After an interesting weekend of Hockey East action, we are again reminded that every game within Hockey East is going to be a battle.

Merrimack is the only undefeated team remaining in the country, but its the only Hockey East team off this weekend. In the lone non-conference game, Boston College heads out to South Bend, Ind., to play CCHA foe, and future Hockey East member, Notre Dame. This matchup will be crucial for Boston College, and the rest of the conference for that matter, in regards to the PairWise rankings and the future positioning thereof. (more…)

It was yet another weekend of unpredictable results in Hockey East, with UMass-Lowell’s sweep of Maine and BU’s beatdown of BC standing out as the most surprising results. Meanwhile, Merrimack remained unbeaten with a victory at BU. There is a little more separation this week than last, but teams three through eight are all still packed together pretty tightly.

1. Merrimack (8-0-1, 6-0-1 HE) — Last week: 1

The still-undefeated Warriors hold onto the top spot after notching a come-from-behind overtime win against BU on Friday. Merrimack has now gone to overtime in three straight games, having picked up a win and tie against Northeastern two weekends ago. While the defense continues to be great — it hasn’t allowed more than two goals in a game yet this season — the offense has tallied just seven goals total in those last three games.

2. Boston College (9-3-0, 7-2-0 HE) — Last week: 2

The Eagles squeaked out a 2-1 win over Northeastern on Friday when Tommy Cross scored with 2.8 seconds remaining, but then they suffered a sobering 5-0 thrashing at the hands of BU on Sunday. Not that anyone on Chestnut Hill should be panicking, but BC has now lost two of its last three. Special teams, which had been a strength all season, were a big problem Sunday, as BU scored two power-play goals and a shorthanded goal. (more…)

While everyone in North Andover, Mass., was freaking out because Merrimack did not overtake the top in either national poll, I spent the day informing people of two things: polls are stupid and the Warriors are in great position in the Hockey East standings (second place) and the PairWise (first), which are still the only two metrics that matter.

Merrimack is good, but skepticism is valid 

In September, I pegged Merrimack to finish third behind Boston University and Boston College. I wavered back and forth between a third-place finish and a fourth-place landing, ultimately putting the Warriors third, Maine fourth and New Hampshire fifth. With this, I was really making two pretty big predictions with Merrimack building on last season and UNH’s run of home ice ending.

We have roughly four months of hockey left this season, but I’m looking pretty good — except with the whole thinking Maine’s goaltending wouldn’t be terrible thing.

Friday’s comeback, overtime win at BU cemented the Warriors as one of the two best teams in Hockey East. However, that win over BU, which helped Merrimack improve to 8-0-1, was Merrimack’s first win over what someone could describe a “good” hockey team — and that word only applies if you consider “wildly talented” a synonym for “good.” Knocking Maine off in the season-opener may qualify as well, if only because it was the first game of the season and no one knew Dan Sullivan and Martin Ouellette would be this bad. (more…)

Boston College took down Northeastern University Friday night at Conte Forum 2-1. BC is now 7-1-0 in conference play, while Northeastern is still looking for its second win of the season at 1-6-2.

The Huskies took an early lead in the first period but couldn’t maintain as BC evened the score in the second and sealed the deal with a last second goal from Tommy Cross with under three seconds to play.

What I saw

Northeastern’s defense was clearing puck after puck in the first period. When it came to the second and third periods, they were clearing less and couldn’t push BC back once they got the puck in front of Rawlings.

BC obliterated Northeastern in shots. The Eagles basically doubled Northeastern’s shot number each period, giving them a 36 to 18 shot advantage at the end of the game. The BC defense looked significantly more aggressive than Northeastern’s. (more…)

BOSTON — Merrimack remained unbeaten with a come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win against Boston University on Friday night. Goals from Garrett Noonan and Justin Courtnall staked the Terriers (3-4-1, 2-3-1 HE) to a 2-1 lead, but the Warriors (8-0-1, 6-0-1 HE) fought through a slew of penalties and tied the game with 1:56 remaining when Brandon Brodhag tipped home a Jordan Heywood slapper. They captured their second overtime victory in a row with another tip-in, as Billerica native Connor Toomey deflected a Karl Stollery wrister past Kieran Millan (27 saves) just 22 seconds into the extra session. Joe Cannata made 36 saves for Merrimack.

What I saw

-Merrimack’s freshmen finally found the scoresheet. Through the first eight games of the season, the Warriors had zero points from their rookie class. That changed with the first goal of the game when Arlington native Justin Mansfield chipped a rebound past Millan. Then of course there was the game-winner from Toomey, another freshman. Mansfield and Toomey, along with fellow freshmen Clayton Jardine and Dan Kolomatis, have been playing well this season; they just hadn’t scored yet. If they can build on Friday night and continue to be productive, Merrimack could make the jump from a middle-of-the-pack offense to one of the league’s best. (more…)

A month into the season, Merrimack and Boston College appear to be head and shoulders above the rest of Hockey East. After them, there’s a whole bunch of teams trying to break away from the pack and establish themselves as legitimate home-ice squads. Before I get to this week’s power rankings (which will be a weekly feature from here on), it’s worth noting that these rankings are where I see teams right now, not where I see them at the end of the season.

1. Merrimack (7-0-1, 5-0-1 HE)

Given that they’re the only unbeaten team left in the country, it should come as no surprise that the Warriors top this week’s rankings. They possess the nation’s best defense (1.25 goals against per game), led by senior goalie Joe Cannata and his league-leading .939 save percentage. The only knock on the Warriors is that they haven’t played anyone really good yet, although going 3-0-0 at Maine and Vermont (two places that are always tough to play) is pretty impressive.

2. Boston College (8-2-0, 6-1-0 HE)

The Eagles might’ve been No. 1 this week, but then they lost to UMass on Saturday. That game is more of an aberration than anything to actually be concerned about, but it’s just enough to drop them below Merrimack. The Eagles rank first or second in the conference in offense, defense, power play and penalty kill, so you’d have to do a lot of nitpicking to find a weakness here. Led by Chris Kreider (8-7-15) and Bill Arnold (7-7-14), BC has six players averaging a point per game or better. (more…)

The top of the various Hockey East scoring leaders looks pretty much the way we expected. Chris Kreider leads the league with 15 points on eight goals and seven assists and three Boston College teammates follow. Strong upperlcassmen like Massachusetts’ T.J. Syner are putting together strong seasons, along with Maine’s dynamic senior duo of Brian Flynn and Spencer Abbot chipping in with consistent production.

We know what we’re going to get from some guys. Others, we expect and don’t get. Then, there are the players that build strong seasons out of almost nowhere. This feature will run throughout the season and assess those performances that have helped teams win a few more games than we all thought they would.

Three Up

Nick Sorkin, Sophomore, Forward, New Hampshire

Since beginning the season 0-4-0, New Hampshire is 4-0-1 in its last five games. While many worried about the Wildcats’ ability to create consistent offense, Nick Sorkin has proven to be that productive, do-it-all center UNH coach Dick Umile has managed to cultivate almost every season. In those fives games, Sorkin has three goals and five assists, pacing the resurgent UNH offense. To his right, Stevie Moses appears to have found his game against, which his a testament to Sorkin’s presence. In the three games before being placed with Sorkin, Moses recorded just one assist. Since being placed along side the sophomore, the speedster Moses has three goals and four assists. (more…)

When both Massachusetts and UMass-Lowell left the ice on Saturday night, each club likely expected its victory to be the most surprising result of the evening.

In Amherst, the Minutemen defeated Boston College, 4-2, for its first Hockey East win of the season. The victory was UMass’ first over Boston College since Casey Wellman’s overtime winner gave the Minutemen a 4-3 decision on Nov. 22 2008. Meanwhile, about 80 miles to the east, Lowell crushed Boston University, 7-1, to pick up its own first league win of the season.

Which win was bigger for which team? Next week will give us more insight in that regard, but, for now, both teams have more confidence than they did when the weekend began. Other results throughout the league told us a few more things, and here’s just some of what I gleaned.

Ryan Flanigan is the most underrated player in Hockey East

Bill Arnold. Chris Kreider. Matt Nieto. Stevie Moses. Brian Flynn.

These are the players people like me talked about in September when we named the premier forwards in Hockey East. Flanigan, however, quietly put together a fantastic junior campaign in North Andover a season ago, including a nine-point performance in the Warriors run to the Hockey East Championship game. (more…)

Durham, N.H.– New Hampshire ran out to a 3-0 second period lead then the Black Bears scored a goal late in the second period to begin a comeback bid, the goal was by Spencer Abbott. Maine scored again five minutes into the third period, again Spencer Abbott but the two goals were not enough to complete the impressive comeback. Senior UNH goaltender, Matt  Di Girolamo, made 33 saves in a strong performance late to hold onto to the game for the Wildcats. New Hampshire won their fourth straight game to even their record up at 4-4-1 after starting the season 0-4. Maine dropped to 3-4-1 on the season and had a very unsuccessful road trip south losing to Boston College on Friday night and UNH Saturday.

What I saw

-Maine used speed, skill, and finesse to keep UNH on its toes all night. The third period, even though the shots were in favor of New Hampshire, was dominated by Maine as the Black Bears carried play from the neutral zone into the UNH zone most of it. Maine attempted 21 shots in the third, only five of them making their way through. Maine just could not bury the third and tying goal, the one they seemingly needed on the weekend.

-UNH struggled possessing the puck in many cases. The defense did a great job of blocking shots and keeping shots to the outside.UNH often struggled just getting into the Maine zone but New Hampshire was very opportunistic on the night and buried three of the opportunities given to them. (more…)

LOWELL, Mass. — In the most surprising result of the Hockey East season thus far, UMass-Lowell blew the doors off Boston University to pick up a 7-1 victory, its first conference win of the season. BU (3-3-1, 2-2-1 HE) opened the scoring just 16 seconds into the game when Corey Trivino tipped in a shot from the point, but it was all downhill from there for the Terriers. The River Hawks (3-3-0, 1-2-0 HE) scored seven unanswered goals the rest of the way and outshot BU by an eye-popping 44-16 margin on the night. Six River Hawks recorded multi-point games, led by Scott Wilson’s goal and two assists, Matt Ferreira’s three assists and Derek Arnold’s two goals.

What I saw

-After giving up a goal 16 seconds into the game, the River Hawks utterly dominated the remainder of the first period. They controlled the puck and the pace of play pretty much all period and rarely let BU get set up in the offensive zone, even when the Terriers were on the power play. The tilted sheet of ice was reflected on the scoreboard, as Lowell outshot BU 15-3 in the opening frame and took a 2-1 lead into the locker room.

-The varsity vs. squirts feel continued in the second, as the River Hawks tallied four more goals and outshot BU 15-8 in the period. The Terriers repeatedly lost 1-on-1 battles and turned pucks over under Lowell’s relentless pressure. In the offensive zone, the Terriers remained allergic to the crease as they finished the first two periods with just three grade-A chances, compared to 14 for Lowell.

-Just like every other aspect of the game, the River Hawks dominated special-teams play. They went 2-for-10 on the power play and held the Terriers to just one shot (one!) on their six man advantages. Lowell did a good job moving the puck on the power play and was particularly effective down low by simply out-muscling the BU defense for position. When the Terriers were on the power play, they failed to get much of anything going as the River Hawks consistently took away passing and shooting lanes. It certainly helped that the Terriers did a lot of standing around. (more…)