Campus Ice: Michigan crashes Denver's banner night with a score to settle

Denver raises its 11th banner on Friday night, and the team on the other blue line is the one it beat to get there. Michigan at Magness Arena, two games, No. 2 at No. 1, six months after a 4-3 double-overtime Frozen Four semifinal that Wolverines fans are still replaying.

I'll say it now: Denver wins banner night and Michigan takes Saturday, because that's what the two best teams in the country do to each other in October.

Weekend slate

1. Michigan at Denver (Friday 9 PM ET, Saturday 8 PM ET). The Pioneers are 2-0-0 with 33 of the 50 first-place votes in the poll. Michigan is 4-0-0 after sweeping Bowling Green and then Alaska Anchorage by a combined 17-3, with four Jayden Perron goals in Anchorage. A banner, a rematch and the first real test for either side.

2. Notre Dame and Western Michigan, home and home (Friday in Kalamazoo, Saturday in South Bend). Both are 2-0-0. The Broncos climbed to No. 6 because Quentin Miller stopped 53 of 54 shots against Ferris State. Notre Dame is unranked, and a split here says the Irish belong in the top 20.

3. Minnesota at Minnesota Duluth (Friday 8:07 PM ET, Saturday 7:07 PM ET). The Gophers are 0-2-0 and clinging to No. 20. The Bulldogs dropped four spots to No. 9 after an overtime loss and a tie at Augustana. Somebody's October gets a lot more uncomfortable by Sunday.

4. Quinnipiac at Penn State (Friday, 7 PM ET). The Bobcats split at Maine and slipped to No. 8. Mason Marcellus brings a four-game goal streak to Hockey Valley against a Penn State team that is 0-2-0 and still looking for its first good night.

Rivalry file: Denver and Michigan

The semifinal in April was the whole sport in one game. Denver won 4-3 in the second overtime, then won the title for its 11th banner. Michigan went home one goal short of a final it had every right to expect.

Denver put the Wolverines on banner night on purpose. The ceremony is at 9 PM ET and the school is telling fans to arrive early, which is how you know they want Michigan watching from the far end while it goes up.

What last weekend did to the poll

Wisconsin jumped to No. 5 by sweeping Minnesota State, with a Friday shutout and a four-point weekend from Vasily Zelenov. Western Michigan is No. 6 and Providence is No. 7. Quinnipiac and Minnesota Duluth paid for it.

Lower down, Bowling Green is the story. The Falcons got swept 7-2 and 4-3 at Michigan on opening weekend, then went to the Ice Breaker Tournament and won it, the first tournament title in program history. Brody Waters scored the power-play winner against Sacred Heart and Jacob Steinman stopped 41 shots against UConn. They're No. 18, and they earned every spot.

The Hockey East weekend

The league's Friday was ugly. Four Hockey East teams lost non-conference games the same night, and the one that stung was Boston College. Alaska Fairbanks traveled more than 4,000 miles to Conte Forum and left with a 3-2 win. Davis Borozinskis scored twice in the third, the winner on a breakaway after a BC turnover.

Teddy Stiga and Dean Letourneau scored on the power play and Letourneau led all skaters with seven shots. It didn't matter. BC is 0-1-0 and down to No. 16. Greg Brown said it plainly: "we gave up those two costly mistakes."

Providence was the other end of the weekend. The Friars beat St. Lawrence and Clarkson at home, Julius Sumpf handed out six assists and Jack Parsons stopped all 25 shots on Saturday. Maine split with Quinnipiac in Orono, UMass tied RIT and then beat them 5-1, and Vermont got blanked 3-0 by Bentley.

This weekend BC gets St. Cloud State tonight and Saturday at Conte Forum, and the Eagles need the first one badly. BU, 2-0-0 and No. 11, goes to Vermont for two. Northeastern is at UMass both nights. Providence visits Union on Friday, and the Dutchmen are 2-0-0 and seventh in the NPI, so that's no gimme.

Colorado College is at UConn, Arizona State is at Lowell, Minnesota State is at Merrimack and UNH is at Colgate.

NPI watch

Colorado College sits first in the NPI at 61.52 after two games. Northeastern is second after one. Denver, the No. 1 team in the country, is 15th. None of that is wrong. The NPI is a win-percentage formula weighted by opponent strength, and in week three the opponents have mostly played twice.

By Thanksgiving it sorts itself out. Until then, read the poll for who's good and the NPI for who's played whom. A Denver sweep moves the Pioneers more than any other result this weekend, because it's the first time a ranked team gets to beat a ranked team.

College kids in the NHL, by our count

The pipeline from these rinks to the big one runs fast now. Macklin Celebrini, two seasons removed from Agganis Arena, has eight points in four games for San Jose on a four-game point streak, at 21.6 minutes a night, per NHL data.

Lane Hutson is playing 26.5 minutes a game in Montreal with eight points in seven, and Jackson Blake, out of North Dakota, has eight in eight for Carolina.

Small samples, all of them, through two weeks. Still, three names near the top of our early point list came out of Friday-night barns, and the kids at Magness know it.

Kessler's call

Denver wins Friday with the building behind it, Michigan wins Saturday, and Monday's poll looks like today's. The team I'd watch for a move is Notre Dame. Take one of two from Western Michigan and the Irish are ranked by Monday.