David H. HendricksonIt was hot versus cold, and cold won. Boston College came into its home-and-home weekend series against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell having won four straight, including the Beanpot over archrival Boston University. UMass-Lowell, by contrast, had lost three straight to fall one game below .500 in Hockey East action, four points out of home ice. … Read more
Massachusetts players helped Boston College claim its 15th Beanpot title Monday night.
None of That Talk Here’s some news that should make fans of seven Hockey East teams stand up and cheer. There will be no Beanpot talk in this column. Thank you. Thank you. You can be seated now. Oh, you’re too kind. Please be seated. Thank you. Hey, the Tournament-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named is great fun and generates … Read more
Harvard had high hopes for the Beanpot, but Monday’s 6-0 semifinal loss to Boston College was a snoozer. Dave Hendrickson reports.
A Zero-Sum Game If the season ended today, Hockey East would get three teams into the NCAA tournament but none would be seeded highly. According to the current PairWise Rankings, Boston College would top the league teams at No. 9, followed by Massachusetts (tied for 10th) and Vermont (tied for 12th). On or outside the … Read more
Northeastern bounced back from an ugly 9-2 Saturday loss at Vermont with a 3-1 win over Providence, keyed by goals from defensemen David Strathman and Jake Newton. Tyler McNeely iced the game with an empty-net goal with 18 seconds left after picking the pocket of a Friar at the point. Goaltender Chris Rawlings, who’d also … Read more
I guess I didn’t get the memo. My destination for a January game between Boston College and Boston University should have been Agganis Arena or Conte Forum, but I was told to go to Fenway Park, so here I am. I make my way to the press room, where framed photographs of Ted Williams and … Read more
Letters To Santa For the final column before the holidays, we’ve once again intercepted mail from Hockey East arenas to the North Pole and are sharing them with you. On New Hampshire stationery: Hey, Santa, Dick Umile here. Things are looking pretty good here in Durham. First place in Hockey East with a 7-2-2 record. … Read more
Merrimack leapfrogged Northeastern in the Hockey East standings with a 3-1 win in the opener of a weekend home-and-home series. Senior goaltender Andrew Braithwaite made 26 saves, including seven during third period penalties. The two teams entered the game separated by only a point, though Merrimack held two games in- hand. The Warriors took a … Read more
Hockey East correspondent Dave Hendrickson has a riddle for you involving one of the teams that’s making waves early this season.
From the Penthouse to the Outhouse Boston University fans lived charmed lives last season, watching their Terriers win championship after championship, including the big enchilada in dramatic fashion. So far this year, however, those fans are paying for it. After finishing in every first place possible one season ago, the Terriers now find themselves in … Read more
It was a game that during the preseason you marked down as a must-see contest between perennial powerhouses, likely a pivotal contest in the Hockey East race: Boston University at New Hampshire. Instead, the rivals entered the game in unaccustomed fashion, neither in the national rankings for the first time in memory, UNH with a … Read more
Up Is Down And Down Is Up It’s enough to make you cue up Diana Ross singing “Upside Down.” (I’m not going to infringe on the copyright of songwriters Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards by adding anything more than, “inside out and round and round.” Got the tune in your head now? OK, let’s roll.) … Read more
The lead stories had all been written. Boston College’s three power-play goals in the first period had salted away a lopsided win in what had originally promised to be a NESN marquee matchup. But a funny thing happened on the way to a blowout. New Hampshire rallied from a 4-1 third period deficit to send … Read more
More Tightly Packed Than Ever? Hockey East has gotten off to a sluggish (at best) start against the other conferences. A 16-14-1 record doesn’t appear all that bad at first glance, but once you get past the 5-0 record against upstart Atlantic Hockey, the results are decidedly underwhelming: 3-3 against the ECACHL, 6-5-1 versus the … Read more
Undefeated UMass There’s only one Hockey East team still standing with an unblemished record — the Massachusetts Minutemen. UMass followed up a season-opening, non-league win over Rensselaer with its first points in Hockey East, a 3-2 win over defending national champion Boston University. There isn’t a coach in the universe who wouldn’t choose to be … Read more
One Last Satisfying Look For a while there, I was fielding the same question following one national championship game after another. “Why can’t your guys win it all? You guys always finish second.” The words invariably came from the mouth of a smug WCHA fan (pardon the redundancy), a drink in one hand and a … Read more
Last year’s New Hampshire Wildcats dipped a bit after back-to-back regular season titles, having graduated too much talent to pull off a three-peat. They finished tied for third — not too shabby — and then came close to erasing any shred of disappointment with a near trip to the Frozen Four. Following an electrifying win … Read more
Last year, Vermont finished in third place for the second straight season, this time tied with New Hampshire. Although Massachusetts-Lowell swept the Catamounts in the opening round of the Hockey East playoffs, they still qualified for the NCAA tournament and bounced back to make the most of that opportunity. Vermont advanced to its first Frozen … Read more
Boston University enjoyed a magical season last year, winning everything but the Stanley Cup. Whether dominating teams or needing a miracle in the closing minutes, such as in the national championship game, the Terriers came through every time. Repeating may be another story. In addition to graduating a ton of talent, they also lost Colin … Read more