A month into the season, Merrimack and Boston College appear to be head and shoulders above the rest of Hockey East. After them, there’s a whole bunch of teams trying to break away from the pack and establish themselves as legitimate home-ice squads. Before I get to this week’s power rankings (which will be a weekly feature from here on), it’s worth noting that these rankings are where I see teams right now, not where I see them at the end of the season.

1. Merrimack (7-0-1, 5-0-1 HE)

Given that they’re the only unbeaten team left in the country, it should come as no surprise that the Warriors top this week’s rankings. They possess the nation’s best defense (1.25 goals against per game), led by senior goalie Joe Cannata and his league-leading .939 save percentage. The only knock on the Warriors is that they haven’t played anyone really good yet, although going 3-0-0 at Maine and Vermont (two places that are always tough to play) is pretty impressive.

2. Boston College (8-2-0, 6-1-0 HE)

The Eagles might’ve been No. 1 this week, but then they lost to UMass on Saturday. That game is more of an aberration than anything to actually be concerned about, but it’s just enough to drop them below Merrimack. The Eagles rank first or second in the conference in offense, defense, power play and penalty kill, so you’d have to do a lot of nitpicking to find a weakness here. Led by Chris Kreider (8-7-15) and Bill Arnold (7-7-14), BC has six players averaging a point per game or better. (more…)

Finally, Miami looked like the RedHawks of old, while elsewhere, Ferris State and Northern Michigan had solid and productive weekends.

Some thoughts on the past weekend’s play:

• Ferris State swept its weekend series against Bowling Green, and a pair of Bulldogs were honored this week by the CCHA. Senior forward Jordie Johnston, who was a +5 this weekend with two goals and two assists, was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Week. His classmate, Brett Wysopal was also +5 and scored two goals en route to being named the league’s Defenseman of the Week. The Bulldogs are quietly 8-2-0 — the same record as Lake Superior. The Lakers play a pair at Ferris this weekend in a matchup of two of the more surprising teams in college hockey so far this season. (more…)

Well the first weekend of conference play has come and gone, and some things have become clear. Some teams continue to have success (Air Force), some teams are surprisingly struggling (RIT), and yet others just can’t get a win. AHA teams are all over the map in the early going this season, with many teams not separating from the pack yet. (more…)

The top of the various Hockey East scoring leaders looks pretty much the way we expected. Chris Kreider leads the league with 15 points on eight goals and seven assists and three Boston College teammates follow. Strong upperlcassmen like Massachusetts’ T.J. Syner are putting together strong seasons, along with Maine’s dynamic senior duo of Brian Flynn and Spencer Abbot chipping in with consistent production.

We know what we’re going to get from some guys. Others, we expect and don’t get. Then, there are the players that build strong seasons out of almost nowhere. This feature will run throughout the season and assess those performances that have helped teams win a few more games than we all thought they would.

Three Up

Nick Sorkin, Sophomore, Forward, New Hampshire

Since beginning the season 0-4-0, New Hampshire is 4-0-1 in its last five games. While many worried about the Wildcats’ ability to create consistent offense, Nick Sorkin has proven to be that productive, do-it-all center UNH coach Dick Umile has managed to cultivate almost every season. In those fives games, Sorkin has three goals and five assists, pacing the resurgent UNH offense. To his right, Stevie Moses appears to have found his game against, which his a testament to Sorkin’s presence. In the three games before being placed with Sorkin, Moses recorded just one assist. Since being placed along side the sophomore, the speedster Moses has three goals and four assists. (more…)

When both Massachusetts and UMass-Lowell left the ice on Saturday night, each club likely expected its victory to be the most surprising result of the evening.

In Amherst, the Minutemen defeated Boston College, 4-2, for its first Hockey East win of the season. The victory was UMass’ first over Boston College since Casey Wellman’s overtime winner gave the Minutemen a 4-3 decision on Nov. 22 2008. Meanwhile, about 80 miles to the east, Lowell crushed Boston University, 7-1, to pick up its own first league win of the season.

Which win was bigger for which team? Next week will give us more insight in that regard, but, for now, both teams have more confidence than they did when the weekend began. Other results throughout the league told us a few more things, and here’s just some of what I gleaned.

Ryan Flanigan is the most underrated player in Hockey East

Bill Arnold. Chris Kreider. Matt Nieto. Stevie Moses. Brian Flynn.

These are the players people like me talked about in September when we named the premier forwards in Hockey East. Flanigan, however, quietly put together a fantastic junior campaign in North Andover a season ago, including a nine-point performance in the Warriors run to the Hockey East Championship game. (more…)

Durham, N.H.– New Hampshire ran out to a 3-0 second period lead then the Black Bears scored a goal late in the second period to begin a comeback bid, the goal was by Spencer Abbott. Maine scored again five minutes into the third period, again Spencer Abbott but the two goals were not enough to complete the impressive comeback. Senior UNH goaltender, Matt  Di Girolamo, made 33 saves in a strong performance late to hold onto to the game for the Wildcats. New Hampshire won their fourth straight game to even their record up at 4-4-1 after starting the season 0-4. Maine dropped to 3-4-1 on the season and had a very unsuccessful road trip south losing to Boston College on Friday night and UNH Saturday.

What I saw

-Maine used speed, skill, and finesse to keep UNH on its toes all night. The third period, even though the shots were in favor of New Hampshire, was dominated by Maine as the Black Bears carried play from the neutral zone into the UNH zone most of it. Maine attempted 21 shots in the third, only five of them making their way through. Maine just could not bury the third and tying goal, the one they seemingly needed on the weekend.

-UNH struggled possessing the puck in many cases. The defense did a great job of blocking shots and keeping shots to the outside.UNH often struggled just getting into the Maine zone but New Hampshire was very opportunistic on the night and buried three of the opportunities given to them. (more…)

Northeastern dropped another game in overtime at Matthews arena Saturday night, this time to the Merrimack Warriors in a 3-2 overtime loss, bringing the team to 1-5-2 on the season.

The Huskies gained an early 2-0 lead, but weren’t able to follow through despite seven power play opportunities. They were also significantly outshot by Merrimack, 31-19.

What I saw

After disturbing Merrimack’s winning streak in a tie Friday night, the Huskies looked strong out of the gate, but it didn’t last. Northeastern went 0 for 7 on power play opportunities. You can’t do that when you’re playing the No. 7 team in the country, and definitely not when that team goes 2-5 on their power play chances in the same match. The Huskies played almost all of the last 5 minutes of the game on the power play and just couldn’t capitalize to end the game in regulation and avoid overtime, which has proven to be deadly for them.

Penalties were big in this game, and Northeastern spent a combined 21 minutes in the penalty box due to some undisciplined play, handing Merrimack chance after chance to even the score, which the Warriors did. (more…)

What a game tonight at Mariucci Arena.

First things first:

The Gophers sweep North Dakota for the first time since December of 2005. It was Don Lucia’s first home sweep of North Dakota as Gophers head coach and Minnesota’s first sweep of the Fighting Sioux at Mariucci since 1996-97.

The win puts the Gophers 10 points ahead of North Dakota in the WCHA standings — still a long ways from the finish line, that 10 points back of a quality team like Minnesota likely means the MacNaughton Cup will be somewhere other than Grand Forks, N.D. come early March.

UND has gained a reputation as a bit of a slow starter during the Dave Hakstol era — but not this slow. This is North Dakota’s worst start in WCHA play in almost four decades, when UND started 1-9 in 1974.

If there was any doubt heading into the weekend about how good Minnesota is, that doubt is now gone. Yeah, North Dakota is down right now. But the Gophers showed a grit and determination Saturday night they haven’t shown in years. Despite heavily outshooting the Sioux through two and a half periods and having been blanked on their previously powerful power play, Minnesota refused to quit — tying the score with a greasy goal by Nick Larson with 6:04 left before scoring another dirty one by Kyle Rau with under a minute left. (more…)

LOWELL, Mass. — In the most surprising result of the Hockey East season thus far, UMass-Lowell blew the doors off Boston University to pick up a 7-1 victory, its first conference win of the season. BU (3-3-1, 2-2-1 HE) opened the scoring just 16 seconds into the game when Corey Trivino tipped in a shot from the point, but it was all downhill from there for the Terriers. The River Hawks (3-3-0, 1-2-0 HE) scored seven unanswered goals the rest of the way and outshot BU by an eye-popping 44-16 margin on the night. Six River Hawks recorded multi-point games, led by Scott Wilson’s goal and two assists, Matt Ferreira’s three assists and Derek Arnold’s two goals.

What I saw

-After giving up a goal 16 seconds into the game, the River Hawks utterly dominated the remainder of the first period. They controlled the puck and the pace of play pretty much all period and rarely let BU get set up in the offensive zone, even when the Terriers were on the power play. The tilted sheet of ice was reflected on the scoreboard, as Lowell outshot BU 15-3 in the opening frame and took a 2-1 lead into the locker room.

-The varsity vs. squirts feel continued in the second, as the River Hawks tallied four more goals and outshot BU 15-8 in the period. The Terriers repeatedly lost 1-on-1 battles and turned pucks over under Lowell’s relentless pressure. In the offensive zone, the Terriers remained allergic to the crease as they finished the first two periods with just three grade-A chances, compared to 14 for Lowell.

-Just like every other aspect of the game, the River Hawks dominated special-teams play. They went 2-for-10 on the power play and held the Terriers to just one shot (one!) on their six man advantages. Lowell did a good job moving the puck on the power play and was particularly effective down low by simply out-muscling the BU defense for position. When the Terriers were on the power play, they failed to get much of anything going as the River Hawks consistently took away passing and shooting lanes. It certainly helped that the Terriers did a lot of standing around. (more…)

DURHAM, N.H. – The game started at a frantic pace. Umass scored the game’s first goal at 1:28 of the first period. UNH responded with two goals of their own in the next 2:13 and Umass tied it up 11 minutes later. UNH used a demoralizing goal with six seconds remaining in the first to take the lead for good. From that point on UNH ran away from the Minutemen scoring three goals in 5:20 of the second period and won the game 7-3 on the backs of seven different goal scorers.

What I saw

-Umass used two different freshmen goalies in the game, in starter Steve Mastalerz and Kevin Boyle. Neither of which had much success solving UNH’s offensive prowess on the night, but they in most cases were not the blame. The Umass defense had a poor showing on the night with Wildcats being left open almost at will in front of the net for most of UNH’s seven goals. The young defense will surely improve as the season goes on.

-UNH responded well to an early goal by Umass at 1:28 of the first period by scoring two of their own in the next two minutes of the first period. The game was not perfect for New Hampshire, as the defense did show signs of weakness on the three Minutemen goals. Scoring seven goals is always a positive for a team that struggled early with scoring. The goals are seemingly coming in bunches right now for New Hampshire, whom are using a very balanced attack. Tonight seven different players scored goals for the Wildcats. Albeit not a perfect game, UNH proved their resilience to come back from an early setback to dominate large stretches of a game. (more…)