This week in Hockey East is for once a normal weekend in terms of games as there will be five, two game series’ going on throughout the conference. This will become the norm in the last two months of the season, but this one week early will give us an idea of who the strong teams are in the conference. This week Boston College again held the top spot in the CHN Hockey East Power Poll, but New Hampshire is nipping on their heels with a strong 3-0-0 start. This week could be the week where separation and teams begin to stand out. This week also features a new format with an added prediction after each preview. (more…)

There is plenty of movement in this week’s rankings, as only four teams remain in the same spot as last week. Among the changes are a new first-place team and a new last-place team.

1. Boston College (2-1-0, 2-1-0 HE) — Last week: 2
The Eagles overcame a 3-0 third-period deficit to beat UMass 5-4 in overtime on Friday, then beat Northeastern 3-0 after raising their national championship banner on Saturday. The top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Pat Mullane and Steven Whitney combined for five goals and six assists on the weekend. After allowing three or more goals in each of his first two starts, Parker Milner earned a 26-save shutout Saturday. One concern for BC is that its third and fourth lines have yet to register a point this season.

2. New Hampshire (3-0-0, 1-0-0 HE) — Last week: 4
The Wildcats continued to roll with a 4-1 win over BU on Saturday. They’ve now scored at least four goals in all three of their games. Saturday featured a balanced attack, as all four lines scored and 10 different players registered a point. UNH scored a power-play goal for the third straight game and killed all five BU power plays. In net, Casey DeSmith stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced. (more…)

Durham, NH.-  Boston University looked to be in cruise control early as they scored just 43 seconds into the game off the stick of Wade Megan. But UNH would respond with two goals in 18 seconds by John Henrion and Nick Sorkin later in the period. These goals would prove to be enough on the night as UNH would go on to win 4-1.

The game was evenly played for most of the night, but the big difference was goaltending.  New Hampshire’s Casey Desmith gave his team a solid performance with 24 saves on 25 shots while BU freshman, Sean Maguire, struggled in his 30 minutes of play giving up four on 14 shots. He was replaced midway through the second period by Matt O’Connor, but the damage had already been done to the tune of a 4-1 lead for UNH. The 4-1 lead would hold until the final buzzer. (more…)

AMHERST, Mass. – Two goals and an assist from senior Pat Mullane helped Boston College overcome a 3-0 deficit after two periods and come away with a, 5-4, comeback win in overtime over Massachusetts Friday night at the Mullins Center. Johnny Gaudreau scored the game-winner three minutes, 32 seconds into overtime to complete the comeback. Mullane scored twice in the third period, including the game-tying goal at the 17:54 mark, and assisted on Gaudreau’s game-winner.

Parkner Milner stopped 20 shots for BC while UMass sophomore Steve Mastalerz made 37 saves in a losing effort in his season debut. The Eagles outshot the Minutemen 42-24 on the night and 16-5 in the third period alone, four of those shots found the back of the net.

What I saw

The Eagles finally got back to that championship form after going down 3-0 late in the second period. BC started to control the puck on the offensive end and it became clear that UMass was tiring defensively playing with only five defensemen after Joel Hanley, who is a fixture on the Minutemen special teams play, received a game misconduct only one minute, 35 seconds into the game for hitting from behind. The Eagles responded well by constantly attacking and making life difficult on Mastalerz, who was forced to make some solid glove saves to keep the shutout in tow after two periods. As BC pushed the attack in the third period, UMass appeared to get complacent and spent a majority of the period skating backwards, resulting in such a discrepancy in shots in the third.

The Minutemen looked like a much faster team than the Eagles were for a majority of the first two periods, winning the race for the puck and playing more physical than BC. One thing UMass showed throughout the game was the ability to block shots, which was key in killing the five-minute major on Hanley’s game misconduct. The team spoke during the week of the importance of getting pressure and creating traffic in front of the net in order to beat Parker Milner, and that’s exactly what they did throughout the first two periods. As a result the Minutemen found the net on their second-chance opportunities, including Rocco Carzo’s first of two goals coming off a rebound on the backhand and his second coming off a loose puck after Steven Guzzo’s shot attempt was deflected.

The way the game ended was clear confirmation that BC was simply more talented and more accustomed to winning than the Minutemen. The Eagles refused to show any sign of slowing down despite such a large deficit in the game, and came out and attacked right away in the third period, only needing one minute, 11 seconds to get on the board in the frame. After cutting the lead to 3-2 on a goal by Destry Straight, UMass responded immediately with a goal from Darren Rowe to put the Minutemen up 4-2 at the 9:35 mark. But yet again, BC went to work and continued to attack a wearing UMass defense that once again started to get complacent.

What I thought

Mullane showed everyone why he is the captain of this team, leading the charge back in the third period and overtime. The Eagles fed off the energy he brought to that top line featuring him, Gaudreau and Steven Whitney, who proved to be the difference after accounting for the final three goals in the game. Although it took BC’s top group until the 16:44 mark to get on the board, they were the premier aggressors throughout that game-changing third period and it only made sense for them to be the difference in the game.

Both teams took a step in the right direction Friday. After a poor outing against Northeastern at Matthews Arena last Saturday in their season opener, the Eagles were once again off to a slow start through a period and a half, but finally started playing on that championship level that carried them to the national championship last season. Each of the first two lines contributed to that attack. After going 0-2 in Amherst last season, outscoring the Minutemen 5-1 in the final 23-plus minutes is certainly a relief. UMass also has to feel pretty good about the way it skated with BC throughout the night. The Minutemen certainly were the better team in the first two periods, the scoreboard says it clearly, but that inability to match the Eagles’ talent-level and being a man down defensively caught up to them in the end.

UMass still has a long way to go to become a contender in Hockey East. The team certainly looks like its buying into the way Micheletto wants them to play, which is a fast and physical style, but with no consistency between the pipes with Mastalerz and fellow sophomore Kevin Boyle both trying to earn a No. 1 role and only four seniors on the roster, this may be something that can’t change overnight. Carzo said after the game that the team started to get comfortable and that some guys believed the game was sealed well before the final horn went off. With losing seasons in four of the past five years, I think the team simply showed that it is not used to being a consistent winner, which is something that will need to be built over time.

What they said

“It was a game of almost two halves I thought where UMass certainly had the better of the first half of the game. They made some really good plays on the puck on us and had that 3-0 lead. I though we started to get back into the game and had an excellent third period. … It showed a lot of resolve from us and I feel good about our team character to hang in there and still not get discouraged about the scoreboard.

“We started to play BC hockey. We were more thorough, we were skating better and just playing with more of a purpose.”

-BC coach Jerry York

“Heck of a hockey game, excited to get into league play. It’s always good to challenge ourselves against one of the better teams in our conference. I was real proud of the way our guys got after it tonight.

“It would’ve been nice to get out of the first two minutes of the third period and been able to push the momentum a bit and the tempo of the game. I think that (first BC goal) prevented us from being on our toes and put us on our heels a bit. In the early stages of where we are it’s an important lesson for our guys moving forward. The way we’re going to play will be more like you saw in the first 40 than the last 20.”

-UMass coach John Micheletto

What else you should know

The Eagles return to Conte Forum Saturday night for a rematch against Northeastern for its home-opener at 7 p.m.

The Minutemen return to the ice Friday night at Agganis Arena for the first of a home-and-home next weekend with Boston University at 7:30 p.m.

Pat Mullane notched his 100th career point with the assist on Gaudreau’s game-winning goal in overtime to cap off a three-point night.

Rocco Carzo’s two goals marked the first multi-point night of the senior’s collegiate career.

As with every week in Hockey East, this week brings us some key matchups that will have some intriguing story-lines  Looking for revenge, Boston College will host Northeastern, a week after a loss at Matthews Arena. Another key, early conference matchup will pit Boston University and New Hampshire. The rest of the conference will take part in important non-conference matchups. Here’s to previewing the weekend’s games around the conference:

Boston College at Massachusetts (Friday)

The Eagles will travel to UMass on Friday night to take on the Minutemen. This matchup is a rematch of a hard fought Hockey East Quarterfinal series last season that saw Boston College sweep UMass in two games.  BC comes off a loss to Northeastern, while UMass comes off a win against UConn. During the regular season last year, UMass went 2-1 against BC. Both of their wins were at the Mullins Center and one should expect a raucous crowd on Friday night. (more…)

Every Hockey East team has played at least one game, which means it’s time for the first power rankings of the season. The biggest theme here is this — don’t overreact. It’s only been a week, and for some teams only a game. I will say this, though — the pack is closer together now than it was before the season. Vermont tying Lowell and Northeastern beating BC pretty much guaranteed it.

1. Massachusetts-Lowell (0-0-1, 0-0-1 HE) — Preseason: 1
The River Hawks would’ve dropped to second had BC won Saturday, but that didn’t happen. Dropping them behind anyone else after just one game would be an overreaction, even if that one game was an unimpressive 1-1 tie against Vermont. Lowell managed to draw just two penalties while giving the Catamounts 13 minutes of power-play time. Josh Holmstrom scored the River Hawks’ lone goal.

2. Boston College (0-1-0, 0-1-0 HE) — Preseason: 2
The defending national champs opened the season with a disappointing 3-1 loss at Northeastern. But as is the case with Lowell, I’m not ready to drop the Eagles after one game. There was a gap between the top two and the rest of the pack entering the season, and that gap hasn’t disappeared yet. Steven Whitney scored BC’s only goal and led all players with five shots on net. (more…)

I’ll admit it’s a little strange to say any player in any league is especially hot or cold after fewer than two weeks of college hockey. This first installment of Three Up, Three Down for 2012-13 won’t quite as stat-heavy most. In these first few games, though, some players showed the potential they’ll need to help their teams this season. Others struggled or experienced injuries in their limited action. Needless to say, the first full weekend of college hockey was an eventful one.

Three Up

Chris Rawlings, Senior, Goaltender, Northeastern

Not a bad start for Rawlings in season that will define his legacy as the player to follow Brad Thiessen. In first three years in Northeastern, Rawlings’ reputation as an inconsistent goaltender has proven difficult to shake. Forgettable performances follow plainly dominant performances against teams Northeastern should struggle to beat. In his first two games of the 2012-13 season, Rawlings stopped 63 of 66 shots in Northeastern wins over Merrimack and defending champion of everything Boston College. Saturday, NU defeated BC, 3-1, and Rawlings stopped 31 of 32 shots, including 15 in the third period. Needless to say, the first week of games provided a good start for the player most important to his team’s fate this season. (more…)

So the first set of Hockey East games are over. Not every team has played a league game to this point, and it’s impossible to tell if anything is really greater or worse than what most expected. There were, however, some surprises in this first week of action. Merrimack’s win at Union to kick the season off sent some shockwaves. More than anything, it reminded us how unpredictable games are in the earliest parts of the season. Regardless, the win may prove large for Merrimack should it end the season on the Pairwise bubble — can’t believe it took me almost two weeks to use the P word. (more…)

BOSTON — The reigning NCAA Champions returned to the ice Saturday night on the road at Matthews Arena and faced a 3-1 loss at the hands of Northeastern. At the helm of Northeastern’s offensive surge were three freshmen, and mixed with stellar goaltending from Chris Rawlings the Huskies were able to fend off a BC comeback to start the season off 2-0.

Ryan Belonger got things started with his first collegiate goal when he swatted at a Cam Darcy shot that bobbled right in front of the net and got one past Parker Milner’s shoulder. Kevin Roy was the next Husky freshman to hit the back of the net when he took a pass from Cody Ferriero across the crease and shot from just in front of the left pole.

The Northeastern lead was tested by Steven Whitney in the final minutes of the first period when he got past Rawlings with an assist from Johnny Gaudreau just eight seconds into an Eagles power play. (more…)

BOSTON — A goal and two assists from Cason Hohmann helped Boston University defeat Providence, 4-2, at Agganis Arena Saturday night. Hohmann, a sophomore, scored the game-winning goal at 18 minutes, 57 seconds of the second period, fewer than 3 minutes after setting up Garrett Noonan’s game-tying goal.

BU goaltender Matt O’Connor, making his collegiate debut, stopped 26 shots, while PC’s Jon Gillies made 30 saves in the loss. PC defeated Sacred Heart, 8-2, on Friday night to open its season, but Saturday’s defeat makes the Friars 0-1-0 in Hockey East play.

What I Saw

• The improvements Nate Leaman has made to Providence’s talent level in fewer than two years are visible at every position. The Friars don’t sit back, waiting for opponents to make mistakes. They dictate long portions of games and make teams play PC hockey. Throughout Saturday’s game, PC carried extended stretches, and only some quality blocked shots and saves kept them from more goals. When BU turned it on, Jon Gillies bailed them out frequently. The presence of Gillies in the Friars’ lineup is just one example of improved talent. Freshmen like Mark Jankowski, Paul de Jersey and John Gilmour all have diverse skill sets. (more…)