NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Connor Toomey scored a power-play goal with 34 seconds left in overtime to give Merrimack a 2-1 victory over Boston College on Friday night. With the win, the Warriors (14-10-5, 12-6-2 HE) jumped the Eagles (17-8-2, 12-7-1 HE) and moved into sole possession of first place in Hockey East. Quinn Smith opened the scoring for BC midway through the second, but John Heffernan tied it with 7:03 left in regulation when he scored right off a faceoff. Sam Marotta made 39 saves for Merrimack, while Parker Milner stopped 40 shots for BC.

What I saw
-The Eagles’ goal came on a play that was originally ruled no-goal. Smith shot from about 10 feet out and Marotta made the save, but the puck squirted out to his right and eventually rolled across the goal line. The whistle blew and it was ruled no-goal on the ice, but the refs overturned the call after a lengthy review.

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Amherst, Mass. – Massachusetts-Lowell scored three first period goals on its way to a 6-3 rout of Massachusetts Friday night at the Mullins Center.

Junior defenseman Joe Houk found Derek Arnold twice for goals, and Riley Wetmore’s third period tally gave him his 100th career point.

Freshman Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves for the River Hawks in the win, while Kevin Boyle struggled for UMass, making 13 saves on 19 shots for the game.

With the win, Lowell remains in the six spot in the Hockey East standings and sits at 15th in the Pairwise. The Minutemen fall to eighth in the standings with a Vermont win on Friday.

What I Saw

• There were points in the game where UMass played well — the Minutemen outshot Lowell 19-11 in the first two periods — but the River Hawks got the better of the scoring chances and capitalized on UMass’ mistakes. The backbreaker came late in the second period when Houk found Arnold wide open in the neutral zone for a breakaway goal to give Lowell the 4-2 advantage heading into second intermission. The Minutemen were caught with three players stacked to one end of the ice with the two others pinching, leaving Arnold wide open at the far blue line. That one sequence told the story of the game as the River Hawks capitalized one UMass mistake after another in the win. Read the rest of this entry »

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Cambridge, MASS. – The first period was played to a scoreless tie, but the second period would be much different as both teams combined to put on an offensive showcase. Harvard began the scoring as Alex Fallstrom put in a rebound just 43 seconds into the period. Not to be outdone Colgate would score on the power-play five minutes later to tie the game at one apiece. But Harvard would get two goals by Marshall Everson four minutes apart to give them the 3-1 second intermission lead.

Harvard would add an empty-netter in the third period to make the final 4-1 in favor of the Crimson. Harvard improves to 7-15-2 on the season, 4-12-1 in ECAC play while Colgate falls to 13-12-4, 5-9-3. Colgate will remain in tenth place in the ECAC standings with the loss, but both Harvard and Cornell pulls closer to them, at four and one points respectively. Harvard remains in last place, but remain three points behind Cornell for eleventh and four points behind Colgate for tenth. The loss will move Colgate even further away from an at large spot, according to the Pairwise. Read the rest of this entry »

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Snow wrecked havoc across New England this weekend, causing cancellation of some games. Every team except for Holy Cross and Sacred Heart were able to play at least once this weekend. All it means is that the standings are even tighter than ever. And with just three weeks left in the regular season, every point is vitally important.

1. Niagara – The Purple Eagles have clinched a first round bye and are closing in on the regular season title. They need just three points and the regular season title is their’s. It’s a real possibility that they’ll have it wrapped up this weekend. While the Purple Eagles have struggle some recently, they are still clearly the best team in Atlantic Hockey. They are 11th in the current Pairwise.

2. Holy Cross – The Crusaders were unable to play this weekend because of the snow. They’ll play the home-and-home with Sacred Heart on Feb. 19 and 26. Read the rest of this entry »

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With Quinnipiac miles away from everyone else at the top, it has come time to focus on the great race that has developed behind them. Six points separate second place Yale and tenth place Colgate in the standings, while third to ninth are separated by a mere two points. The parity within ECAC has turned out to be awesome, it will make for a great few weeks of conference action, as most teams have just six games remaining in the regular season. If the season ended today Quinnipiac and Yale would be in the NCAA tournament, while Dartmouth would join them per the Pairwise Rankings.

1. Quinnipiac (21-3-4, 14-0-2) – Last Week 1

The unbeaten streak is up to 21 games now after a pair of win on the road against Cornell and Colgate. I guess we should start expecting nothing less from the Bobcats, as they have been number one in both Pairwise and Krach for some time now.  But the time will come to prove said rankings when it actually matters. For now though, the Bobcats hang onto the number one position in these rankings. They are balanced and play the best defensive game in the country. The Only question left to be answered is whether an ECAC can find it in them to defeat them. With Yale’s defeat at the hands of Brown the Bobcats need just one tie to clinch at least a share of the Cleary Cup or a win to clinch it outright. It will probably happen this week. Read the rest of this entry »

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Thanks to the blizzard that swept through the region on Friday and Saturday, there wound up being just three games over the weekend, plus the Beanpot on Monday. Combine that with a busy week for me, and these power rankings are a little shorter than usual. I promise I’ll make up for it next week.

1. Boston College (17-7-2, 12-6-1 HE) — Last week: 1
The Eagles won their fourth straight Beanpot on Monday, beating Northeastern 6-3. With the win, BC’s seniors became the first class in program history to collect four Beanpot titles. Johnny Gaudreau had two goals and an assist in the game, while Steven Whitney had a goal and two assists. The Eagles now have a three-game winning streak.

2. New Hampshire (16-7-3, 11-6-2 HE) — Last week: 2
The Wildcats tied Providence 3-3 on Sunday, pulling within one point of first-place BC in the process. Scott Pavelski scored the tying goal with 3:26 left in the third, while Grayson Downing and Maxim Gaudreault each had two points. UNH gave up two power-play goals in the game, marking just the seventh and eighth they’ve allowed all season.

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BOSTON — Boston College defeated Northeastern, 6-3, on Monday night to win the 61st Beanpot championship. The victory gave BC its 18th title and fourth in a row.

After a scoreless first period, BC scored twice in 1 minute, 15 seconds in the second period to establish a 2-0 lead. The goals came from Bill Arnold and Johnny Gaudreau. Kevin Roy halved the lead at 15:04 of the period, but the Eagles struck twice more before the end of the period and carried a 4-1 advantage into the third.

Roy scored his second of the game — fifth of the tournament — 11 seconds into the third and Braden Pimm redirected a Vinny Saponari shot past Parker Milner 2:45 later to make it 4-3. The Huskies created several scoring chances on Milner, but they failed to tie the game. Gaudreau’s second of the game at 14:37 of the third gave the Eagles a 5-3 lead, and Pat Mullane’s empty-net goal sealed the 6-3 win with 1:28 remaining the game.

Mullane, the Eagles’ captain, heads a senior class that became the first at BC to win a Beanpot all four years. Roy picked up the tournament’s MVP award despite playing on the losing team. He scored three goals in NU’s 3-2 win over Boston University last Monday to go along with the two he managed against BC.

What I Saw

• Three of BC’s second-period goals resulted directly from Northeastern defensive mistakes. The Eagles thrive on pressuring the puck at all times. Whether on the penalty kill, forechecking or fighting for a tying goal late in the game, BC’s forwards never make it easy for the opposition. Northeastern navigated the waves of forwards effectively for the most part. The Huskies’ few mistakes, however, quickly turned into goals. On BC’s first goal, Mike Gunn in a race for a puck, which left him out of position. A similar lapse from Cody Ferriero cost NU on the Eagles’ third goal. The Huskies didn’t make too many defensive mistakes on Monday night. Then, BC doesn’t need many to capitalize. Read the rest of this entry »

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Only three series were completed this weekend as snow caused games throughout the Northeast to be postponed. The rest of the games are being played today and tomorrow. And with just three weeks left, every team knows exactly what they need to do. The games to be played include Bentley at UConn (Monday), Sacred Heart at Holy Cross (Tuesday), and Holy Cross at Sacred Heart (Feb. 19). Army at AIC still has no makeup date announced. Read the rest of this entry »

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It was certainly an exciting weekend in the WCHA, as all 12 teams were in action. The top three and bottom three teams in my rankings stay where they were, but the six teams in between are all on the move. A split between the top two teams allowed North Dakota to gain a little ground, while the two Mavericks both made big moves — just in opposite directions.

1. Minnesota (19-5-4, 11-5-4 WCHA) — Last week: 1
The Gophers split with St. Cloud, so nothing changes at the top. Erik Haula scored twice in Friday’s 4-2 win, then tallied two assists in Saturday’s 4-3 loss. He has points in 19 of his last 20 games and is now tied for first in the WCHA and fourth in the country with 1.40 points per game. Adam Wilcox gave up four goals on 21 shots Saturday, marking just the fourth time this season he’s allowed four goals in a game.

2. St. Cloud State (18-11-1, 15-6-1 WCHA) — Last week: 2
Friday’s loss to Minnesota ended a six-game unbeaten streak for the Huskies, but they bounced back to win on Saturday. Drew LeBlanc scored two goals in the series, including what proved to be the game-winner on Saturday. He now has 40 points on the season, tying him for second in the league. Ryan Faragher surrendered seven goals on the weekend, but he also faced a ton of shots — 81 to be exact.

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Durham, NH – UNH came out flying in the early going, running out to a 17-6 shot on goal advantage in the first period. But it was Providence College that took a 1-0 lead into the intermission on a power-play goal by John Gilmour at 13 minutes, 27 seconds of the period. UNH would score at 14:52 of the second period to send the game to the third period knotted at one. UNH wasted no time in the third period taking an early 2-1 lead on a goal by Dan Correale at 30 seconds of the period, but PC would respond 5 minutes later on the power-play to tie the game at two, again.

Providence would take advantage of a power-play midway through the third to take a 3-2 lead. That goal was scored by freshman Nick Saracino and was his second of the game. Scott Pavelski would score a late tying goal as UNH and Providence would hold on for the three all tie. The tie puts UNH one point behind Boston College for first in the Hockey East standings, while it puts PC in a tie with Boston University for the final home playoff spot. The tie did little to move UNH in the Pairwise rankings, as they still sit in fifth place. Read the rest of this entry »

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