammy Walker and Ryan Zuhlsdorf, both going -3 Friday night in the Gophers Big Ten conference loss to ninth-ranked Penn State. The Nittany Lions netminder Peyton Jones (undrafted) made 30 saves in the win. After a 1st period power play goal, Minnesota surrendered three-straight as Penn State put the game out of reach. The Gophers drop to 6-8-4 (3-3-3 B1G) and look to split the weekend series Saturday night in a rematch at 3M Arena.

UMass-Lowell River Hawks 2 @ #2 UMass-Amherst Minutemen 1

F Ryan Lohin, UML: 0-0-0, -1, 0 PIM, 0 SOG, 2/5 FO
Season Totals: 14 GP, 6-7-13, +2, 4 PIM
’17-‘18 Totals: 36 GP, 9-16-25, -2, 26 PIM

UML rides into Mullins Center Friday and promptly upsets the #2-ranked Minutemen in Hockey East conference play. Chris Hemberg made 33 saves in this huge win for the River Hawks.

UML improves to 9-8-1 (5-4-1 HEAST) and looks ahead to next weekend with a pair of road games against Colgate.

Merrimack Warriors 1 @ New Hampshire Wildcats 2 OT

G Ty Taylor, UNH: did not play
Season Totals: 5 GP, 1-2-1, 3.06 GAA, 0.886 SV%

The Wildcats picked up their fourth straight win Friday night when Senators prospect Angus Crookshank (OTT, 2018 5th round pick) scored 53 seconds into the extra session to give UNH the victory. Mike Robinson (SJS, 2015 3rd round pick) made 24 saves. New Hampshire improves to 6-7-5 (2-4-3 HEAST) and looks ahead to hosting #18 Yale on Saturday night.

*USCHO poll used for rankings

Crunch quickly get back on winning track.

BRI-1
SYR-3

Eddie Pasquale allowed 1 goal on 20 shots in the victory.

First Period
12:26 SYR Barre-Boulet (16), (Conacher, Verhaeghe)(PP)

Second Period
4:40 SYR Volkov (8), (unassisted)

Third Period
6:55 SYR Verhaeghe (14), (Barre-Boulet)
9:18 BRI Koivula (11), (Wotherspoon)

Alex Barre-Boulet, Carter Verhaeghe, and Alexander Volkov were the game's three stars. Coincidentally, three players very much in line for cups of coffee in the NHL in the second half as the Lightning may want to diagnose just how much NHL-ready depth they might have available down in Syracuse.

Box score from TheAHL.com.

Lightning throttle the corpse of the LA Kings to cap first half of 2018/2019.

TB-6
LA-2

Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed 2 goals on 30 shots for the victory. There were times in the first 40 minutes he could've had a coffee break and it wouldn't have mattered because the workload was so light.

First Period
6:28 TB Kucherov (20), (Stamkos, Johnson)(PP)
7:53 TB Point (24), (Stamkos, Kucherov)(PP)
14:05 TB Callahan (4), (unassisted)

Second Period
0:25 TB McDonagh (4), (Point, Kucherov)
7:55 LA Wagner (4), (unassisted)
17:05 TB Stamkos (23), (Kucherov, Hedman)(PP)

Third Period
10:04 TB Joseph (10), (Callahan)
17:36 LA Doughty (4), (Kopitar, Brown)

Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Brayden Point were the game's three stars.

The LA Kings are the slowest hockey team in the NHL and they had zero chance against the Tampa Bay Lightning, especially after spotting them a pair of early power play goals. That team is a corpse of what it was a few years ago when they were competing for Cups. I thought Chicago was the saddest shell of their former selves. Nope. LA. Gracious, they couldn't even catch up to the Lightning to try to clutch, grab, and cheat even if they wanted to in order to try to keep it competitive.

The Lightning pull into the midway point of the campaign 12 points clear of the entire league, with a league leading +55 goal differential and a league leading 174 goals. Their win against the Kings extended a 16-game point streak that has started to feel like the unprecedented winning streak the Norfolk Admirals had the year they won the Calder Cup under Jon Cooper with a score of youngsters that now dot today's roster. It's historic. It's outstanding. It's thrilling...

It's also meaningless unless they win the Stanley Cup. There's a lot of plaudits to be thrown around about the way this team is playing and it has been a magical regular season thus far, but let's be real: Great teams require the validation of championships. Period. So, I think it's important not to overplay this regular season, which at most will give the Lightning potential home ice advantage in a prospective Game Seven playoff match-up. That's it. That's all they can win until we get to the back half of April and the real hockey season begins. So it's important for both the fans and the organization, top to bottom, not to get out over their skis about regular season play. It's nice. But it's just a warmup.

Mathieu Joseph had a goal and was +1 with 2 shots and 2 blocked shots in 10:33. He wasn't really noticeable until garbage time set in for the Third Period, but how many players do you know that have the blow-by speed not only to beat Drew Doughty around the corner, but beat him so completely he had to try the Pavel Kubina praying mantis move in desperation?

Anthony Cirelli had 2 penalty minutes, 1 shot, and 2 blocked shots in 16:50. He has now graduated from prospect status on the website with his 41st appearance this season.

Adam Erne was +1 with 3 shots and 4 hits in 11:52. Nearly had a couple of goals poaching in passing lanes and was generally effective all game long.

Erik Cernak had 3 hits in 17:46.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Greenville Swamp Rabbits 2 @ Orlando Solar Bears 1

C Mitch Hults, ORL: 0-0-0, -2, 0 PIM, 1 SOG
Season Totals (ORL): 16 GP, 4-5-9, -5, 6 PIM
Season Totals (SYR): 9 GP, 1-3-4, -2, 4 PIM
Season Totals (SD): 2 GP, 0-1-1, E, 0 PIM
17-18 Totals (Utah): 5 GP, 2-5-7, -2, 10 PIM
17-18 Totals (SD): 53 GP, 10-14-24, -10, 8 PIM

D Oleg Sosunov, ORL: 0-0-0, E, 0 PIM, 0 SOG
Season Totals (ORL): 10 GP, 0-4-4, -6, 8 PIM
Season Totals (SYR): 5 GP, 1-0-1, +1, 2 PIM
17-18 Totals (Moose Jaw, WHL): 71 GP, 7-19-26, +35, 62 PIM

D Matthew Spencer, ORL: 0-1-1, -1, 0 PIM, 3 SOG
Season Totals (ORL): 13 GP, 2-5-7, +7, 14 PIM
Season Totals (SYR): 6 GP, 0-1-1, E, 0 PIM
17-18 Totals (ECHL): 14 GP, 2-1-3, -2, 13 PIM
17-18 Totals (AHL): 39 GP, 1-4-5, +2, 13 PIM

W Jonne Tammela, ORL: Did not play
Season Totals (ORL): 11 GP, 6-6-12, +2, 12 PIM
Season Totals (SYR): 8 GP, 1-2-3, +1, 0 PIM
17-18 Totals (SYR): 23 GP, 3-3-6, +5, 16 PIM

Greenville got an assist from former Bolt prospect Dan Milan and the Swamp Rabbits hopped down to Orlando and beat the Solar Bears, 2-1. Orlando outshot Greenville, 30-27, but had trouble beating veteran goaltender Garrett Bartus, formerly of the University of Connecticut.

Jonne Tammela was a scratch for Orlando, who received Olivier Archambault from AHL Syracuse on Thursday. Archambault is on an AHL contract with the Crunch. Orlando made a paper transaction to acquire his ECHL playing rights.

With the win, Greenville moved within four points of Orlando for fourth place in the South Division. The Solar Bears will next face third-place South Carolina twice on the weekend at home before heading to Norfolk for three games.