As the second half of the season races by and most teams are in hot pursuit of crucial conference points, four Boston teams gather at TD Garden in pursuit of something else, hardware and bragging rights.

The first Monday of February is upon us, and it’s Beanpot time.

The tournament brings with it storylines of Beanpots past: this year all four coaches have won the tournament as players for their respective teams.

All four teams also enter the tournament coming off wins. The only team with the weekend off, Boston College defeated University of New Hampshire 3-2 last weekend. Boston University took two points from #4 Merrimack with a 4-1 win on Friday while Northeastern secured a more comfortable position for playoff hopes by breaking their 7^th place tie with University of Massachusetts with a 4-3 overtime win. In ECAC play, Harvard trumped Quinnipiac 6-3, also on Friday.

These four teams are coming in hot, all poised for playoff contentions in their respective leagues.

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LOWELL, Mass. — UMass-Lowell exploded for six goals Saturday night as they beat Vermont 6-4 in a game that decided the season series. The River Hawks took a 2-0 lead just six minutes in when Chad Ruhwedel and Terrence Wallin scored 56 seconds apart. After Sebastian Stalberg (2g) scored later in the first, Scott Wilson (1g, 2a) restored the two-goal lead for Lowell (18-7-0, 13-6-0 HE) just 1:12 later.

Kyle Reynolds (1g, 3a) cut the deficit to one for Vermont (5-21-1, 2-17-1 HE) late in the first, but Derek Arnold and Colin Wright scored in the second to give the River Hawks a three-goal cushion entering the third. The Catamounts staged a late comeback and cut the lead to 5-4 with 49 seconds remaining, but then Josh Holmstrom (1g, 1a) sealed the win with an empty-netter.

What I saw

-Vermont starter Alex Vazzano got pulled six minutes into the game after giving up two goals on five shots. There wasn’t a whole lot he could’ve done on the first goal, as Ruhwedel had time to walk in from the point and snipe the top right corner. The second, however, was one he’d like to have back. Wallin took a slap shot from about three feet outside the blue line and it sailed right past Vazzano’s blocker. Rob Madore played well for a few minutes off the bench, but wound up surrendering three goals on 23 shots.

-Lowell showed some good resolve early in the second after having a goal waved off. Sometimes having a goal taken back can deflate a team, but the River Hawks didn’t slow down at all and wound up scoring just 28 seconds after the review. After Rob Madore stopped Riley Wetmore’s (2a) initial shot, Arnold found the rebound in the crease and banged it home to give the River Hawks a 4-2 lead. Read the rest of this entry »

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Durham, NH. – UNH came out rocking in the first period and scored three goals in the first 14 minutes to propel them to a 3-1 victory on Friday night over a struggling Providence College team. Although the final two periods did not bring the same success for UNH, Casey Desmith became the star of the show making 37 saves on the 38 shots that Providence sent his way. Providence tightened up defensively in the second and third periods. The Friars allowed the Wildcats only 12 shots combined in the final two periods, but the three goal deficit proved to be too much to come back from.

Providence drops to 10-13-2 on the season, which drops them out of the TUC category of the Pairwise rankings. The Friars also drop to 8-9-1 in conference and their 17 points is good for sixth place in the conference, but they saw their lead dwindle to just one point over seventh place and two points ahead of eighth. UNH improved their record to 10-14-2 on the season and 7-11-1 in Hockey East. With the win and a Northeastern win over UMass, UNH moved into the all important eight place position ahead of the Minutemen by one point and sit just two points out of sixth place Providence.

What I Saw

-UNH came out strong to the tune of three first period goals but they seemed to tire quickly. Senior defenseman, Damon Kipp, was out of the game for UNH and the Wildcats played with just five defensemen. By the second period, these defensemen seemed to tire out on the big sheet, as the extra forward never played a shift in the game. This tiring out seemed to effect the effectiveness of UNH in the second and third periods.

-Providence shot themselves in the foot early in the game, with missed assignments and two key penalties midway through the first period. UNH capitalized on both these powerplays and took a 3-0 lead into the dressing. Despite dominating UNH in the final two periods, providence still played from behind and were never able to gain the momentum necessary to complete a comeback. Read the rest of this entry »

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NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Boston University beat Merrimack 4-1 Friday night to take the season series from the Warriors (14-6-5, 10-5-3 HE). The Terriers (16-8-1, 13-6-1 HE) opened the scoring just 1:29 into the first when Chris Connolly beat Joe Cannata (16 saves) with a wrist shot from the right circle. BU increased the lead to 3-0 when Sahir Gill and Alex Chiasson scored less than a minute apart late in the second. Connolly added his second of the game 14:29 into the third before Mike Collins snapped Kieran Millan’s (28 saves) shutout bid with 1:42 left in the game.

What I saw

-BU’s new top line dominated. Chris Connolly and Alex Chiasson have been playing together for a while, but this week Terrier coach Jack Parker opted to move Matt Nieto up to that line in place of Wade Megan. The swap paid off big time, as that trio combined for three of BU’s four goals. After the game, Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy said that line gave his team “fits” and acknowledged that BU’s top players were the best players on the ice Friday night.

-After getting outplayed for most of the first, the Warriors got off to a much better start in the second in terms of puck possession. Unfortunately for them, they struggled to generate quality scoring chances and failed to beat an on-point Millan. Their inability to do anything when they were in control wound up costing them, as BU scored two goals in less than a minute later in the period to put Merrimack in a 3-0 hole it couldn’t overcome. Read the rest of this entry »

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BOSTON — In another close battle at Matthews Arena, Northeastern defeated Massachusetts, 4-3, in overtime. With the victory, the Huskies dealt a devastating blow to UMass and its place in the Hockey East standings.

The Minutemen played well during the second and third periods, but allowed a game-winning goal resulting from a defensive breakdown behind the net. The goal undid several periods of hard work for the Minutemen and left the team without any tangible benefit for the third-consecutive game.

The win also earned Northeastern a split of the season series at 1-1-1. Both teams fought to a 2-2 tie in the first game of the season for each on October 7 in Boston.

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A nearly-full slate of games on the WCHA docket this week, with only Minnesota and North Dakota with the week off. The other 10 teams will be in action against each other, so barring a whole bunch of splits, we could get some clarity to the playoff picture come Sunday morning.

1 — Minnesota Duluth (Last week: 1)

The Gophers have a solid lead in the WCHA standings and the Bulldogs had their worst weekend in a while against Tech. But I still give the edge to UMD, by a nose, because of the other factors — overall record, Pairwise ranking and KRACH ranking. The ‘Dogs are No. 1 in both sets of computer rankings and I think most teams would love to go through a “rough patch” consisting of a 2-2-1 record. Heck, that’s reason to celebrate in Anchorage.

2 — Minnesota (Last week: 2)

Despite leading the league and sweeping St. Cloud State, a feat not nearly as impressive with the Huskies being down SIX FORWARDS from the start of the year, the Gophers still sit perilously close to the Pairwise bubble, entering play this weekend ninth. That’s comfortable for now, but say the Gophs run into their own “rough patch” down the stretch. If they enter the WCHA playoffs in 11th or 12th, that will cause some nerves to be frayed in Minneapolis. And with games at Denver and at Nebraska-Omaha, a “rough patch” isn’t, you know, entirely out of the question.

3 — North Dakota (Last week: 3)

Sweeping Wisconsin in Grand Forks isn’t that great of an accomplishment, when you consider the Badgers have won just once on the road all season. But a sweep is a sweep and four points in late January, especially in a league as tightly contested as this one, will be huge come mid-March. The victories also moved UND onto the verge of the Pairwise bubble, but NoDak still has plenty of work to do in that area. UND enters the weekend tied for fourth, but could conceivably exit it in seventh place. And with the bye, there is nothing it can do about it.

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1. RIT – A win and tie  against Mercyhurst propels the Tigers back to the top spot in the standings and the power rankings.

2. Mercyhurst – The Lakers had the first winless weekend since Nov. 25 and 26, and it cost them first place in the standings.

3. Air Force – The Falcons are starting to turn their play around and currently sit in a tie with Niagara for third place.

4. UConn – The Huskies have won six of their last eight games and appear to be picking up steam as we head towards the playoffs. Read the rest of this entry »

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Over the last two weekends, Maine has made a huge statement. With four straight wins against the likes of Boston University and Boston College, we can officially say that Maine is a contender for the Hockey East regular season championship and a team that could be poised for a run in the tournaments. With the four wins Maine has catapulted itself into third place in the conference, one point behind both Boston University and Boston College. Read the rest of this entry »

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Hockey East is divided into three pretty clear tiers right now. There’s the top five, the next four, and then Vermont all by itself at the bottom. Within those top two tiers, there continues to be plenty of movement on a week-to-week basis, and the difference from first to fifth and sixth to ninth continues to be negligible. The most notable move this week came from Lowell, which becomes the fourth different team to lay claim to the top spot this season.

1. Massachusetts-Lowell (16-7-0, 11-6-0 HE) — Last week: 3

The River Hawks have been in the top half of these rankings for a couple months, and now they ascend to the top spot after beating UMass 4-2 on Friday and 5-2 on Saturday. They have some of the best scoring depth in the league, as they have eight players with at least 18 points and 10 with at least 12. At the other end of the ice, Doug Carr leads Hockey East with a .935 save percentage. Lowell’s 14-4-0 record since the start of November is the best in the league.

2. Merrimack (14-5-5, 10-4-3 HE) — Last week: 2

The Warriors stay in second after beating Providence 4-2 on Sunday in their only game of the weekend. They took 42 penalty minutes and got outshot 39-23 in that game, but Joe Cannata stopped 37 shots as he continues to make his case for the Hobey Baker. After struggling through December and early January, Merrimack is now 3-1-1 in its last five. Karl Stollery has two goals and five assists during that span, and he’s now tied for fourth in the league in defenseman scoring. Read the rest of this entry »

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Northeastern’s Cody Ferriero had a fantastic weekend for the Huskies, scoring four time in two NU wins at Vermont. The sophomore’s turbulent career on St. Botolph Street seems to be on one of its trends up. However, the problem for Ferriero, and Northeastern really, has been the inevitable slope down.

In the two wins over UVM, Ferriero scored four goals and assisted on another. Earlier this year, he scored five goals and recorded five assists in a 10-game span. However, he missed the first four games of the season due to suspension and entered last weekend pointless in three consecutive games.

The peaks have been great Ferriero — and Northeastern — but the valleys have been devastating.

Three Up

Derek Arnold, Sophomore, Forward, UMass Lowell

Derek Arnold scored a game-winning goal in overtime at Northeastern on Jan. 21. He was scoreless three nights later in a 1-0 loss to Providence, which doesn’t appear to have sat well. He scored three times last weekend in two wins for UMass Lowell over sister-school Massachusetts. The wins clinched the first Alumni Cup in three years for the River Hawks, and Arnold was a big part. Read the rest of this entry »

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