Surprise Newcomer Headlines First College Hockey Stock Report of Season: Puck Drop

USA Hockey Women's Week 4 Poll
Puck Drop: Wednesday, October 7, 2026
College Hockey Scores
Today's College Hockey Schedule
This Date in Hockey History
Hockey Quote of the Day
We'll Leave You With This ...

Week 1 of the men's season saw a lot of teams and players going in different directions from what was expected. Here's this week's stock report on who's looking up, and down.

Stock Up: Maryville Saints

Ever heard of Maryville? If you’re a college hockey fan, there’s a good chance you haven’t. Located around 20 miles west of the heart of St. Louis, the Saints are transitioning from their ACHA club program status into a full Division 1 program. This season, they’ll play a partial Division I schedule before making the full switch in 2027-28.

In the first weekend of the campaign, Maryville proved it belonged in the top division. In a two-game series at St. Lawrence, the Saints completed a clean sweep, 3-2 and 3-1. Two skunkings of ACHA team Midland the weekend prior puts them at a perfect 4-0 early on.

Trailing 2-0 in the opening game of the St. Lawrence series, freshman forward Antoine Dorion fired in back-to-back goals, one shorthanded, and the next on the power play. He assisted the game-winner in the final frame. Dorion then potted the winner and added another assist in game two, naturally making him one to watch.

Stock Down: Minnesota Golden Gophers

After many years of continued success, Minnesota simply fell apart last season. An 11-22-3 record was a rare sight to see, and it certainly wasn’t a good one for the Golden Gophers. At least last season they defeated Michigan Tech, 6-3, in the season opener.

In the 2026-27 season opener, the Gophers lost to Michigan Tech, then did it again the following night. By no means are the Huskies a subpar opponent, they were ranked No. 19 in the preseason poll, but Minnesota still sat higher, at No. 14. Based on the first weekend alone, which is a tiny sample size, this season could be similar to last.

Slow starts are the theme. The Gophers failed to score a goal in the first period of either game and never held a lead as a result. They lost 3-1 and 3-2 and were constantly forced to claw back from behind. If there is to be a turnaround, Minnesota has to come out of the gates stronger.

Stock Up: High-scoring offenses

Do defenses just need some time to warm up? Do goalies need to see a handful of live-game shots to settle into the season? Perhaps offenses are just ultra-talented. Whatever the reason may be, the first weekend delivered all kinds of high-scoring performances across college hockey.

Seven teams scored six or more goals during the opening weekend, and 70 percent of matchups featured a team scoring four or more goals. Defensive battles were few and far between. Quinnipiac set the high mark across all 37 games with 10 goals in a 10-2 thrashing of UNH. Lindenwood followed closest behind with eight goals against Arizona State in a wild 9-6 affair. Michigan and Minnesota Duluth also posted seven-goal performances.

Stock Down: UMass youth

It usually takes time for a youthful team to adjust to the new level of play, and that couldn’t be more true for UMass in its first two games. Five out of the six members of the Minutemen’s bottom six forwards are freshmen, and four sophomores make up the majority of the top six.

In a two-game series against Colorado College, the young offense was left with nearly no answers. Calgary Flames prospect Egor Barabanov turned in a rebound goal in the second game to avoid getting shut out in back-to-back games. UMass lost by an aggregate score of 8-1 in its first series of the season.

Head coach Greg Carvel loves to motivate his team by using preseason rankings and expectations to call his own team overrated early on, and he wasted no time doing so here. The question will now be if the largely freshman-made lineup can respond.

This is one of the youngest teams in all of college hockey, down to the goalie battle and defensive pairings. Samu Alalauri showed positive signs defensively and Ethan Eskit made 34 saves in the initial game. There’s a boatload of talent, but the Minutemen will have to put it all together before it’s too late.

Stock Up: Colorado College

The reason for UMass’ struggles can be credited to two near-perfect performances by Colorado College. Knocking off No. 10 with relative ease on two consecutive nights is a dream scenario to kick things off. The Tigers’ stout defense kept them ahead for the entire first game, then they came alive at the other end in game two.

The scoring was spread out very nicely. Drew Montgomery tucked the empty-netter at the end of Friday’s win, and he’s the only player who ended up with two goals on the weekend. The other six were unique goal scorers, including three who collected both a goal and assist: Philippe Blais-Savoie, Mats Lindgren and Bret Link. Klavs Veinbergs dished out three assists.

The victories pushed Colorado College into the No. 15 spot of the USCHO poll, marking it the lone team to jump into the rankings from a previously unranked position. The Tigers will play an exhibition next before testing their mettle against another Hockey East team, UConn, on Oct. 16 and 17.

Stock Down: New Hampshire’s faceoffs

This might as well just be New Hampshire, or its defensive effort, but we’ll switch things up. The Wildcats had 10 goals poured on them by Quinnipiac in their first and only game of 2026 thus far, so it was already ugly. Then, you look at the faceoff numbers.

UNH took a total of 65 faceoffs in the loss, and won just 20 of them. A sub-31 percent faceoff win percentage is seldom conducive to winning games. Centers Martins Lavins (6/18), Nick Ring (4/16), Felix Gagnon (5/15) and Cam MacDonald (3/9) were in the blender all night long.

Quinnipiac deserves its respect here, too. The Bobcats followed up that performance with 34 wins on 57 faceoffs (59.6 percent) against Merrimack the following night. Sure, a bit less dominant, but a significant advantage nevertheless.

Stock Up: Michael Hage, Michigan

You can’t do much better than Michigan’s star forward Michael Hage did on the opening weekend. The junior collected two goals, including the game-winner, and an assist in a 7-2 win over Bowling Green on Friday. On Saturday, he added another goal and three assists to win 4-3 and complete the series sweep.

The first-line center also added an impressive 26 faceoff wins on 41 draws in the series, good for 63.4 percent. The 2024 No. 21 draft pick to the Montreal Canadiens already has seven points in two games for the No. 2 Wolverines, who are chasing their first national championship since 1998.

USA Hockey Women's Week 4 Poll

Clarkson was the biggest mover after getting swept by Connecticut over the weekend, 3-2 and 4-0.

Rank	Team	Record	Points	Prev.
1	Wisconsin	4-0-0	279 (15)	1
2	Ohio State	4-0-0	270 (4)	2
3	Minnesota	2-0-0	240	3
4	Penn State	2-2-0	222	4
5	Quinnipiac	4-0-0	213	6
6	Northeastern	0-1-0	155	5
7	Princeton	0-0-0	144	8
8	Connecticut	2-2-0	140	11
9	Minnesota Duluth	3-1-0	126	7
10	St. Cloud State	4-0-0	116	13
11	Cornell	0-0-0	103	10
12	Yale	0-0-0	83	12
13	Clarkson	2-2-0	75	9
14	Colgate	2-0-0	53	15
15	Minnesota State	2-2-0	28	14

Others receiving votes: Vermont, 16; St. Thomas, 6; Harvard 5; Mercyhurst 3; Syracuse 2; RPI 1.

Puck Drop: Wednesday, October 7, 2026

• Playing in the only game Tuesday, the No. 5 Quinnipiac women's team dismantled Post 10-0, in the second-largest shutout in program history. Avery Bairos had two goals and an assist, while Kahlen Lamarche both had three assists. Natalia Dilbone made eight saves to notch her first shutout. The Bobcats lead the nation with 25 goals scored.

• Playing in his first game since asking to be traded, Dylan Larkin (Michigan) had a goal and an assist in his season debut to help Detroit defeat visiting Ottawa 5-3. He was named the first star of the game. “I knew that was going to happen and I understand that’s happening,” Larkin said. “I just want to go out there and help win games with my play.”

• Gavin McKenna (Penn State), the top-overall selection in the 2026 NHL Draft, scored his first NHL goal and got his first assist as the Maple Leafs came back from a three-goal deficit to edge the Predators 5-4 in overtime. McKenna became the youngest Maple Leafs player at the time of his first point (18 years, 290 days) since Drake Berehowsky (18 years, 280 days) on Oct. 10, 1990.

🚨 Gavin McKenna with a SNIPE for his 1st NHL goal! #PassionNeverSleeps pic.twitter.com/56yM1Agl7t
— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) October 7, 2026

College Hockey Scores

WOMEN
Non-Conference
No. 5 Quinnipiac 10, Post 0

Today's College Hockey Schedule

MEN
Exhibition
Manitoba at Omaha, 6:30 p.m. CT

This Date in Hockey History

October 7, 1901: Hall of Fame center Frank Boucher, who would coach the New York Rangers to a Stanley Cup, was born in Ottawa, Ontario.

October 7, 1951: Harvard center Bob McManama was born in Belmont, Mass.

October 7, 1960: Western Michigan center Ross Fitzpatrick was born in Pentiction, British Columbia.

October 7, 1966: St. Lawrence defenseman Mike Hurlbut was born in Massena, N.Y.

October 7, 1966: Northern Michigan defenseman Darryl Olsen was born in Calgary, Alberta.

October 7, 1969: Princeton center Andre Faust was born in Joliette, Quebec.

October 7, 1972: The New York Islanders hosted the Atlanta Flames in the NHL debut for both new franchises. The Flames pulled out a 3-2 victory.

October 7, 1988: Miami defenseman Cameron Schilling was born in Carmel, Ind.

October 7, 1991: Northeastern defenseman Josh Manson was born in Hinsdale, Ill.

October 7, 1992: Former North Dakota goaltender Ed Belfour had a rough night when the Tampa Bay Lightning made their NHL debut at Expo Hall. Chris Kontos scored the first two goals in franchise history and four times overall to lead a 7-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago had reached the Stanley Cup Finals the previous season.

October 7, 1995: Former UMD forward Brett Hull notched an assist for his 700th point, but the St. Louis Blues lost 4-1 at the Washington Capitals.

October 7, 1999: Former Wisconsin defenseman Chris Chelios recorded his 800th career point with an assist as the Detroit Red Wings crushed the Atlanta Thrashers 7-1.

October 7, 2000: Cornell center Matthew Stienburg was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Hockey Quote of the Day

‘It takes brains. It's not like a forward, where you can get away with scoring and not play defense. On defense you have to be thinking.”
Chris Chelios (Wisconsin)

We'll Leave You With This ...

Welcome home 88🥹 pic.twitter.com/fM0fCnKBvG
— Blackhawks on CHSN (@CHSN_Blackhawks) October 7, 2026

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