A pair of teams — and everybody knows which two we’re talking about, Boston College, Boston University, cough, cough — are locked in a dead heat for the top seed in the upcoming Hockey East tournament.
But that doesn’t mean the league’s remaining clubs won’t provide plenty of excitement of their own with three weeks to go in the regular season. Seven schools, separated by just nine points, will jockey for playoff position with first-round byes and home-ice advantage at stake. Who will prevail is anyone’s guess.
Going into this weekend, Maine, Providence, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Northeastern and Vermont are all very much alive for a coveted first-round bye, which go to the top five seeds. The next three will get to play a preliminary round game on their home ice. At least one of the aforementioned teams will be on the road to open the tournament on March 13.
This weekend’s most crucial series, at least as far as playoff positioning is concerned, features UMass (16-9-3, 9-7-2 Hockey East) vs. UNH (16-11-1, 9-8-1), who are tied for fifth place with 28 points apiece. The clubs will play a home-and-home series starting Friday night in Amherst, Mass.
The Wildcats, 16th in the latest USCHO.com D-I men’s poll, ride into the weekend on the coattails of a sweep of archrival Maine by scores of 6-2 and 5-2 and will be looking to keep that momentum. The No. 14 Minutemen, on the other hand, are reeling following a sweep at the hands of No. 1 Boston College — 5-1 and 6-4 were the final scores — and hope to snap their skid.
More importantly, the weekend could go a long way in deciding which squad is in the driver’s seat for an all-important first-round bye.
“In our league, there’s no easy nights, there’s no easy weeks,” UNH coach Mike Souza said. “Some nights, you might be at your best or near your best and not get the result you want. Anything short of that? We’re certainly not talented enough to win if we’re not playing that way. There’s only, probably, one or two teams in our league that are.”
Last weekend against Maine, UNH junior forward Liam Devlin scored four goals, including a hat trick in Friday’s game and now has 11 on the season. UNH freshman Ryan Conmy had four points (goal, three assists), including the game-winning goal on Friday. UNH is 11-3-1 at home this season.
UMass coach Greg Carvel said he believes Hockey East’s middle is evenly matched.
“There’s not a game in the second half of the year that I didn’t think we could have or should have won,” Carvel said. “It’s will vs. skill. If we’re talking (Boston University) and BC, we’re talking more about trying to neutralize skill. If we’re talking Maine and UNH, it’s more about matching compete levels.”
Another matchup with major tournament seeding implications features Maine (19-7-2, 11-6-1) at Northeastern (14-13-2, 7-12-0) for a two-game set at Matthews arena. The Black Bears, who were previously ranked sixth in the USCHO poll but fell to No. 9 after the sweep at UNH, are currently third in the Hockey East standings with 32 points. Northeastern, which followed a win over BU in the Beanpot championship game on Feb. 12 with a split of a home-and-home series vs. UMass Lowell, are locked in a three-way tie for seventh with UConn and Vermont — each team has 23 points in the standings.
Northeastern freshman goalie Cameron Whitehead is coming off a week where he led the nation with 103 saves on 110 shots in three games. He followed his championship performance in the Beanpot — where he earned top goalie honors — with a career high 42-save shutout on Saturday night in a 4-0 win at home against Lowell.
