Happy post-Thanksgiving everyone! Standings are below and here:

Standings, November 26th

This weekend was a quiet one for games, and that randomized things a little: House of Seven Gabels’ run of being in the top two scorers of the week came to an end as it placed 16th in the weekly standings. Instead, the top scorer this week was Brian Convery’s Peaky Grinders, enough to move them up from 24th to 20th place. The points are beginning to spread out a little and the days of dramatic six-place moves are probably behind us, but there’s still scope for underperforming players to come out of their funk and boost a manager who’s believed in them (see Pannek, K.; more on that below).

I’m thinking about ways to keep this interesting as the season goes on and the pack inevitably thins out. Currently we’re just playing for bragging rights at the end of the season. Would people be interested in one of the following ideas (or something else)?

• End-of-season bragging rights for best second half of the season, as well as best season as a whole
• A separate 3/2/1 points for being in the top three of points scored in each week, with separate recognition at the end of the season for winning that
• The ability to nominate a captain every week who scores 150% of their normal points, but you can’t nominate anyone twice until you’ve nominated everyone else
• Or something else?/

Leave your thoughts in the comments or by mail to tigFantasyHockey@gmail.com.

What happened this weekend?

Panneksplosion: For all of us who’d been wondering what happened to Olympian Kelly Pannek’s offense this season, it turned out she’d been saving it up to terrorize St. Lawrence.

For most of the first period of the Minnesota-St. Lawrence game on Friday, Minnesota didn’t look particularly dangerous. Then the Gophers took two penalties simultaneously, giving St. Lawrence two minutes of 5-on-3 play... and one minute 11 seconds into that, Taylor Wente (Minnesota, $24.9, 9.2 SP, 2.3 WP, 1 pick) beat a St. Lawrence defender to the puck and put the shot on the resulting breakaway firmly in the net.

After that it was one-way traffic. The final score was 8-2 Minnesota, featuring a Pannek hat trick and an assist. Minnesota finished the weekend less explosively but still emphatically with a 6-2 win over hosts Vermont, featuring two points for Pannek and three for Taylor Heise (Minnesota, $27.9, 12.1 SP, 3.1 WP, 8 picks). With that one weekend, Pannek (Minnesota, $48.5, 20.1 SP, 7.2 WP, 6 picks) has blasted into the top twenty in both total points and points per game, where we always expected her to be, and another weekend that good would put her in the top ten.

Elsewhere in the Windjammer classic, Syracuse were shut out for the whole weekend, 2-0 by Vermont and 4-0 by St. Lawrence, proving that Hockey East is the best conference (detailed proof to follow).

Pandemonium: On Friday, Harvard’s remarkable freshman goalie, Lindsay Reed (Harvard, $23, 10.95 SP, 3.75 WP, 1 pick), who is sixth out of all players in points per game and has started all but one of Harvard’s games, amazingly took Harvard to overtime against the Wisconsin juggernaut. Then Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, $40.5, 15.2 SP, 4.2 WP, 11 picks) scored in overtime to take the game 3-2 and break Harvard’s hearts.

On Saturday, Harvard’s remarkable freshman goalie Lindsay Reed amazingly took Harvard to overtime against the Wisconsin juggernaut. Then Annie Pankowski scored in overtime to take the game 2-1 and break Harvard’s hearts. Pankowski’s OT skills suggest that if she hadn’t been a late cut from the Olympic roster we maybe wouldn’t have needed to bother with all that shootout nonsense.

Ma-Rooned: Clarkson’s first line of Loren Gabel (Clarkson, $77.7, 27.3 SP, 5.2 WP, 16 picks), Elizabeth Giguère (Clarkson, $78.7, 31.2 SP, 6.1 WP, 15 picks) and Michaela Pejzlová (Clarkson, $64.9, 26.8 SP, 5.3 WP, 6 picks) took care of Minnesota-Duluth basically by themselves, 4-1 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday: six of the Clarkson goals came from that line, and the other two were scored by T.T. Cianfarano (Clarkson, $43.5, 18.7 SP, 2.8 WP, 14 picks), the first one short-handed on the PK unit with Giguère, and the second up a player on the power play unit with Giguère. Gabel, Giguère and Pejzlová are now the top three players in fantasy points per game this season.

Take me to the Levy: Freshman Abigail Levy (Minnesota State, $33.2, 23.5 SP, 3.25 WP, 4 picks)’s Minnesota State got two shutout wins against Lindenwood, 1-0 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday. Levy is now on four shutouts, tied for first in the nation with Kristen Campbell (Wisconsin, $46.2, 16.9 SP, 1.65 WP, 7 picks), Maddy McArthur (BC, $32.8, 17.05 SP, 0 WP, 7 picks), and Aerin Frankel (Northeastern, $31, 13.55 SP, 0 WP, 9 picks), who has played half as many games as the other three. Levy is seeing 29.27 shots per game, while McArthur is seeing 21.45 and Campbell is seeing only 16.78. Since Levy’s on a team that historically has not been known for elite defense, she has to be in the discussion for best goalie of the year, of any class.

The rain in Maine, and elsewhere: Maine beat Dartmouth 4-1, twice, with a good weekend for Swedish Four Nations-er Celine Tedenby (Maine, $17.9, 8.4 SP, 4.6 WP, 0 picks). Cornell beat Robert Morris 5-2 and then tied them 3-3; Cornell started different goalies on the two days but the difference was probably in the Robert Morris net, where Arielle DeSmet (Robert Morris, $13.6, 5.85 SP, 1.2 WP, 0 picks) got her fourth start of the season in the loss and Lauren Bailey (Robert Morris, $16.8, 15.05 SP, 0.9 WP, 0 picks) got her fourteenth start in the tie. Jaime Bourbonnais (Cornell, $33.1, 12.4 SP, 5.6 WP, 1 pick) had a dominant weekend for the Big Red.

Nut much in it: All the games in the Nutmeg Classic were decided by a single goal: on Frday, Quinnipiac beat UConn 3-2 and Providence beat Yale 2-1, and then on Saturday UConn beat Yale 1-0 and Providence beat Quinnipiac 2-1. The highest scoring skater from any of the four teams was, perhaps surprisingly, Kenzie Prater (Quinnipiac, $8.9, 5.4 SP, 2.8 WP, 0 picks).

Popular goalie Morgan Fisher (UConn, $23.7, 16.05 SP, 0.55 WP, 8 picks) only started the Friday game, in which UConn outshot Quinnipiac 41-20 and Quinnipiac goalie Abbie Ives (Quinnipiac, $32.7, 13.8 SP, 2.95 WP, 4 picks) made 39 saves, which is a season high for her by quite some margin.

Full of holes: BC beat Holy Cross 5-0, still not quite the touchdown we would expect from BC but Maddy McArthur’s fourth shutout. (CORRECTION: The shutout was Molly Barrow’s, in her first collegiate start. Barrow joins Merrimack’s Léa-Kristine Demers as the only goalies to have had a shutout in every game they’ve played this season, which in both their cases is one game).

Also RPI played New Hampshire: On Saturday, RPI started Swedish National Team goalie Lovisa Selander (RPI, $42.9, 18.25 SP, 2.05 WP, 1 pick), were outshot 44-22, and came away with a 1-1 tie. On Saturday, RPI started Kira Bombay (RPI, $10.8, 6.25 SP, 1.75 WP, 0 picks), who’s had some good results this season, were outshot 47-21, and lost 4-1. So basically every one of those extra three shots in the second game went in, which seems very unlucky.

Weekly awards

• Most points: Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, 7.2 points this week (WP), 20.1 points this season (SP)), from Elizabeth Giguère (6.1 WP) and Jaime Bourbonnais (5.6 WP)
• Most overlooked (highest scoring player that no-one picked): Sophie Skarzynski (Minnesota, 5.3 WP, 12 SP)
• Biggest boost (highest scoring player that only one manager picked): Jaime Bourbonnais (Cornell, 5.6 WP, 12.4 SP)
• Biggest contribution (highest value of points this week * number of teams they’re on): Elizabeth Giguère (Clarkson, 6.1 points * 15 picks = 91.5 total contribution)
• Best Freshman: Celine Tedenby (Maine, 4.6 WP, 8.4 SP)
• Best Sophomore: Elizabeth Giguère (Clarkson, 6.1 WP, 31.2 SP)
• Best Junior: Jaime Bourbonnais (Cornell, 5.6 WP, 12.4 SP)
• Best Senior: Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, 7.2 WP, 20.1 SP)
• Best D: Jaime Bourbonnais (Cornell, 5.6 WP, 12.4 SP)
• Best F: Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, 7.2 WP, 20.1 SP)
• Best Goalie: Lindsay Reed (Harvard, 3.75 WP, 10.95 SP) /

Team of the week

• Roster: Kelly Pannek (Minnesota, F, 7.2), Elizabeth Giguère (Clarkson, F, 6.1), Jaime Bourbonnais (Cornell, D, 5.6), Michaela Pejzlová (Clarkson, F, 5.3), Sophie Skarzynski (Minnesota, D, 5.3), Loren Gabel (Clarkson, F, 5.2), Willow Slobodzian (Cornell, D, 5.2), Celine Tedenby (Maine, F, 4.6), Emily Curlett (Robert Morris, D, 4.6), Annie Pankowski (Wisconsin, F, 4.2), Patti Marshall (Minnesota, D, 3.8), Jaycee Gebhard (Robert Morris, F, 3.8), Lindsay Reed (Harvard, G, 3.75), Melissa Black (Vermont, G, 3.3), Abigail Levy (Minnesota State, G, 3.25),
• Score: 71.2
• Cost: 591.50   /

Coming up

There are still two games to play this week. On Tuesday, there's BU v Brown, which could be a chance for Jesse Compher (BU, $37.5, 19.4 SP, 0 WP, 2 picks) to move up even further from her current fifth place nationally in fantasy points per game. Or it could be a chance for Brown to warm everyone's hearts, even BU fans, because let's face it, they may be BU fans but they aren't monsters. Elsewhere on Tuesday night, NBD just a top five matchup as BC and Northeastern face each other for the first time this season at historic Matthews Arena.

Next week, Mercyhurst and Minnesota-Duluth are off. Colgate, Dartmouth, UNH, Providence, and Syracuse have three games each in case you want to use that to fine tune your trades (an approach known as "the Heising fallacy"). Trades to tigFantasyHockey@gmail.com by 11:59 pm Eastern on Thursday November 29th!