David H. HendricksonAnd the brooms rained down. Northeastern swept its season series with Maine for the first time since 1984-85, Hockey East’s inaugural season, led by senior defenseman Louis Liotti’s two goals, including the game-winner in overtime. Skating down the right wing, he tried to get the puck to Steve Silva, but the puck deflected off a … 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 Northeastern stationery: Greg Cronin here, Santa. Don’t set me up again, Big Guy. Yeah, we’re 10-3-2. Yeah, we’re in first place. But seems to me … Read more
After a weekend in which Boston College gave up 13 goals, defense became a point of emphasis. Point well taken. The Eagles shut out Massachusetts, 2-0, to hold onto second place in Hockey East and extend their overall record to 7-3-1. While the win lacked the excitement of last Saturday’s 8-6 barnburner over New Hampshire, … Read more
On The Rebound Could Massachusetts-Lowell stay afloat? That was the question two weekends ago after the River Hawks lost top goalie Carter Hutton two periods into their game against Boston University. BU outscored them, 4-1, in the third period, inflicting a very tough loss. One night later the Hawks lost to Vermont. With Hutton projected … Read more
Led by a Kory Falite hat trick and the first two collegiate goals by Matt Ferreira, Massachusetts-Lowell toppled New Hampshire, 6-3. Ferreira’s goal nine minutes into the game gave the River Hawks a lead they would never relinquish and his third period shorthanded goal proved the backbreaker. Although an acrobatic Danny Dries goal staked UNH … Read more
Best Ever? Hockey East has long prided itself on its top-to-bottom strength. Unlike top-heavy conferences that might boast comparable teams come NCAA tournament time, Hockey East could claim that most years even its teams that fell short of making the league playoffs provided significant challenges. This season, however, we may be seeing that strength at … Read more
Boston University rallied first from an early deficit of 3-1 and then again, down 4-3 with less than three minutes left, to defeat Massachusetts-Lowell, 6-4. Chris Higgins scored with 2:14 remaining to tie the game and set the stage for linemate Colin Wilson’s game-winner with 15 seconds remaining. Wilson finished with two goals and two … Read more
The View From Below This column usually emphasizes teams’ highlights — if you want nonstop negativity to raise your blood pressure, turn on talk radio — but sometimes the lowlights can’t be overlooked. As a result, this week we lead off with two teams that have gotten out of the Hockey East chute slowly. Maine … Read more
A Wonderful Time Of The Year When last season every team but Merrimack lost its Friday night opener, the first column here boiled down to this: “Mayday! Mayday!” Not so this year. Last weekend, Hockey East went 7-2-1 to run its overall nonconference record to 15-4-2. Every team but Massachusetts-Lowell stands at least at .500 … Read more
What a difference a year makes. Instead of emerging from an offseason that threatened the existence of the program and decimated the depth to the point where games with no healthy scratches became the norm, Massachusetts-Lowell opens this season healthy in all respects and with a legitimate shot at playoff home ice. Virtually the entire … Read more
No Hockey East team lost more across-the-board talent than the New Hampshire Wildcats. Last year’s senior-dominated team took the regular season title going away but graduated five All-Hockey East selections: top scorers Mike Radja and Matt Fornataro; top defensemen Brad Flaishans and Craig Switzer; and Player of the Year goaltender Kevin Regan. The Wildcats don’t … Read more
Massachusetts reached new heights midway through last year when, after toppling Notre Dame and Colorado College in a holiday tournament, pollsters ranked the Minutemen fifth in the country. Unfortunately, they could not sustain this lofty perch, dropping the next five games and going winless over seven. The euphoric and sadly premature talk among some supporters … Read more
When Hockey East coaches picked Northeastern to finish fourth this year, it marked the Huskies’ highest preseason projection within the league. It’s easy to see the reasons for the optimism and why they are likely to continue the program’s progress under coach Greg Cronin. Northeastern returns all but two players from the squad that finished … Read more
Boston University rebounded from a potentially disastrous start to finish second in Hockey East last season but still failed to secure an NCAA berth for the first time since 2004. Don’t count on that happening again this year. The Terriers return a lot of talent and have supplemented that with a strong recruiting class. All … Read more
Last time it took four tries. This time, three. Boston College had to pound on the door in 1998, 1999, and 2000 — suffering a succession of gut-wrenching losses — before finally knocking the thing down in 2001. On this night, history came close to repeating itself as the Eagles shook off disappointments in the … Read more
The best teams with the best athletes converge each year at the Frozen Four. Among those top athletes, goaltenders rank as the most important. Teams live and die with their guy between the pipes. In these Frozen Four semifinals, however, it was mostly die. With the notable exception of Boston College freshman Johnny Muse, the … Read more
Another Frozen Four. Ho hum. Another national championship game. Big deal. The Orpik family might be forgiven if its members reacted with yawns to Boston College’s 6-1 shellacking of North Dakota. So what if the Eagles advanced to a third straight NCAA title contest? Isn’t that what’s supposed to happen? The Orpiks are now six-for-six … Read more
Eight times in 11 years, Boston College has been to the Frozen Four. If the Eagles win the NCAA title this year, do they become a dynasty? Dave Henrickson reports.
Boston College’s Ben Smith might not stand first on the roster of Eagle scorers, but he made his presence known Saturday, Dave Hendrickson says.
Chalk it up to experience? The Hockey East championship game has in recent years constituted a Boston College rite of spring. On this night, BC seniors were competing in their fourth straight title contest, having won in 2005 and 2007. The Eagles could count a cumulative 30 appearances in their lineup. On the even bigger … Read more