First, the euphoria. I approached Merrimack’s Lawler Arena on Saturday night about an hour before game time and was suddenly gripped with fear. Spring forward, fall back. I must have screwed up, I thought. But Daylight Savings Time didn’t start until Sunday. I was an hour early. Wasn’t I? It sure sounded like I was … Read more
The Hockey East quarterfinals are in the books and our field is set for the 27th Hockey East Championship at the TD Garden. Three of the top four seeds advanced, the lone exception being Northeastern’s three-game win over No. 3 Boston University. I wrote a blog about NU winning the opening game of the series … Read more
BOSTON – When the dust cleared Sunday night at Agganis Arena and sixth-seeded Northeastern moved onto the Hockey East semifinals, the Huskies faithful took a very deep breath. That’s nothing new for the fans from Huntington Avenue. Northeastern, which scored an empty-net goal to 2:14 remaining in regulation to take a 5-2 lead in game … Read more
In what has been a season of playoff upsets, Hockey East showed it won’t leave the drama to the other guys. One game in the books, one upset as sixth-seeded Northeastern outplayed and outworked No. 3 seed Boston University. End result was a 4-2 win for the Huntington Hounds, who brought with them an impressive … Read more
Jim gained a little on Dave in the final week of the regular season, which at this point is like insult to injury. Dave last week: 5-3-2 Jim last week: 6-2-2 Dave’s record-to-date: 100-36-30 (.692) Jim’s record-to-date: 111-33-28 (.726) Here are this week’s picks for the Hockey East quarterfinal series (series days listed in parenthesis; … Read more
In the three-plus weeks that Northeastern head coach sat on the sideline awaiting his fate, he admitted that not only was it difficult, but it was extremely frustrating. “The worst part about it was waiting to find out what your penalty it,” said Cronin, who said he spent part of his time away at his … Read more
The Hockey East regular season went out with a bang. Commissioner Joe Bertagna was prescient enough to once again schedule the Boston College – New Hampshire home-and-home series on the final weekend, a move that paid handsome dividends. Boston College, which opened the weekend one point down, leapfrogged UNH on Friday with a dominating performance. … Read more
DURHAM, N.H. – When you take a look at this year’s senior class for Boston College, you can sum up their success in one word: championships. The three seniors – John Muse, Joe Whitney and Brian Gibbons – have combined for three Beanpot titles, two Hockey East tournament titles and, most impressively two NCAA national … Read more
Earlier this week I talked about team defense being the statistic of champions. Well, if tonight’s game between Boston College and New Hampshire was any indication, you can crown the Eagles now. They held UNH, the seventh best offense in the country, to only 12 shots (while piling up 42 of their own). As for … Read more
Tonight was senior night for Boston College and once again it was a small class. Small but big. All major performers: goaltender John Muse and forwards Brian Gibbons and Joe Whitney. Two national championships, two Hockey East titles, and three Beanpots for that class. And counting. Those will be three huge holes to fill, but if everyone … Read more
The race between Jim and me is getting close to a mathematical close-out, but I’m still holding out hope that he’ll choke like the New York Yankees. Dave last week: 5-2-3 Jim last week: 5-2-3 Dave’s record-to-date: 95-35-28 Jim’s record-to-date: 105-31-26 Here are this week’s picks: Friday, March 4 Boston University at Northeastern Dave’s pick: In … Read more
You’d figure that in general, winning teams score a lot and don’t give up much in the defensive end. And losing teams… well, the other way around. Well, duh. Of course it’s true. In general. You’d also figure that winning teams have strong special teams and losing teams couldn’t score if you gave them a five-on-two. And … Read more
Just a few weekends ago, we were writing the eulogy for Maine’s season. The Black Bears had brought an ugly losing streak into a Friday night game against a struggling Vermont team. The only glimmer of hope in that game was the return of Dan Sullivan. In his absence, Maine’s goaltending went under the microscope. … Read more
Dave finally gained some ground on me, but at this point I hear a fat woman singing a sweet tune. Dave last week: 8-0-2 Jim last week: 6-2-2 Dave’s record-to-date: 90-33-25 (.692) Jim’s record-to-date: 100-29-23 (.734) Here are this week’s picks Friday, February 25 Vermont at Boston University Jim’s pick: I think the Cats are playing well … Read more
Boston College and Merrimack may be engaged in a three-way battle with New Hampshire for the Hockey East regular season title, but the Eagles and the Warriors are also engrained in a race that may send one of these two teams west when the NCAA field is announced. Both the Eagles and the Warriors currently … Read more
Even though Merrimack, Maine and Boston University were the three teams to sweep series this past weekend, I’m going to argue that the big winners were Merrimack and New Hampshire and not the Black Bears or the Terriers. It all has to do with Northeastern stunning number-one-ranked Boston College by taking three of four points … Read more
Jim and I both had a tough time with last week’s picks, allowing him to maintain his gargantuan lead. I would have narrowed the gap by a game if not for a desperation pick, but that would have just been a snowflake off the top of a glacier. Dave last week: 5-4-1 Jim last week: 5-4-1 Dave’s record-to-date: … Read more
Can we agree on this much? It’s time for drug testing the Hockey East coaches if they don’t unanimously select Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy as their Coach of the Year. If you’ve been paying any attention at all, you know the score. The year before Dennehy arrived on campus, the Warriors finished 1-21-1 in Hockey … Read more
The weekend now in back of us led to some very interesting shuffling in the Hockey East standings. So let’s get started figuring out what happened when the dust settled. We can start with a very interesting fact about Friday night. A rare occurrence as all 10 teams were in action and in each of … Read more
Merrimack’s leading scorer Stephane Da Costa will not play Saturday when the Warriors host New Hampshire in the second game of a home-and-home series. Da Costa locked knees with UNH’s Phil DeSimone late in Friday’s 4-2 win over the Wildcats and had to bee helped from the ice. He did not return to the game. According … Read more