CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Maine defeated Boston College, 4-1, Friday night in the first game of a weekend pair with the Eagles at Conte Forum. First-period goals from Joey Diamond and Ryan Lomberg put the Black Bears on top, 2-0, after one. Will Merchant added a third late in the second period, before Kyle’s Beattie’s empty-net goal put the game away for Maine. Steven Whitney’s goal at 13 minutes, 6 seconds of the third period gave the Eagles hope, but the Black Bears withstood the pressure to preserve the win.

Junior goaltender Martin Ouellette made 34 saves in the win.

What I Saw

• Maine was one of the few teams to take time and space from BC’s dominant first line of Whitney, Pat Mullane and Johnny Gaudreau. There was a bit of luck involved; Gaudreau hit a post and a few other bounces fell Maine’s way. Still, the Black Bears’ kept the quick-strike Eagles off balance for most of the night. Closing passing lanes with quality positioning and blocking shots prevented some quality scoring chances from becoming goals. (more…)

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Behind a three-point night from junior Mike Collins, including a pair of goals, Merrimack College defeated No. 4 New Hampshire on Friday night, 3-2.

With the win, Merrimack is now tied with Providence for fourth place in the Hockey East standings with one game-in-hand on the Friars and two points behind Boston University for second place in the Hockey East. UNH remains third in the league, one point behind BU and one point ahead of Merrimack and Providence.

The Warriors registered the game-winning goal just seven seconds into the third period as freshman Brian Christie won the opening draw back to Jordan Heywood who skated in over the line and found Christie in between the circles. Christie took the pass and unleashed a quick wrist shot over the blocker of UNH goaltender Jeff Wyer. Heywood and Collins picked up assists on Christie’s fourth goal of the season.

Merrimack (10-9-5, 8-5-2 HEA) will travel to Manchester, NH to take on the UNH Wildcats again Saturday at the Verizon Wireless Arena. Puck drop is set for 5:00 p.m. WGAM will be hosting a Merrimack hockey pregame party from Jillian’s, right across the street from the Verizon Wireless Arena from 2-4 p.m.

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BOSTON — Massachusetts-Lowell overcame a two-goal third-period deficit to force a 4-4 tie at Northeastern on Friday. The tie ended the River Hawks’ nine-game winning streak, but extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games. Steve Morra put that streak in serious jeopardy when he gave the Huskies (7-11-3, 4-9-3 Hockey East) a 4-2 lead 1:31 into the third with his first career goal.

The River Hawks (13-7-2, 7-6-2 HE) battled back, though. Daniel Furlong cut the lead in half three minutes later when he beat Bryan Mountain (41 saves) with a shot through traffic. Derek Arnold tied the game on the power play with 4:42 left in regulation when he collected a loose puck at the side of the net and buried it before Mountain could get across.

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This is a day late but home and home series’ are the name of the weekend, as all ten teams play two game sets with their opponents. Maine will travel south to take on Boston College at Conte Forum for two and UMass travels to Vermont, which are the only deviations from the home and home series’. From now on we will be in the meat of the conference schedule and most teams will play two games against other Hockey East teams. Check out this week’s Power Rankings, where Boston College has reaffirmed their top billing and UNH falls down to second. Also the standings have gotten really close from second place down. If the NCAA tournament started today BC and UNH would be one seeds, while UML would be a two and BU a four giving Hockey East four teams in the tournament according to the Pairwise Rankings. Its early to look at the national tournament, but it’s certainly in the picture this time of year. Here are the matchups this week. (more…)

For the first time in a month and a half, we have a new No. 1 (or, more accurately, an old No. 1 that has returned to the top). We also have a new No. 3 — a team that’s so hot it could climb even higher in the near future.

1. Boston College (14-5-2, 11-4-1 HE) — Last week: 2
The Eagles suffered a 5-2 upset loss to UMass on Friday, but bounced back with a 9-3 thrashing of Northeastern on Saturday. That rebound is just enough to move the Eagles ahead of UNH, which lost its only game of the weekend. On Saturday, the Johnny Gaudreau-Pat Mullane-Steven Whitney line exploded for four goals and eight assists, including a hat trick for Whitney. Gaudreau leads the country with 1.72 points per game, .22 more than anyone else.

2. New Hampshire (14-5-2, 9-4-1 HE) — Last week: 1
After a five-week run at the top, the Wildcats slip to second after losing 6-5 to Providence on Saturday. It was another rough game for Casey DeSmith, who got pulled for the second time in three games after allowing four goals on 15 shots. With the loss, UNH is now under .500 (3-4-0) since Dec. 6. Justin Agosta registered three points in the loss, while Kevin Goumas, John Henrion and Casey Thrush each had two.

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ORONO, Maine — Merrimack College hung on for a 3-2 win at Alfond Arena Saturday night, taking three of four points in a weekend series with the Maine Black Bears. It’s the first time the Warriors have taken points in back-to-back games at Alfond Arena on the same weekend, as the Warriors took five of six points against Maine in three back-to-back-to-back games this season, starting last Saturday.

The Warriors got goals from Kyle Bigos, Jordan Heywood and Rhett Bly, while Mike Collins added three assists.

The Black Bears got goals from Connor Leen and Joey Diamond.

Sam Marotta made 22 saves for the Warriors, as he made his third straight start. He improved to 6-4-3 on the season, as his goals-against average dipped to 2.04 and his save percentage slid to .927. Martin Ouellette made 25 saves for the Black Bears.

Collins’ three assists keeps him second in Hockey East scoring behind BC’s Johnny Gaudreau, two points behind the BC sophomore, but Collins has the top points-per-game total in the conference.

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Durham, NH- Providence entered the game at UNH winless against the Wildcats in nearly five years, but no one would have guessed that with the way the teams exited the locker room. The first period was a relatively quiet period but Shane Luke would find the back of the net at five minutes, 23 seconds of the first to give the Friars the 1-0 first period lead. This 1-0 lead would hold until intermission, and PC would totally dominate UNH in the second taking a 5-2 lead into the third period.

The Wildcats would score three goals in the second period, and the Friars one but it was not to be as PC would hold on to defeat UNH 6-5.  Providence improves to 10-9-3, 8-5-2 in Hockey East and UNH falls to 14-5-2, 9-4-1 in Hockey East. The loss puts UNH four points behind Boston College, with two games at hand and the win puts Providence in a tie for third place in Hockey East with Boston University. UNH also falls to fourth, from second, in the Pairwise rankings, while Providence solidified there status as a TUC in those rankings. (more…)

BOSTON — Former Boston University winger Vinny Saponari scored with 2 minutes, 3 seconds left in regulation to lift Northeastern to a 6-5 win at Agganis Arena on Friday. Saponari’s tally undid a furious three-goal comeback from BU that saw a 5-2 Northeastern lead at the start of the third period become a 5-5 tie with 13:24 to play in the frame.

A pair of second period goals from Braden Pimm and Cody Ferriero helped Northeastern build the three-deficit heading into the third. Evan Rodrigues scored twice and Danny O’Regan added a third to pull BU even. Kevin Roy led the way for the Huskies with a goal and two assists. Rodrigues scored a pair of goals and added two helpers for the Terriers.

What I Saw

• Northeastern’s forecheck caused serious problems for the BU defensemen on Friday night. The Huskies worked the puck below the circles effectively throughout the game. BU’s talented defenders had little answer for the aggressive Huskies. What’s more, Northeastern turned their lengthy cycles into quality scoring chances. The Huskies put 14 shots on BU goaltender Sean Maguire from the goalmouth. Generating offense from below the circles has been the hallmark of Northeastern during its more successful nights. On Friday, five of the Huskies’ six goals came from rushing the net and making it difficult for Maguire to corral rebounds. (more…)

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — For the third time this season, Massachusetts led Boston College in the third period. For the third time, the Eagles came back to tie the game. But unlike those first two games, when the Eagles went on to win, the Minutemen exorcised their demons and scored three times in the final seven minutes en route to a 5-2 victory. It marked their first win at Conte Forum since November 2007.

BC’s Steven Whitney tied the game 4:08 into the third off a nice backhand feed from Johnny Gaudreau, bringing on flashbacks to UMass’ blown leads in the first two meetings. But the Minutemen didn’t roll over this time. With 6:57 to go, Michael Pereira ducked a check along the boards, drove hard to the net, and buried his own rebound to give UMass the 3-2 lead. K.J. Tiefenwerth scored a minute later, and Branden Gracel sealed the win two minutes after that.

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Last weekend saw the most anticipated series’ of the Hockey East season, as Boston College and New Hampshire split a home and home series in front of two sellout crowds. With those results UNH has stayed atop this week’s CHN Hockey East Power Rankings, while Boston College continues in the second spot and the lead the ever important Hockey East standings by two points over the Wildcats. Arguments could be made both ways and in the most important rankings table both teams sit in a tie for first place in the Pairwise. This just seems like the way it should be.  This week is a relatively light week for games and Providence College is in the spotlight, as they travel to UMass-Lowell and New Hampshire.  Other great games dot the schedule so here is my weekly stab at previewing the games. (more…)