As we race toward the end of the season, there’s been lots of discussion about playoff spots and the ever-volatile Pairwise, and rightfully so. But we’re also starting to hear some talk about end-of-season awards. In fact, we here at CHN just published our first Hobey Watch earlier this week.

All this got me thinking about some of the Hockey East awards. There are always great debates over these, and I’m sure those debates will only get more heated as we get closer to awards night. So I figured I’d take a look at how some of these races are shaping up.

Keep in mind that every team still has six or seven games left, and that those games could not only impact some of these races, but possibly decide them. Also keep in mind that the Hockey East awards are based solely on conference play. Out-of-conference games aren’t taken into account, or at least they’re not supposed to be.

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The news of the weekend had to be St. Lawrence ending Quinnipiac’s 21 game unbeaten streak. The Saints and Rensselaer are now the two hottest teams in the ECAC, as St.Lawrence is 7-2-2 in their last 11 games and RPI is on a six game winning streak. Quinnipiac got back in the win column on Saturday, as they defeated Clarkson 2-1.

Positions two through six in the standings are separated by just 2 points and Rensselaer with their four point weekend leapfrogged a few teams to jump into second place all their own. Clarkson and Princeton also have a chance at a bye as they sit four points behind second place and three points behind Union and St. Lawrence for an ever important top four position.  Top four teams get a first round bye in the ECAC tournament, while positions five through eight get home ice in the first round. Check out the standings to see where your favorite team sits in a close race for the byes and home ice.

If the tournament were to start today, Quinnipiac would be the top ranked team in the NCAA tournament, per the Pairwise rankings. The ECAC would also have Yale (12) in the tournament and that would be it. Union sits in 16th but Merrimack leads Hockey East so they would be the presumed winner of the auto-bid, as they sit outside the top 16. Rensselaer and Dartmouth also sit on the bubble, but on the outside looking in. (more…)

Amherst, Mass. – Josh Manson scored his first goal of the season 4 minutes, 4 seconds into overtime to complete a 5-4 comeback win for Northeastern over Massachusetts Tuesday night at the Mullins Center.

Robbie Vrolyk scored the game-tying goal 13:07 into the third, his second tally of the night, while his linemates Adam Reid and Cody Ferriero each had a goal of their own.

Michael Pereira led the Minutemen with two goals and an assist to push his point total to 25 for the year (12 goals, 13 assists).

Chris Rawlings got the start in goal for Northeastern, but was pulled after the second period after allowing four goals on 32 shots faced. Bryan Mountain took over for the third period and overtime and shut out UMass.

Steve Mastalerz made 40 saves for the Minutemen in a losing effort.

What I Saw

• Northeastern coach Jim Madigan said after the game that his decision to bring Mountain in was because he believed that Mountain was a more aggressive goalie than Rawlings, and it would be more fitting going up against UMass’ fast-paced, aggressive style of play. That move paid dividends for Madigan and the Huskies as Mountain gave the Minutemen no room to operate in the offensive zone. This style of play instilled life into the entire Northeastern squad. Mountain may not provide as big a target as Rawlings, but he was aggressive in his crease as UMass continued to drive the net and wasn’t afraid to play out against that attack.   (more…)

With St. Cloud off over the weekend, the race for the MacNaughton Cup got a little tighter. The top seven teams are all within six points of each other now. Things got a bit tighter in my power rankings as well, although not a whole lot changes in terms of positions.

1. Minnesota (20-6-4, 12-6-4 WCHA) — Last week: 1
Minnesota split a pair of 3-2 games with Wisconsin, but neither of my next two teams played over the weekend, so the Gophers’ hold on the top spot is still pretty strong. They’re actually tied for fourth in the league, three points out of first, but they’re still second in the Pairwise. Erik Haula, Nick Bjugstad and Seth Ambroz each had two points in the series. The Gophers lost Sunday’s game at Soldier Field despite outshooting the Badgers 38-19.

2. St. Cloud State (18-11-1, 15-6-1 WCHA) — Last week: 2
The Huskies had the weekend off, so they stay at two. They have a one-point lead over second-place UNO, and they also have two games in hand. St. Cloud is currently ninth in the Pairwise.

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Dear Hockey East,

Please reconsider the new playoff plan you’re implementing next season. Vermont just swept Northeastern in a huge series. Northeastern now heads to UMass on Tuesday for what is essentially a must-win game. Then this coming weekend, UMass hosts Maine in a series that could wind up deciding both teams’ seasons. Why are all these games so important? Because of that race for the eighth and final playoff spot. Because not all of those teams are going to make the postseason.

This is what makes the Hockey East regular season better than the regular season in any other conference. In other leagues, none of those games I just mentioned would be nearly as important. Sure, they might decide seeding, but they wouldn’t decide seasons. I think I speak for a lot of fans when I say that in a league where everyone makes the playoffs, I don’t really care if someone finishes ninth instead of 10th. Home ice in that new first round is something to shoot for, but there’s no way that race will ever be as exciting or as meaningful as a race for the final playoff spot.

I’m not saying you have to stick to the same eight-team format. In fact, I’d be worried that an eight-team playoff in a 12-team league would lead to too many meaningless games at the end of the regular season for the bottom couple teams. A 10-team playoff would be ideal in my opinion. There are several ways to make this work. One would be the old WCHA format, with first-round series pitting 1 vs. 10, 2 vs. 9, etc., followed by a play-in game between the two lowest remaining seeds prior to the semifinals. Another would be having two play-in games pit 7 vs. 10 and 8 vs. 9 prior to the quarterfinals.

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LOWELL, Mass. — Massachusetts-Lowell completed a season sweep of Massachusetts on Saturday, winning 3-2 in front of a Tsongas Center crowd of 5,468. All five goals came during a seven-minute stretch in the middle of the second period. Lowell’s Christian Folin opened the scoring 6:23 into the period on a shorthanded 2-on-1. The River Hawks’ special teams struck again four minutes later, as Riley Wetmore one-timed a Scott Wilson pass into the back of the net for a power-play tally.

The Minutemen (10-15-2, 7-12-1 Hockey East) cut the deficit in half 38 seconds later when Michael Pereira batted a rebound out of the air for his 10th goal of the season. Just 26 seconds after that, Derek Arnold deposited a rebound to give Lowell (16-9-2, 10-8-2 HE) a 3-1 lead. Conor Sheary cut the lead to 3-2 two minutes later, but that was as close as UMass would get.

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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Connor Toomey scored a power-play goal with 34 seconds left in overtime to give Merrimack a 2-1 victory over Boston College on Friday night. With the win, the Warriors (14-10-5, 12-6-2 HE) jumped the Eagles (17-8-2, 12-7-1 HE) and moved into sole possession of first place in Hockey East. Quinn Smith opened the scoring for BC midway through the second, but John Heffernan tied it with 7:03 left in regulation when he scored right off a faceoff. Sam Marotta made 39 saves for Merrimack, while Parker Milner stopped 40 shots for BC.

What I saw
-The Eagles’ goal came on a play that was originally ruled no-goal. Smith shot from about 10 feet out and Marotta made the save, but the puck squirted out to his right and eventually rolled across the goal line. The whistle blew and it was ruled no-goal on the ice, but the refs overturned the call after a lengthy review.

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Amherst, Mass. – Massachusetts-Lowell scored three first period goals on its way to a 6-3 rout of Massachusetts Friday night at the Mullins Center.

Junior defenseman Joe Houk found Derek Arnold twice for goals, and Riley Wetmore’s third period tally gave him his 100th career point.

Freshman Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves for the River Hawks in the win, while Kevin Boyle struggled for UMass, making 13 saves on 19 shots for the game.

With the win, Lowell remains in the six spot in the Hockey East standings and sits at 15th in the Pairwise. The Minutemen fall to eighth in the standings with a Vermont win on Friday.

What I Saw

• There were points in the game where UMass played well — the Minutemen outshot Lowell 19-11 in the first two periods — but the River Hawks got the better of the scoring chances and capitalized on UMass’ mistakes. The backbreaker came late in the second period when Houk found Arnold wide open in the neutral zone for a breakaway goal to give Lowell the 4-2 advantage heading into second intermission. The Minutemen were caught with three players stacked to one end of the ice with the two others pinching, leaving Arnold wide open at the far blue line. That one sequence told the story of the game as the River Hawks capitalized one UMass mistake after another in the win. (more…)

Cambridge, MASS. – The first period was played to a scoreless tie, but the second period would be much different as both teams combined to put on an offensive showcase. Harvard began the scoring as Alex Fallstrom put in a rebound just 43 seconds into the period. Not to be outdone Colgate would score on the power-play five minutes later to tie the game at one apiece. But Harvard would get two goals by Marshall Everson four minutes apart to give them the 3-1 second intermission lead.

Harvard would add an empty-netter in the third period to make the final 4-1 in favor of the Crimson. Harvard improves to 7-15-2 on the season, 4-12-1 in ECAC play while Colgate falls to 13-12-4, 5-9-3. Colgate will remain in tenth place in the ECAC standings with the loss, but both Harvard and Cornell pulls closer to them, at four and one points respectively. Harvard remains in last place, but remain three points behind Cornell for eleventh and four points behind Colgate for tenth. The loss will move Colgate even further away from an at large spot, according to the Pairwise. (more…)

With Quinnipiac miles away from everyone else at the top, it has come time to focus on the great race that has developed behind them. Six points separate second place Yale and tenth place Colgate in the standings, while third to ninth are separated by a mere two points. The parity within ECAC has turned out to be awesome, it will make for a great few weeks of conference action, as most teams have just six games remaining in the regular season. If the season ended today Quinnipiac and Yale would be in the NCAA tournament, while Dartmouth would join them per the Pairwise Rankings.

1. Quinnipiac (21-3-4, 14-0-2) – Last Week 1

The unbeaten streak is up to 21 games now after a pair of win on the road against Cornell and Colgate. I guess we should start expecting nothing less from the Bobcats, as they have been number one in both Pairwise and Krach for some time now.  But the time will come to prove said rankings when it actually matters. For now though, the Bobcats hang onto the number one position in these rankings. They are balanced and play the best defensive game in the country. The Only question left to be answered is whether an ECAC can find it in them to defeat them. With Yale’s defeat at the hands of Brown the Bobcats need just one tie to clinch at least a share of the Cleary Cup or a win to clinch it outright. It will probably happen this week. (more…)