Hockey East’s official postseason awards will be handed out Wednesday, March 14 and Thursday, March 15. Day 1 will see all minor awards and the league’s all-rookie team, before the major distinctions and other honors are revealed the following evening.

The 2011-12 Hockey East season was a continuation of previous years of excellence from some players and teams. However, it also produced its share of revelations. As such, this was much harder to compile than I initially anticipated. In years past, there’s usually more unanimity for this type of stuff.

Some of the awards we decided were agreed upon by all CHN staffers that took part in my poll. In the next few weeks, we’ll see players and teams in this conference fight for the ultimate honor. Scott McLaughlin, Michael King, Joshua Seguin, Jill Saftel, Mike Machnik, Mike McMahon and I will be with you throughout the Hockey East Tournament up until Joe Bertagna hands out a trophy in nine days. For now, we’re taking the chance to hand out a few of our own. The seven of us voted and bantered, argued and agreed, eventually on the following names.

Let’s see if you agree. (more…)

Because I cover the league as a whole, I do not receive an All-WCHA ballot. They are distributed by schools and their Sports Information Directors, generally to the local beat writers, radio guys, TV guys, etc. Coaches also get a vote, as do team captains. That’s how these guys are chosen.

Any scribes like myself who are not affiliated with a local daily or with the team itself do not get a ballot unless an SID provides us with one. Perhaps that will change in the new WCHA.

Anyways, without further ado, here is who I would choose if I had a ballot. I have no doubt I’ll be ripped, so you can do that in the comments below:

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The first round of the playoffs are done, with all the higher seed winning. While the higher seed won, it’s clear that the craziness from the end of the regular season has carried over into the playoffs. AIC and Sacred Heart both pushed their series to three games. Next weekend is sure to have much of the same.

Canisius at UConn – The Huskies swept Canisius in two games. The Huskies eked out an overtime victory on Friday before Garrett Bartus shut out the Golden Griffins on Saturday. Cole Schneider had two goals and two assists while Brant Harris added a goal and three assists. It’s the third straight year that the Huskies have made it to the AHA quarterfinals. The Huskies will travel to Air Force in the quarterfinals

For the Golden Griffins, the season ends on a sour note but they will be returning much of the same team next year, with four of their top five scorers being sophomores right now. Taylor Law finishes him sophomore season with 26 points, well above the 11 he produced his freshman year. (more…)

Chestnut Hill, MA. –  Vermont was unable to control the offensive prowess of Boston College and they were stymied on their own offense as they were outscored 8-1 on the weekend by a Boston College team that locked up the regular season conference title. Boston College scored late in the first period off a goal from Destry Straight, his second of the year and they never looked back in the game. Chris Kreider would score his 20^th of the year at 6:50 of the second period and Pat Mullane would score his sixth of the year in the third period to make the lead insurmountable. Bill Arnold would add an empty netter to make it a 4-0 final.

Boston College with the win improved their record 25-10-1 on the season and locked up the regular season title with a two point advantage on second place Boston University. Vermont ends its season at a disappointing 6-27-1. The effort was there for Vermont but it was just not meant to be on the weekend. Boston College with the win moves up to first in the Pairwise rankings and they look poised to keep that through the playoffs. (more…)

Friday night, Northeastern’s loss to Boston University cemented the eight-team field for the 2012 Hockey East Tournament. NU’s 5-2 loss to BU, paired with Massachusetts’ win over Merrimack and Boston College defeating Vermont, left the Huskies locked into the wrong side of the tiebreakers that ultimately decided who qualified and who missed out.

The Huskies and UMass finished tied in eighth place with identical records of 9-14-4 in Hockey East play. The tiebreakers for this exact scenario are as follows.

1. Head to head record
2. Wins in league play
3. Record against first-place team, if that’s tied it goes to second-place team and so on

In head-to-head play, UMass and Northeastern played to 1-1-1 record, so that first tiebreaker doesn’t help. Second tiebreaker, being league wins, is equally useless, since they finished with the same record. The third tiebreaker, finally, gave us some answers. Boston College picked up its 12th Hockey East regular season championship with its sweep of Vermont. As a result, records of UMass and Northeastern against BC determined the final team. (more…)

We have an undisputed, outright WCHA MacNaughton Cup champion.

Minnesota made sure of that by winning over Wisconsin tonight. Even if they had stumbled, Minnesota-Duluth tied in St. Cloud, meaning the Bulldogs would have finished one point short anyways.

And while the results in Minneapolis and St. Cloud had no effect on seeding for the front-runners, it had plenty of meaning for the Huskies and Badgers.

Here’s what it means for them:

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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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Chestnut Hill, MA.- Boston College used two quick first period goals by Paul Carey and Pat Mullane to go up by two in the first eight minutes. From there they never looked back and defeated Vermont 5-1. Vermont played a strong game from start to finish and gave BC all the trouble that they could have asked for but it was not to be as Boston College used their speed to perfection.

Despite a good defensive effort by Vermont, Boston College was just too strong. HT Lenz scored late in the first period to give UVM hope at 2-1 going into the second period. It was there that Barry Almeida scored a goal midway through to make it 3-1. He scored his second of the night, one of the prettiest goals a hockey fan will ever see, midway through the third period to clinch the victory for BC, at 4-1. Steven Whitney added an empty net goal to make it 5-1, which would hold to the end of the game.

Boston College with the win moved one step closer to clinching the league regular season title but they will still need a win or a tie on Saturday night to do so. With Boston University’s win down the road at Agganis, Boston University still has a chance if Vermont were to take game two tomorrow night against the Eagles, as Boston University holds the tiebreaker. With the win Boston College stays in a tie for second place in the Pairwise rankings. These are ever changing so check out the Pairwise page for all the updates as games go final. (more…)

With one night to go in the Hockey East regular season, we know the eight teams that will be in the playoffs. The league title, the last home ice spot, and seeding are still up for grabs, though. Here is a breakdown of where each team stands entering its final game of the season.

Boston College (37 points)
-hosts Vermont.
-had already clinched home ice for the quarterfinals before this weekend.
-clinched a share of the regular-season title with Friday’s 5-1 win over Vermont.
-can clinch the one seed with a win or tie, or a loss and a BU loss or tie.

Boston University (35 points)
-travels to Northeastern.
-had already clinched home ice before this weekend.
-can clinch one of the top two seeds with a win or tie, or a loss and a Lowell loss or tie.
-can clinch a share of the regular-season title and the one seed with a win and a BC loss. (more…)

For either Notre Dame or Ohio State, the 2011-12 season ends this weekend — an unimaginable thought a few months ago when, at one point, Ohio State was the No. 1 team in the country. And Notre Dame looked determined to return to the Frozen Four, where the Irish fell short just last April.
But none of that matters now, as the series between the Fighting Irish and Buckeyes highlights the first round of the CCHA playoffs, which begin tonight. Check in with the CHN blog for predictions and commentary about all the conference playoff action over the next several weeks, as we gear up for the NCAA Frozen Four in Tampa, FL (April 5-7).

Ohio State at Notre Dame

Notre Dame didn’t score more than two goals in a game during the entire month of February — a span of eight games. But Ohio State has won just once in 2012 and seems unrecognizable from its late 2011 form, when Cal Heeter, Ryan Dzingel, and co. swept Michigan in late November and sat atop the CCHA standings. It’s tough to pick one of two severely slumping teams, but given Notre Dame’s flashes of brilliance this season (wins against Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, BU, BC, and more), I’d give the edge to Jeff Jackson’s group. Prediction: Notre Dame in 3. (more…)