The way I see it, Hockey East has four tiers right now — the top two, BU, the middle four, and the bottom three. This weekend helped highlight the line between the latter two tiers, but it didn’t result in a whole lot of movement in this week’s rankings. Two teams swapped places, but everyone else stayed where they were last week.

1. Boston College (10-1-0, 8-1-0 HE) — Last week: 1
The Eagles extended their winning streak to 10 with a 6-3 triumph over Dartmouth on Saturday. With the victory, Jerry York is now just one away from tying Ron Mason’s all-time wins record. BC’s top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Pat Mullane and Steven Whitney combined for an incredible five goals and seven assists in the game. Gaudreau has at least one point in every game this season and is second in the league in points. Mullane and Whitney both rank in the top five as well.

2. New Hampshire (9-1-2, 6-1-1 HE) — Last week: 2
The Wildcats blew a 4-0 lead and ended up tying Colorado College 4-4 on Friday, then they overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat Denver 6-4 on Saturday. Grayson Downing and Kevin Goumas each registered a hat trick on Saturday, while Casey Thrush scored twice on Friday. Goumas ended up with seven points on the weekend and now leads the league with 20 on the season. The eight goals allowed on the weekend were more than UNH had allowed in its previous eight games combined.

3. Boston University (7-4-0, 5-3-0 HE) — Last week: 3
The Terriers beat St. Lawrence 4-0 on Saturday and outshot the Saints 47-21. Sean Maguire earned his first career shutout and all four lines scored a goal. Sam Kurker scored the first of his career, while Wade Megan scored his seventh of the season, putting him in a tie for third in the league. The only negative for BU was that the power play went 0-for-6 and is now 0 for its last 16.

4. Providence (6-5-1, 4-3-0 HE) — Last week: 4
The Friars took the Mayor’s Cup in dominant fashion, beating Brown 7-0 on Saturday. Thirteen different Friars registered points, led by Kevin Hart’s goal and three assists. Chris Rooney, Derek Army and Shane Luke all notched two points. The Friars went 3-for-7 on the power play and Jon Gillies made 35 saves to earn his second shutout of the season.

5. Massachusetts-Lowell (4-5-1, 2-4-1 HE) — Last week: 6
The River Hawks have won two in a row for the first time this season after beating Princeton 3-1 on Saturday. Scott Wilson registered two assists and now has six points in the last two games. Terrence Wallin, who had 25 points last year, finally scored his first goal of the season. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 22 of 23 shots to pick up his first career win.

6. Merrimack (4-6-2, 3-3-1 HE) — Last week: 5
The Warriors tied Colgate 1-1 on Friday and are now winless in their last four. Mike Collins scored Merrimack’s lone goal, and he is now tied for third in Hockey East in both goals (7) and points (15). Rasmus Tirronen stopped 21 of 22 shots and has now allowed two goals or fewer in each of his last four starts.

7. Massachusetts (4-5-2, 3-5-1 HE) — Last week: 7
The Minutemen tied Quinnipiac 2-2 on Saturday. Conor Sheary and Rocco Carzo scored the goals, Joel Hanley had two assists, and Kevin Boyle saved 24 of the 26 shots he faced. Boyle leads the conference in goals against average (1.59) and is second in save percentage (.939). UMass continues to excel on special teams, as its plus-6 special teams net is tied for second in the league.

8. Vermont (2-7-2, 2-5-2 HE) — Last week: 8
The Catamounts got swept by Minnesota, but they stay at eight because Northeastern lost its only game of the weekend. After a bad 5-1 loss on Friday, the Catamounts played much better in Saturday’s 3-1 loss and showed improvement in a number of areas. The offense continues to struggle, though, as Vermont ranks ninth in the league with 1.64 goals per game.

9. Northeastern (4-7-1, 2-6-1 HE) — Last week: 9
The Huskies missed a chance to move up by losing 5-2 to St. Lawrence on Friday. Despite both having a .918 save percentage, Bryan Mountain is now 0-4-1 on the season while Chris Rawlings is 4-3-0. Dax Lauwers scored his first career goal in the loss.

10. Maine (2-9-1, 1-5-1 HE) — Last week: 10
The Black Bears didn’t play this past weekend. Vermont and Northeastern both slid a little bit closer to them, but they’re still a win or two away from moving up.

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 - 5:20 pm | Blogs, Hockey East, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings