NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Behind a three-point night from junior Mike Collins, including a pair of goals, Merrimack College defeated No. 4 New Hampshire on Friday night, 3-2.

With the win, Merrimack is now tied with Providence for fourth place in the Hockey East standings with one game-in-hand on the Friars and two points behind Boston University for second place in the Hockey East. UNH remains third in the league, one point behind BU and one point ahead of Merrimack and Providence.

The Warriors registered the game-winning goal just seven seconds into the third period as freshman Brian Christie won the opening draw back to Jordan Heywood who skated in over the line and found Christie in between the circles. Christie took the pass and unleashed a quick wrist shot over the blocker of UNH goaltender Jeff Wyer. Heywood and Collins picked up assists on Christie’s fourth goal of the season.

Merrimack (10-9-5, 8-5-2 HEA) will travel to Manchester, NH to take on the UNH Wildcats again Saturday at the Verizon Wireless Arena. Puck drop is set for 5:00 p.m. WGAM will be hosting a Merrimack hockey pregame party from Jillian’s, right across the street from the Verizon Wireless Arena from 2-4 p.m.

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BOSTON — Massachusetts-Lowell overcame a two-goal third-period deficit to force a 4-4 tie at Northeastern on Friday. The tie ended the River Hawks’ nine-game winning streak, but extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games. Steve Morra put that streak in serious jeopardy when he gave the Huskies (7-11-3, 4-9-3 Hockey East) a 4-2 lead 1:31 into the third with his first career goal.

The River Hawks (13-7-2, 7-6-2 HE) battled back, though. Daniel Furlong cut the lead in half three minutes later when he beat Bryan Mountain (41 saves) with a shot through traffic. Derek Arnold tied the game on the power play with 4:42 left in regulation when he collected a loose puck at the side of the net and buried it before Mountain could get across.

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Cambridge, MA.- Harvard came storming out of the gates and scored a quick goal off the stick of Jimmy Vesey at two minutes, 34 seconds of the first. After five minutes of play, Harvard led Clarkson 1-0 and were outshooting the Golden Knights 8-2. They would take that lead into the first intermission and Clarkson would use two quick goals nine seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead over the Crimson after two periods. The lead would hold in the third period as Clarkson would further their lead to 5-1 and Joe Zarbo would complete the hat trick on an empty net goal. 5-1 would be the final in this one as Clarkson improves 5-12-6 overall and 4-5-2 in the ECAC, while Harvard falls to 5-12-1, 3-10-0. Read the rest of this entry »

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This is a day late but home and home series’ are the name of the weekend, as all ten teams play two game sets with their opponents. Maine will travel south to take on Boston College at Conte Forum for two and UMass travels to Vermont, which are the only deviations from the home and home series’. From now on we will be in the meat of the conference schedule and most teams will play two games against other Hockey East teams. Check out this week’s Power Rankings, where Boston College has reaffirmed their top billing and UNH falls down to second. Also the standings have gotten really close from second place down. If the NCAA tournament started today BC and UNH would be one seeds, while UML would be a two and BU a four giving Hockey East four teams in the tournament according to the Pairwise Rankings. Its early to look at the national tournament, but it’s certainly in the picture this time of year. Here are the matchups this week. Read the rest of this entry »

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We all know who will be on the top of these rankings and at this point it will probably take a lot to dethrone them from the top. Yale has also taken hold of the second position to stay and behind that, as per usual there is a lot of movement. The standings are owned by Quinnipiac as they hold an eight game lead over Yale, with a mess of teams following closely behind the Bulldogs. If the NCAA tournament started today, in accordance with the Pairwise Rankings, Quinnipiac would be the top seed with Dartmouth and Yale joining them in the big dance. Not to be greedy three teams is OK but a couple more would be best. Without further ado here are my rankings for the week.

1. Quinnipiac (18-3-3, 11-0-1) – Last Week 1

The Bobcats were idle in ECAC hockey last weekend, but hosted in-state rival Connecticut on Tuesday night. The Bobcats defeated the Huskies 2-1, but dominated the game outshooting UConn 50-22 in the contest. They will be idle again this weekend in a weird scheduling quirk where they play once in a span of 20 days.

2. Yale (11-4-3, 7-3-1) – Last Week 2

Yale has continued to solidify there position in these rankings with another two wins last weekend. On Friday night the Bulldogs defeated Harvard 4-0 and on Saturday they defeated Dartmouth 4-2. Yale has yet to lose back-to-back games yet this year and they have won four games in a row. The Bulldogs, like Quinnipiac, are quite cozy in their position. Read the rest of this entry »

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For the first time in a month and a half, we have a new No. 1 (or, more accurately, an old No. 1 that has returned to the top). We also have a new No. 3 — a team that’s so hot it could climb even higher in the near future.

1. Boston College (14-5-2, 11-4-1 HE) — Last week: 2
The Eagles suffered a 5-2 upset loss to UMass on Friday, but bounced back with a 9-3 thrashing of Northeastern on Saturday. That rebound is just enough to move the Eagles ahead of UNH, which lost its only game of the weekend. On Saturday, the Johnny Gaudreau-Pat Mullane-Steven Whitney line exploded for four goals and eight assists, including a hat trick for Whitney. Gaudreau leads the country with 1.72 points per game, .22 more than anyone else.

2. New Hampshire (14-5-2, 9-4-1 HE) — Last week: 1
After a five-week run at the top, the Wildcats slip to second after losing 6-5 to Providence on Saturday. It was another rough game for Casey DeSmith, who got pulled for the second time in three games after allowing four goals on 15 shots. With the loss, UNH is now under .500 (3-4-0) since Dec. 6. Justin Agosta registered three points in the loss, while Kevin Goumas, John Henrion and Casey Thrush each had two.

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The gap between first and second widens, two other top-six teams make big moves in opposite directions, and the bottom six stays pretty steady. Let’s get right to it.

1. Minnesota (17-3-4, 9-3-4 WCHA) — Last week: 1
The Gophers strengthened their hold on first by taking three of four points from North Dakota in the rivals’ final regular-season meetings for the foreseeable future. They won 5-1 on Friday before tying 4-4 on Saturday. Nate Condon tallied five points on the weekend, while Erik Haula, Nick Bjugstad and Zach Budish each had three. Haula, who missed the previous three games with an upper-body injury, has a 16-game point streak.

2. North Dakota (13-7-4, 8-4-4 WCHA) — Last week: 2
Despite taking just one point against Minnesota, UND hangs onto second. Clarke Saunders gave up four goals for the second straight start on Friday, while Zane Gothberg surrendered four for the third time in five starts on Saturday. Corban Knight had a point in each game to extend his point streak to 19 games. UND still sits sixth in the Pairwise and tied for third in the conference standings.

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ORONO, Maine — Merrimack College hung on for a 3-2 win at Alfond Arena Saturday night, taking three of four points in a weekend series with the Maine Black Bears. It’s the first time the Warriors have taken points in back-to-back games at Alfond Arena on the same weekend, as the Warriors took five of six points against Maine in three back-to-back-to-back games this season, starting last Saturday.

The Warriors got goals from Kyle Bigos, Jordan Heywood and Rhett Bly, while Mike Collins added three assists.

The Black Bears got goals from Connor Leen and Joey Diamond.

Sam Marotta made 22 saves for the Warriors, as he made his third straight start. He improved to 6-4-3 on the season, as his goals-against average dipped to 2.04 and his save percentage slid to .927. Martin Ouellette made 25 saves for the Black Bears.

Collins’ three assists keeps him second in Hockey East scoring behind BC’s Johnny Gaudreau, two points behind the BC sophomore, but Collins has the top points-per-game total in the conference.

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Durham, NH- Providence entered the game at UNH winless against the Wildcats in nearly five years, but no one would have guessed that with the way the teams exited the locker room. The first period was a relatively quiet period but Shane Luke would find the back of the net at five minutes, 23 seconds of the first to give the Friars the 1-0 first period lead. This 1-0 lead would hold until intermission, and PC would totally dominate UNH in the second taking a 5-2 lead into the third period.

The Wildcats would score three goals in the second period, and the Friars one but it was not to be as PC would hold on to defeat UNH 6-5.  Providence improves to 10-9-3, 8-5-2 in Hockey East and UNH falls to 14-5-2, 9-4-1 in Hockey East. The loss puts UNH four points behind Boston College, with two games at hand and the win puts Providence in a tie for third place in Hockey East with Boston University. UNH also falls to fourth, from second, in the Pairwise rankings, while Providence solidified there status as a TUC in those rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

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MINNEAPOLIS- For the second straight Friday, Ben Marshall scored a game-winning goal in the final seconds of a period. Only this time the Gophers defensemen was aided by three additional goals in the final twenty minutes to turn what was a close game into a lopsided result.

Minnesota (17-3-3, 9-3-3 WCHA) scored five goals by five different players Friday night and Adam Wilcox made 24 saves as the Golden Gophers defeated sixth-ranked North Dakota (13-7-3, 8-4-3 WCHA) and extended their unbeaten streak to nine game.

North Dakota got on the board first following a scoreless first period. Sophomore forward Michael Parks found a way to get the puck over Wilcox while on their second powerplay of the night. Their lead, however, lasted a total of 2:32 as Minnesota forward Zach Budish found himself the benefactor of a Sam Warning pass and sniped it past UND goalie Clarke Saunders.

Then it was Marshall, who scored the game-winning goal with under a minute left against Alaska-Anchorage, with another. The sophomore defenseman pinched in on the power play to slam home a puck lying in traffic  with 5.8 seconds left. That goal proved to be the difference as Nate Schmidt, Nate Condon and Erik Haula (suiting up as a wing after missing 3 games with an “upper body injury”) each scored in the third period to give the Gophers comfort room. Read the rest of this entry »

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