NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Entering Saturday’s game against UMass, Merrimack was aware of its Hockey East playoff fate. By virtue of Maine’s 1-0 victory earlier in the afternoon over New Hampshire, the Black Bears clinched the final home ice position and Merrimack as their opponent. However, there was still much for the Warriors to play for, as concluding the regular season with a win and a run in the conference playoffs could yield an NCAA bid.

Saturday night, the Warriors accomplished one portion of their goal, defeating UMass, 5-3, at Lawler Arena behind a dominate third period. Merrimack scored three-consecutive goals to neutralize a 2-1 deficit entering the frame to earn the victory.

With the loss, the Minutemen settled for the eighth seed and will face Hockey East regular season champion Boston College in Chestnut Hill.

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Because I mentioned Wisconsin few times in the story that will be posted on CHN’s website here tonight, I did want to throw some props the way of the Badgers. What a performance tonight by the boys in Cardinal and White. Honestly, I haven’t seen much of the Badgers this season — a couple of games on television and that’s about it. But the team I saw tonight, if it plays like it did tonight, can beat anyone in the country.

That’s right. Anyone in the country. When I asked Mike Eaves after the game where this effort tonight ranked among his team’s games this season, he said it was at the top.

“We played Denver at home a couple of Saturdays ago and that was a pretty complete game,” Eaves said. “This ranks in that area.”

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*NOTE: Eric Stromgren and I will be live blogging events from Minneapolis and St. Cloud all weekend long, with him at the National Hockey Center and I at Mariucci Arena. Two arenas, two writers, one blog — join us tomorrow and let’s talk some hockey. Click here to find the chat, which should get underway at 6:30 p.m. CST. There will also be a link on CHN’s main page.

** SECONDARY NOTE: I will be on AM 1500 ESPN Twin Cities for a segment tomorrow, talking Gopher hockey. If you’re not local and wish to listen anyway, you can listen online here. “This Week In Golden Gopher Athletics” starts at 8 a.m CST, and I will be on around 8:50. 

Heading into the season’s final weekend, only Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth have a shot at taking home the MacNaughton Cup. The Gophers lead the Bulldogs by two points, and also have the added edge of playing at home this weekend. UMD plays at St. Cloud. In order to take the MacNaughton outright, and the top-seed in the playoffs, the Bulldogs will need to net three points on Minnesota, as the Gophers’ sweep of Duluth back in October assured them of the tiebreaker.

Should both teams finished tied, both will get a chance to dance with the Cup as they will be considered co-champs.

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Saturday’s game between Harvard and Clarkson marked an opportunity for both schools to secure a valuable bye in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. To begin the weekend, Clarkson sat in the pole position, one point ahead of Harvard and two clear of Quinnipiac.

But a cluster of teams near the middle of the standings meant that both needed three-point weekends to secure the next one off. Instead, Harvard took full control of its fate and won both games at the Bright Hockey Center. With a 3-2 win over Clarkson Saturday night, and a 4-1 win over St. Lawrence on Friday, Harvard passed Colgate and earned a third-place finish in the ECAC regular season.

Meanwhile Clarkson will host RPI in the first round of the conference playoffs, after losing both games this weekend.

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BOSTON – The Maine offense struck early when junior forward Adam Shemansky garnered his tenth goal of the year to put the Black Bears up 1-0. Senior forward Theo Andersson followed suit just over a minute later when he capitalized on the power play to give Maine the two-point advantage. Northeastern answered with a power play goal of its own from junior forward Vinny Saponari, but Maine answered less than a minute later with another power play goal from sophomore forward Mark Anthoine.

That was it for junior goaltender Chris Rawlings, as he was pulled in favor of sophomore Clay Witt. But the Maine offense continued to pressure, and junior forward Joey Diamond knocked one in at 3:25 in the second period to increase the Maine lead to 4-1. Success continued for Maine when the nation’s leading scorer, senior forward Spencer Abbott, got a tip off a wrister from freshman defenseman Jake Rutt to put Maine up 5-1.

The scoring continued for Maine as Abbott got his second of the night and Diamond made it 7-1. With the loss, the Huskies fell to 12-15-5, 8-13-4 in conference play, and Maine got their nineteenth win going 19-11-3 with 14-10-2 in Hockey East.

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BOSTON – Freshman Adam Reid gave the Huskies the 3-2 lead over Maine with less than two minutes to play, but junior Vinny Saponari clinched the 4-2 win for Northeastern with an empty netter in the game’s final seconds. With the win, Northeastern moves to 12-14-5 on the season, 8-12-4 in Hockey East.

A power play goal from junior Garrett Vermeersch gave the Huskies the first period lead, but after two goals from Maine’s Brian Flynn and Spencer Abbott put Northeastern down by one, it was junior Justin Daniels who had the equalizer in the second to tie it up 2-2.

It all came down to the third period, and that’s when Northeastern’s Joe Manno went on a breakaway, but couldn’t capitalize. Junior Steve Quailer tried to sink Manno’s rebound, but after falling short is was Reid who got it past Maine goaltender Dan Sullivan, giving Northeastern the edge.

What I saw

Tonight’s game featured gritty, rough hockey, the kind you’d expect from two teams fighting for a playoff spot and home ice advantage. Northeastern played like they wanted a playoff spot, and compete level, for once, wasn’t an issue. Across the board, the Northeastern players were finally all solid at the same time. Most notably, the Husky defense was able to keep Maine’s first line of the nation’s leading scorer Spencer Abbott, Brian Flynn, and Joey Diamond contained.

You can’t mention Northeastern’s defense without Chris Rawlings, and tonight with 29 saves the junior goaltender didn’t give much cause for concern. After a couple of rough outings against Providence where he gave up more than one soft goal, tonight Rawlings was what his team needed him to be, and that’s dependable. There’s no doubt that when Rawlings is going strong it allows his teammates in front of him to do a little more knowing he’s confident behind them.

Across the ice, Dan Sullivan really did the same thing for Maine. Despite not getting the win, the sophomore goaltender was steady, stopping 24 shots. He’s gone 17-7-3 in net for the Black Bears in 27 games with a .904 save percentage.

In front of Sullivan, Maine’s top line of Spencer Abbott, Brian Flynn, and Joey Diamond is really something to watch. They’ve combined for 137 points this season; 53 for Abbott, 44 for Flynn, and 37 for Diamond. Each of them came out of tonight with at least a point, Abbott and Flynn each notched a goal and Diamond had the assist on both.

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Part 2 today of my look at the WCHA Playoffs and who these teams would LIKE to play. Should have explained yesterday, but these opinions are based on realistic match-ups for the playoffs. Yeah, St. Cloud State would love to play Alaska-Anchorage (as everyone else probably would), but it’s not going to happen.

Without further ado, here is the top-half of the league, and who they’d like to play:

T4 — North Dakota: The Fighting Sioux have a big series at Denver this weekend, and a pair of wins would vault UND ahead of DU in the standings. At 27 points, North Dakota is just three points out of third place.

Who they want: Bemidji State

The Beavers beat North Dakota 1-0 earlier this season to score their first win over North Dakota. Ever. Safe to say, history resides on the side of the Fighting Sioux in this one.

T4 — Nebraska-Omaha: The Mavericks are hoping to stay within striking distance of Denver this weekend, because UNO hosts the Pioneers next weekend to wrap up the season. Although Omaha is tied with North Dakota in the standings, UNO has to be hoping for a split in the UND-DU series. If it happens, Omaha needs to take care of business against Minnesota.

Who they want: St. Cloud State

The Mavericks took 3 of 4 points against the Huskies in Omaha earlier this season and went 3-0-1 against them last season. Personally, I don’t think the Mavs care who they play, as long as it’s not Bemidji State. For some reason, the Beavers present UNO with a host of problems when they play, and I doubt the Mavericks would enjoy the constant questions in the lead up to that series.

T4 — Colorado College: The Tigers have been an average team virtually all season. After a 4-0 start, CC is just 12-12-2 overall and just a game over .500 in conference play. At 5-7 on the road in WCHA play, maintaining home ice is critically important and provides the Tigers with a distinct advantage.

Who they want: Wisconsin

CC is extremely familiar with the Badgers — the Tigers beat Wisconsin in three games in the first round last year. CC swept Wisconsin in their lone meeting this season at World Arena and are 5-2 against UW over the last two seasons. Plus, Wisconsin has just one road win this season, and a trip to Colorado Springs is probably the second most tedious in the league for the boys from Madison.

1-3 — Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth, Denver: All three of these teams are in a similar spot in terms of who they want to play… obviously only one will get them. Third place Denver and league-leading Minnesota are separated by four points with UMD stuck right in the middle, meaning plenty of shuffling can still take place among the top-3 teams.

Who they want: Alaska-Anchorage

The Seawolves style of play can present problems for any team, but it’s pretty safe to say all three teams would love the opportunity to take on Anchorage, a team that’s a lengthy plane ride away and has won just three times since Thanksgiving. These three teams are a combined 7-1-0 against UAA this season, with the lone Seawolf victory coming against UMD in Anchorage just a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure the Gophers would love the opportunity to avenge last season’s embarrassing playoff ouster at the hands of the Seawolves.

Instead of the weekly WCHA Power Rankings, I thought I’d delve ahead into the WCHA Playoffs, now just two weeks away. Afterall, the league’s actual power rankings — the standings — have separated a bit here in the last couple weeks. And while there is still plenty to be decided, if things hold serve this weekend, the league’s home ice teams and travelling teams will be quite clear.

That said, here is a look at who each team should be HOPING for when the playoffs do kick off Mar. 9. Feel free to agree or disagree below. Today, I will look at the bottom half of the WCHA. I will post the top-half Friday.

12 — Alaska-Anchorage: The Seawolves are locked into the 12th and final spot in the WCHA, meaning they will play the league’s top seed and MacNaughton Cup champion.

Who they want: Minnesota

When the Seawolves played at Minnesota in October, the Gophers were the best team in the country. Since then, the Gophers have been brilliant one weekend and just OK the next. UAA showed they can win at Mariucci Arena last season when they were to Minneapolis and knocked out the Gophers, advancing to the Final Five. This Seawolves team isn’t half as good as last year’s, so Anchorage will be a massive long-shot no matter where it goes. Minneapolis would also be easy from a travel standpoint.

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Another college hockey weekend in the books, here are three things I think about the WCHA with just two weeks to go.

– What a colossal meltdown by Minnesota Duluth tonight down in Mankato. Here’s the setup: The Bulldogs led 4-2 late in the third period. Trailing first-place Minnesota by a single point in the standings, and the Gophers cruising to a win over Bemidji State, it appeared the Bulldogs were going to keep pace. Then two goals in 10 seconds happened. Two minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime went past and UMD gained just a single point against 11th-place Minnesota State. The deficit for the Bulldogs is now just two points, but if the Gophers and ‘Dogs finish tied in the league standings, remember tonight in Mankato. Minnesota owns the tiebreaker with UMD, so a tie would make Minnesota the No. 1 seed for the playoffs. And the difference between first and second right now could be a date with the hapless Seawolves or a rematch with the Mavericks, who have a winning record over the last six weeks.

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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — For Merrimack to retain a legitimate chance to win the Hockey East regular season title, it needed to defeat Boston College Saturday night at the Lawler Rink. Though giving maximum effort, the Warriors failed to earn a vital point, falling 2-1 to the first-place Eagles.

For BC coach Jerry York, wins No. 900 and 901 during the weekend propelled the team onto the top of Hockey East. The Eagles sit one point above second-place UMass Lowell and two above Boston University in third. Even with four games left in the regular season, the pair of wins places BC in a strong position to win their second-consecutive Hockey East title.

Forward Paul Carey scored with seven minutes remaining to give his team a 2-1 lead. The senior collected the rebound from Tommy Cross’ shot and launched a wrist shot above the blocker of Merrimack goalie Joe Cannata.

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