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No letting up for Boston College, Boston University as Hockey East’s regular season wraps up
With Maine’s 5-1 loss to UMass on Friday, BC clinched its 19th regular-season Hockey East title.
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There didn’t appear to be a lot on the line entering the final day of the regular season for the Boston College and Boston University men’s hockey teams. With Maine’s 5-1 loss to UMass on Friday, BC clinched its 19th regular-season Hockey East title. BU was locked into third place after rolling to an 8-2 win Thursday over Providence.
Yet there would be no let up from either squad Saturday, and that is where the weekend review begins.
· With the exception of Oskar Jellvik, who suffered an upper-body injury in the first round of the Beanpot and reportedly is out for the season, BC appeared to have its full complement of forwards, with Teddy Stiga and Brady Berard returning from injuries. Both Stiga and Gabe Perreault scored twice as the Eagles rolled to a 6-0 win over Merrimack.
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Coach Greg Brown credited the leadership group with making sure the team was focused as they concluded the regular season at 26-6-2 and No. 1 in the PairWise, the system used to select and seed the NCAA Tournament.
“You don’t want to take your foot off the gas at all,” Brown said. “You especially don’t want to start to play loose, because sometimes that’s hard to get back. The staff was really pleased with the way our guys were dialed in.”
Ryan Leonard and goalie Jacob Fowler both added to their résumés for postseason awards consideration, with Leonard scoring his NCAA-best 29th goal (and ninth game-winner) and Fowler recording his seventh shutout.
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· BU (20-12-2) followed up the win over Providence (21-9-5) with a 6-1 win at Vermont. Freshman Cole Eiserman had a hat trick against the Friars, then added another against the Catamounts for his 20th, tied for the team lead with Quinn Hutson, who tallied a pair at Vermont.
· UMass (19-12-5) took 4 of 6 points from Maine (21-7-6) to inch closer to securing a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Cole O’Hara had a pair of goals in Friday’s win to give him 49 points (22 goals, 27 assists), tied for third in the nation.
· The Minutemen are 11th in the PairWise and would give Hockey East six teams in the 16-team field, joining BC, Maine (third), BU (sixth), UConn (seventh), and Providence (eighth), all of whom will have a bye for Wednesday’s single-elimination first round of the conference playoffs.
UMass will host Vermont (11-20-3), UMass Lowell (15-15-4) is home against UNH (13-15-6), and Northeastern (12-19-3) will be at Merrimack (13-20-1). All three games begin at 7 p.m., with NESN broadcasting from Amherst and NESN+ from North Andover.
The winners will advance to quarterfinal play Saturday, with Providence at UConn (20-10-4) to open that round Friday night.
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· Tied, 1-1, after 20 minutes, Harvard (12-15-3) erupted for five goals in the second period en route to a 5-2 win over RPI to advance to the ECAC quarterfinals. It was just the third time the Crimson scored at least five goals this season.
Aku Koskenvuo recorded 36 saves and was named ECAC goalie of the week. Freshman Mick Thompson had two goals and an assist to earn the conference’s rookie of the week honors. That followed up an impressive February in which he posted 12 points in eight games and was named the national rookie of the month by the Hockey Commissioners Association. The Ontario native has 22 points in his last 20 games.
The loss marked the end of Dave Smith’s tenure as coach at RPI. He was fired Monday after going 87-152-19 since taking the job in 2017.
· Holy Cross (22-13-2) can be grateful Atlantic Hockey America has a best-of-three format for the quarterfinals. The Crusaders survived a scare from AIC (13-23-2), dropping the opener, 3-2, Friday before rallying to win the next two nights to advance to the semifinals. AIC forced overtime in the decisive Game 3 when Brett Bamber scored with less than a minute remaining, but Michael Abgrall wasted little time before calling game, his tally less than a minute into the extra session sending Holy Cross to the semifinals where it will host Army in a best-of-three set to start Friday night.
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The loss marked the end of AIC’s time as a Division 1 program. The school administration announced in November that the men’s hockey program was dropping to Division 2 at the end of the season.
“Nine years and seven championships later, we’ve achieved what many thought impossible in college hockey,” coach Eric Lang posted on social media. “We fought hard until the very end.”
· Bentley (20-14-2) will travel to Sacred Heart (21-11-5) for the other AHA semifinal after sweeping Canisius. Connor Hasley posted a pair of shutouts, giving him an NCAA-best 10 this year as the Falcons posted 20 wins for the first time as a Division 1 program. The series at Sacred Heart opens Friday night and will mark Bentley’s first trip to the semifinals since 2009.
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