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Hockey East men’s teams begin to separate as regular season winds down
Last week provided a bit of clarity, including BC inching closer to repeating as champion.
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Finally, there was some separation in the middle of the Hockey East standings. Of the five series this past weekend, three were sweeps, while the other two saw one team take 5 of 6 points.
There is still much to be sorted out before the regular season concludes on Saturday, but the last week provided a bit of clarity, including Boston College inching closer to repeating as champion, and that’s where the weekend review begins.
· The depth of Hockey East could be seen in the closely contested matchups between first-place BC (25-6-2, 17-4-2) and last-place New Hampshire (11-15-6, 3-14-5). The Eagles scored twice in the third period to pull away for a 4-1 win on Friday, then took 2 more points on Saturday, prevailing in a shootout after the teams skated to a 1-1 stalemate.
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Already without Oskar Jellvik and Brady Berard, BC lost two more forwards Friday when freshman Teddy Stiga left with an upper-body injury and junior Andre Gasseau was whistled for slew-footing and assessed a game misconduct less than a minute into the third period. Stiga missed Saturday’s game at Durham, as did Gasseau, who served a one-game suspension.
Captain Eamon Powell recorded his 100th career point with an assist on Gabe Perreault’s goal on Saturday, and Ryan Leonard, the nation’s leading goal scorer with 28, extended his point streak to 14 games as the Eagles maintained their position atop the PairWise ratings, the system used to seed and select the NCAA Tournament.
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· There was a scary moment in the second period of Friday’s game when UNH goalie Jared Whale went down after being struck by one of his teammates. Play was halted with 4:51 remaining as Whale was secured to a backboard and stretchered off the ice, then taken to a local hospital. Fortunately, he was discharged after being evaluated and returned to campus.
Rico DiMatteo came on and stopped 6 of 7 shots, as well as 31 saves in Saturday’s loss, which was good for a 1.34 goals-against average and .949 save percentage. The senior was named the conference’s goalie of the week.
· Maine (21-6-5, 13-4-5) stayed within striking distance of the Eagles by sweeping Vermont (11-18-3, 6-14-2). Taylor Makar had a hat trick to extend his career-high goal total to 16. The Black Bears trail BC by 4 points but have a game in hand. They are fourth in the PairWise.
· UMass (18-12-4, 9-9-4) took 5 of 6 points from UMass Lowell (15-13-4, 8-11-3) in a series that had postseason implications. The Minutemen vaulted to sixth place in the conference, as well as 12th in the PairWise, while Lowell dropped to 15th and is on the outside looking in for the NCAAs. Cole O’Hara had two goals over the weekend to give him 20 for the season. He is second in the nation and first in Hockey East with 47 points.
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Greg Carvel became the all-time winningest coach at UMass with 167.
· UConn (19-10-4, 11-8-4) took another step toward clinching its first trip to the NCAA Tournament by sweeping Northeastern (11-18-3, 6-13-3) by a combined score of 12-3, including a 7-2 beatdown at Matthews Arena on Saturday that sent the team back to Storrs eighth in the PairWise, one spot behind Boston University, which was idle.
· Providence (20-8-5, 10-7-5) posted a pair of one-goal victories over Merrimack (13-18-1, 9-12-1). It’s the eighth 20-win season in Nate Leaman’s 14-year tenure as coach for the Friars, who are sixth in the PairWise.
· This was supposed to be the year in which one of the other ECAC schools would end Quinnipiac’s reign. That theory picked up momentum when the Bobcats opened conference play with a pair of losses at home to Dartmouth and Harvard Nov. 8-9, dropping to 3-5.
But Quinnipiac (22-10-2, 16-5-1) responded by going 19-5-2 the rest of the way to clinch its fifth consecutive Cleary Cup with a 4-0 win over St. Lawrence. Jeremy Wilmer, a junior transfer from BU, had a pair of goals and an assist in the win. Quinnipiac sits at 13th in the PairWise and would benefit from a deep run in the conference tournament to qualify for the NCAAs.
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· Harvard (11-15-3, 9-10-3) closed the regular season with a 4-3 overtime win at Yale and a 3-3 tie at Brown. The Crimson open the conference tournament by hosting RPI Friday night, with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals.
· American International College lives to fight another day. The Yellow Jackets (12-21-2) defeated RIT, 2-1, in the first round of the Atlantic Hockey America tournament.
AIC entered as the higher seed but the game was played on the campus of the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. AIC’s home rink, MassMutual Center in Springfield, had booked Disney on Ice.
It was another disappointing development for the team. The school administration announced in November that the men’s hockey program was dropping to Division 2 at the end of the season. The team will look to delay that outcome in this weekend’s quarterfinal matchup at top seed Holy Cross.
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