I’m SICK tonight so this may be more bare-bones than usual.

After a crazy weekend in the NCAA, we have a new first place! Actually we don’t, it’s House of Seven Gabels still.

Standings, December 4

Still plenty of movement up and down the table, though: Nate Vaughan’s I’m Going To Be Perfectly Frankel goes up four spots to #4, Mokas Gals and Holmes Sweet Holmes both go down five spots.

We’ve still got three games this week (12/4/2018 Providence @ Brown, 12/4/2018 New Hampshire @ Dartmouth, 12/6/2018 Colgate @ Syracuse) so things may change... slightly.

What happened this weekend?

What didn’t happen, more like, amirite.

WotCH-Ahhhht: In the only two non-conference games this weekend, the top two WCHA teams clobbered a pair of out-of-conference opponents.

Did Minnesota go back to the Central Time Zone at all after winning the Windjammer Classic, or did they just study remotely in a magical enclave in New England that’s quite flat, and scattered with tiny lakes, and full of people who are terribly nice, and has another enclave right next door to it that’s almost exactly the same but more full of cheese?

Either way, they didn’t show any signs of travel fatigue when they showed up on Friday and steamrolled Yale 7-1. Saturday was a slightly less glamorous St. Paul to Friday’s Minneapolis, with a 3-1 victory for the Gophers. The Gophers have turned into a team where almost anyone can score but on any given weekend you don’t know who actually will: this week’s highest scorer, Grace Zumwinkle (Minnesota, $41.4, 21.1 SP, 6.1 WP, 8 picks) scored zero points last weekend, and last weekend’s 7.2-point scorer, Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, $44, 20.3 SP, 0.2 WP, 7 picks), scored 0.2 points this weekend. (I was paying particular attention to this one because I noticed Pannek last weekend, noticed that this week’s opponent was Yale, and bought Pannek :-(. My only consolation was that the player I fired, Justine Reyes (SLU, $35.2, 15.3 SP, 0.1 WP, 2 picks), only scored 0.1, so that’s an improvement on the margin I suppose). Yale’s top fantasy scorer was Claire Dalton (Yale, $21.7, 6.4 SP, 2.2 WP, 0 picks), but literally no-one in this league has taken anyone from Yale.

Last weekend, Wisconsin played Harvard twice at home and only just got away with it. This weekend, they played Syracuse twice at home and got away with it, and all its clothes, and all its money, and several of its cousins. Scores were 6-1 and 9-1, with a hat trick on the Sunday for apparently-well-again Emily Clark (Wisconsin, $33.9, 10.2 SP, 2.6 WP, 4 picks). Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, $41.9, 20.8 SP, 5.6 WP, 11 picks) was Wisconsin’s top scorer for the weekend, including this absolutely filthy short-handed goal. Surprisingly, none of the rest of Wisconsin’s skaters were even in the top thirty scorers this weekend. Goalie Kristen Campbell (Wisconsin, $42.4, 18 SP, 1.1 WP, 7 picks) played four of the six periods and made a bare minimum of saves.

Hockey Least: A lot of supposedly good teams in Hockey East had not-very good results!

• Maybe slightly hungover from their massive victory over Boston College, Northeastern lost 5-3 to Holy Cross on Friday on the back of some unlucky rebounds. It was the biggest win in program history for Holy Cross, whose players and coach gave some great interviews afterwards. Normal service, and Aerin Frankel in net, was resumed on Sunday with a 3-0 win. Skylar Fontaine (Northeastern, $27.6, 16.8 SP, 3.8 WP, 0 picks) was Northeastern’s highest scorer for the weekend, and surprisingly Kasidy Anderson (Northeastern, $27, 13.7 SP, 2.1 WP, 0 picks) and Tori Sullivan (Northeastern, $23.2, 9.8 SP, 2.1 WP, 0 picks) were the only two other Northeastern players with more than two points. Julie Matthias (Holy Cross, $8, 5.6 SP, 4.5 WP, 0 picks) was involved in four of the five Holy Cross goals and freshman Jada Brenon (Holy Cross, $21.9, 12.15 SP, 3.05 WP, 0 picks) was in net for the win.
• Maybe slightly stung by their massive loss to Northeastern, Boston College played another pair of out-of-rhythm games to lose twice to BU, 4-3 and 4-2. Jesse Compher (BU, $41.5, 25.5 SP, 5.1 WP, 4 picks) has overtaken Michaela Pejzlová (Clarkson, $61.6, 28.8 SP, 2 WP, 7 picks) for fourth place in points per game. Freshman Kate Stuart (BU, $12.4, 3.1 SP, 2.15 WP, 0 picks) was in net for the first win and was phenomenal. Megan Keller (BC, $50.5, 26.8 SP, 4.1 WP, 9 picks) was as massive for BC as usual but the rest of BC’s big guns were quieter than expected, as they basically have been all season. Grant Salzano at BC Interruption was able to see the silver lining (spoiler: there was no silver lining).
• Not-very-good New Hampshire beat pretty-good Merrimack twice, 3-2 and 4-3 (OT), in a series which would have been much bigger news if the weekend had been in any way normal. New Hampshire scores by committee, but in their case unfortunately it’s the Committee to Reduce Scoring, so in general they haven’t had any standout players this season. Taylor Wenczkowski (UNH, $18.9, 8.4 SP, 3.7 WP, 0 picks) had a great weekend for the Wildcats.
• Providence beat UConn 4-1 and then lost to them 2-1, in a result which would be been much bigger news if the weekend had been in any way normal. Maureen Murphy (Providence, $47, 28.8 SP, 3.1 WP, 9 picks) did more than enough to stay in fifth place in points per game./

ECAChaos: A lot of supposedly good teams in the ECAC had not very good results!

• Clarksundheit: Clarkson lost 4-1 to Colgate. Then they lost 3-1 to Cornell!
• Lawrence Of Ashamed-ia: St. Lawrence lost 4-0 to Cornell. Then they lost 5-1 to Colgate! Malia Schneider (Colgate, $25.8, 12.9 SP, 5.1 WP, 0 picks) and Shae Labbe (Colgate, $36.3, 17 SP, 3.9 WP, 1 pick) had great weekends for Colgate and it looks like Julia Vandyk (Colgate, $41, 17.2 SP, 3.7 WP, 5 picks) was finally back in the form that brought Colgate to the National Championship game. The best scorer for Cornell was Jaime Bourbonnais (Cornell, $33.3, 16 SP, 3.6 WP, 1 pick)./

Actually, that’s all the surprises. Otherwise:

• Harvard’s freshman phenom goalie Lindsay Reed (Harvard, $25.6, 15.45 SP, 4.5 WP, 1 pick) steered them to a 2-0 win over RPI and a 4-0 win over Union.
• Princeton beat Quinnipiac 3-2 at home, then 4-1 on the road. Sarah Fillier (Princeton, $27.8, 12.2 SP, 5.1 WP, 2 picks) is back on track and if you look only at games she’s played, as opposed to team games played, she’s on 1.525 points per game, good for ninth place overall.
• Union and RPI visited Dartmouth, Union lost and RPI won./

WORST Collegiate Hockey Association: Some supposedly good teams in the WCHA had not very good results!

• Abigail Levy (Minnesota State, $35.9, 28. SP, 4.5 WP, 4 picks) got a shutout as unranked Minnesota State beat Ohio State 3-0 on Saturday despite being outshot 41-22 (or, if you’re Advanced, despite Ohio State having a Corsi For of 63%). On Sunday, Ohio State outshot their hosts 22-7 in the opening period and led 2-0, only to be (just barely) outshot by the Mavericks over the next two periods and hold on for the 2-0 win. Minnesota State had three consecutive shutouts for the first time since 1999, and five consecutive undefeated games for the first time since 2008.
• St. Cloud, who have looked all year like they have have better offense and better goaltending than Bemidji, didn’t. Bemidji won 3-0 on Friday, and 2-0 on Saturday. Haley Mack (Bemidji, $21.9, 5.9 SP, 4.2 WP, 3 picks), who missed five games earlier in the season, got a hat trick on Friday and may be turning into Bemidji’s secret weapon./

CHA: No pun for you till you produce stranger results, CHA! RIT swept Lindenwood 5-2 and 3-2, with an enormous weekend for Ellie Larson (RIT, $18, 16.8 SP, 4.7 WP, 0 picks). Robert Morris swept Penn State 3-2 and 4-1, which you would have expected before the season, and then maybe not expected at the start of the season, and then maybe expected again more recently. As was inevitable given that I warned people off hiring her last week, Jaycee Gebhard (Robert Morris, $45.8, 31.5 SP, 5 WP, 2 picks) had the sixth-best weekend in the country and is the sixth-best skater in points per game.

(EDITED 12.44 pm 2018-12-04 to add: Title IX Hockey has a good summary of the big games, and thoughts on whether Clarkson and BC are bad or are just playing badly)

Weekly awards

Individual

... with the warning that Maureen Murphy and Colgate still have one game each, so this could change:

Most points: Grace Zumwinkle (Minnesota, 6.1 points this week (WP), 21.1 points this season (SP)), from Annie Pankowski (5.6 WP) and Jesse Compher (5.1 WP)

Most overlooked (highest scoring player that no-one picked): Malia Schneider (Colgate, 5.1 WP, 12.9 SP)

Biggest boost (highest scoring player that only one manager picked): Maggie Lague (Robert Morris, 4.7 WP, 23.1 SP)

Biggest contribution (highest value of points this week * number of teams they’re on): Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, 5.6 points * 11 picks = 61.6 total contribution)

Best Freshman: Sarah Fillier (Princeton, 5.1 WP, 12.2 SP)

Best Sophomore: Grace Zumwinkle (Minnesota, 6.1 WP, 21.1 SP)

Best Junior: Jaycee Gebhard (Robert Morris, 5 WP, 31.5 SP)

Best Senior: Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, 5.6 WP, 20.8 SP)

Best D: Emily Brown (Minnesota, 4.9 WP, 19.1 SP)

Best F: Grace Zumwinkle (Minnesota, 6.1 WP, 21.1 SP)

Best Goalie: Lindsay Reed (Harvard, 4.5 WP, 15.45 SP)

Team of the week:

• Roster: Grace Zumwinkle (Minnesota, F, 6.1), Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, F, 5.6), Jesse Compher (BU, F, 5.1), Malia Schneider (Colgate, F, 5.1), Sarah Fillier (Princeton, F, 5.1), Jaycee Gebhard (Robert Morris, F, 5), Emily Brown (Minnesota, D, 4.9), Ellie Larson (RIT, D, 4.7), Maggie Lague (Robert Morris, D, 4.7), Lindsay Reed (Harvard, G, 4.5), Julie Matthias (Holy Cross, F, 4.5), Abigail Levy (Minnesota State, G, 4.5), Claire Thompson (Princeton, D, 4.4), Haley Mack (Bemidji, F, 4.2), Julia Vandyk (Colgate, G, 3.7)
• Score: 72.1
• Cost: 475.10/

Housekeeping

Players who’ve been picked and who have missed games recently:

• Sarah Potomak (Minnesota, $29.5, 8.4 SP, 0 WP, 6 picks) didn’t dress for either of the Yale games, but I don’t know if this is a long-term thing.
• Codie Cross (Northeastern, $15.6, 3.1 SP, 0 WP, 3 picks) hasn’t dressed for seven of Northeastern’s last eight games.
• Kirsten Welsh (Robert Morris, $28.5, 13.2 SP, 0 WP, 4 picks) hasn’t dressed for the last three games.
• Ava Boutilier (UNH, $31.1, 9.45 SP, 0 WP, 1 pick) hasn’t dressed for the last seven New Hampshire games, but she’s still retweeting the team’s tweets. /

Next weekend is the last big weekend before Christmas. Brown, UConn, Cornell, Dartmouth, Lindenwood, Northeastern, OSU, and Penn State are done till after the holidays, and Colgate, Holy Cross, Maine, UNH, Providence, and Syracuse only have one more. The following weekend has just one series, between OSU and Mercyhurst.

Over the Christmas vacation, i.e. between the OSU/Mercyhurst game on 12/16 and Lindenwood/St. Cloud on 12/29, I’m going to allow you to do FOUR trades which will be executed simultaneously. Get planning on those!

For this week’s single trade, email tigFantasyHockey by 11:59 pm on Thursday December 6th, please.