Hockey East playoffs now have five teams in: Friday recap

The Hockey East playoff picture got a little bit clearer Friday night, with Maine securing a berth and Northeastern moving a point away from getting in after another high-scoring affair with Number One Boston College.

Maine 4 at Lowell 0
LOWELL, MA - Brian Flynn scored twice and Dan Sullivan stopped all 21 RiverHawks shots he saw to earn Maine a berth in the Hockey East playoffs. It was Maine’s second shutout of the year and first since blanking Providence 5-0 on December 4th. It was Sullivan’s first shutout of the season. Matt Mangene scored the game-winning goal at 2:15 of the second period and Jeff Dimmen scored the other goal for the Black Bears.

at Boston University 2, Providence 1
BOSTON, MA - Adam Clendening scored the game-winning goal and Kieran Millan all but shut out the Friars as BU bounced back from a tough loss in the Beanpot consolation game against Harvard to earn two points. Millan stopped 36 shots to earn his 7th win and keep BU in line for home-ice advantage in the Hockey East quarterfinals. Ian O’Connor scored his eighth goal of the season to get the Friars on the board, but it wasn’t enough.

at Merrimack 4, UMass 3 (OT)
ANDOVER, MA - The Minutemen gave up two one-goal leads in the third period and Carter Madsen scored the game-winning goal on the first shift of overtime to keep Merrimack in third place in Hockey East. Playing without leading scorer Stephane Da Costa who was out with a knee injury, Merrimack still managed to generate enough offense to get the win, although it took them just over 48 minutes to net their first goal. Adam Phillips scored twice for Massachusetts, but it wasn’t enough as Joe Cannata stopped 27 UMass shots to earn his league-leading 20th win.

at Boston College 7, Northeastern 7 (OT)
CHESTNUT HILL, MA - Wade MacLeod extended his Hockey East point streak to eleven games, scoring twice for the Huskies. But he was hardly alone, as Cam Atkinson and Beanpot MVP Chris Kreider scored twice, leading six Eagles and five Huskies who had multi-point nights. Parker Milner stopped only five of nine shots before being lifted for John Muse midway through the second period. Robbie Vrolyk scored his first collegiate goal in the tie, and Chris Rawlings stopped 30 of 37 Eagles shots to move Northeastern a point away from clinching a playoff berth.

UNH 6 at Vermont 1

BURLINGTON, VT - Phil DeSimone scored twice and UNH scored six unanswered goals after spotting Vermont a 1-0 lead to blow the Catamounts out. DeSimone’s first goal at 10:37 of the first was his 100th career point. Matt Di Girolamo stopped 21 shots to earn his 18th win of the year, tying him for second with BC’s John Muse in Hockey East. Kevin Goumas and Stevie Moses each scored and tallied two assists for UNH. 6 at Vermont 1
BURLINGTON, VT - Phil DeSimone scored twice and UNH scored six unanswered goals after spotting Vermont a 1-0 lead to blow the Catamounts out. DeSimone’s first goal at 10:37 of the first was his 100th career point. Matt Di Girolamo stopped 21 shots to earn his 18th win of the year, tying him for second with BC’s John Muse in Hockey East. Kevin Goumas and Stevie Moses each scored and tallied two assists for UNH.

Rankings get shaken up

On the strength of its Beanpot victory over Number 15 Boston University and a 3-0 shutout of Providence, Boston College became USCHO's unanimous number one in this week's release of the polls.

Merrimack, on the heels of a four-point weekend against UNH, rose to take the Wildcats' old spot at number six. UNH slid down to number 8, while BU held at 15. After splitting the weekend series with Vermont, Maine dropped another notch to 19.

Merrimack's jump was the largest upward move any team in the rankings made, as they rose five spots from last week. Wisconsin fell from seven to twelve and RPI fell from eight to 14.

North Dakota moved up from five to two, Yale dropped to third, Denver held at four and Minnesota-Duluth dropped from three to five.

For reasons not understood by anyone, anywhere, Yale maintained its grasp on the top spot in the Pairwise Rankings, with BC a close second. Along with Boston College, only New Hampshire (t-9th) and Merrimack (t-4th) represent Hockey East in the PWR's top 15.

Where are they now? Playoff seedings and Hockey East's five most important remaining series

If the Hockey East season ended today, the playoffs would look like this:

Number 8 Vermont at Number 1 UNH*

Number 5 Maine at Number 4 Boston University

Number 6 Northeastern at Number 3 Merrimack

Number 7 UMass at Number 2 Boston College

*UNH gets the one on the strength of its 2-1 victory over BC at Conte Forum in November; each of the other teams is alone in its seeding currently.

But of course, the season doesn’t end today. And there are still quite a few matchups that could very seriously affect the above seedings, not the least of which is the season-ending series between UNH and BC.

The five most important series in the last three weeks of the Hockey East season:

UNH @ Vermont
When the Wildcats travel to Burlington next weekend, they’ll be doing so looking to shake off their first losing streak of the season and get their swagger back. The other Cats, meanwhile, will be looking to strengthen their grasp on a playoff spot - with only two points separating them and ninth-place Providence, it will be a desperate series for Vermont, whish hasn’t been able to string together two consistent games yet this season. But they’ll be facing an urgent and upset UNH team looking to take out their frustrations on anyone who gets in their way. Rob Madore, be warned.

Boston College vs., @ Northeastern
Over six days from Monday through Saturday, BC and Northeastern play three times. The first match will get more attention, no doubt, but it’s the Friday and Saturday matchups that are really the most important. It will be interesting to see how the teams play each other in Monday’s Beanpot championship, especially if the game gets out of hand early. In their only previous meeting this season, the Eagles and Huskies played even for 50-plus minutes before Steven Whitney beat Chris Rawlings at 12:51 of the third.
Boston College was number one then, and they’ll be number one again this time, but Northeastern is a much-improved team that’s playing defense at a very high level in front of a great goaltender in Rawlings. But to acknowledge Northeastern’s growth without noting how well BC has jelled and how strong John Muse has been in net wouldn’t be fair to Jerry York’s team, which is poised to contend for its third national title in four years. It’s very hard to believe that this series could be swept, but somebody should win it. Don’t be surprised if that somebody is whichever team loses on Monday night.

Merrimack at Maine
While Northeastern and UNH will play a pivotal series the weekend after next, this is the big one - assuming that Maine is still ranked, it’s only one of two series pitting ranked teams against each other in the last three weeks of the year. Maine’s game - speed and finesse - and Merrimack’s - physical, heavy on the forecheck, questionable on the backcheck - couldn’t be more opposite each other’s, and it’s going to make for what’s either a very fun series to watch or a very fun series to coach and nothing in-between. It’s not likely that the series will give Maine a chance to leapfrog the Warriors in the standings - they’re currently seven points apart and Merrimack (UMass) and Maine (Lowell) each play teams fairly likely to cede four points next weekend - it could be a preview of the quarterfinals, and things are likely to get very heated at Alfond.

Providence/Merrimack
Yes, at face value this may seem like a wash of a series, but Providence has already beaten Merrimack once this year still within spitting distance of a playoff spot, they’re going to make things very, very difficult for the Warriors - and if they’re not, expect them to flat-out make the last weekend of the season hell for Merrimack.

UNH @, vs. BC
Through 21 games, they’re even in first with 32 points. Over the next two weeks, they each have Northeastern and a road set with Vermont (UNH) and Massachusetts (BC), two teams fighting for those seventh and eighth playoff seeds. The number one seed in Hockey East will likely be awarded to whichever team wins this series. Tough to imagine a series could have more on the line than that.

Hockey East Week 17 Power Rankings

BC - x (16-5-0, 32 pts)

UNH - x (15-4-2, 32 pts)

Merrimack - x (13-5-3, 29 pts)

BU - x (11-5-5, 27 pts)

Maine (9-8-4, 22 pts)

Northeastern (8-8-5, 21 pts)

UMass (5-11-5, 15 pts)

Vermont (5-12-4, 14 pts)

Providence (3-12-6, 12 pts)

Lowell (3-18-0, 6 pts)

x - clinched playoff spot

For the first time all year, each team in Hockey East has played the same number - 21 - of conference games. It's the first time that the standings are truly relevant, and the standings show Providence and Lowell on the outside looking in as Vermont and UMass battle for 7th, Northeastern and Maine duke it out for 5th and Merrimack starts breathing down the neck of UNH and BC. With only a six-pack of games to kill, it's time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Without further ado, the Week 17 power rankings:

1. Boston College - They’re number one in the nation for a reason. They’ve beaten BU four times in the last ten weeks. And they now get Northeastern three times in six days. It’s safe to say that they realize the latter of those two matchups are the more important ones, especially with UNH slipping this weekend.

2. Merrimack - They weren’t supposed to beat UNH at the Whitt. And they definitely weren’t supposed to beat them without leading scorer Stephane Da Costa. But they did. And now they’re ahead of the Wildcats in the Pairwise, with only UMass, Maine and Providence ahead of them. That should scare just about everyone.

3. UNH - The team that a week ago looked like a strong candidate for number one nationally suddenly may not even be the second-best team in its conference anymore. As @LmBruins46 put it, “This is the first time this year that I'm willing to admit that we might not have what it takes to go all the way.” It’s really that simple.

4. BU - A much-improved Terriers squad took BC to the limit in round one of the Beanpot. Then they took care of business against UMass in overtime. They’ve been through a rough stretch this season, but they’re persevering - now they just need to persevere back into the top 15 of the Pairwise.

5. Northeastern - For a brief, shining moment, the Huskies were alone in fifth, ahead of Maine and making BU a little uncomfortable. But where they are now matters little; Northeastern closes with home-and-homes with BC, UNH and BU. They’re good enough to split or win each of those series, but it’s highly unlikely. Still, a six-seed and a quarterfinal match with Merrimack could be just what they’d love to have.

6. Maine - They still don’t play defense. They’re still suspect beyond their top two lines. And their goaltending continues to be terrible. But somehow, Tim Whitehead’s squad does just enough to keep treading water. That won’t be enough for much longer.

7. UMass - If not for Chase Langeraap, the Minutemen are tied with Vermont for seventh with Providence only a point away. Instead, they’re alone in seventh. But they’re a long way from sixth, and this team isn’t built to contend with UNH or BC.

8. Vermont - An offensive explosion on Friday night was followed by an anemic showing against a team that doesn’t play defense. Suddenly, the Cats are really looking forward to that season-ending series with Lowell.

9. Providence - Alex Beaudry may be getting hot at the right time. He stopped 72 of 78 shots on the weekend, but also let in a goal that kept his team out of eighth place at the end of Saturday night’s game. The Friars don’t score much, so they’ll need him if they’re to have any hope.

10. Lowell - That they took a hot Northeastern team to OT on Friday shows that this team has grown up as the year’s gone on. It won’t help them any in the next month, but it’s enough to give them hope for next year.

Time for the home stretch: Hockey East Saturday Recap

Providence 3 at UMass 3 (OT)
AMHERST, MA - Chase Langeraap scored with just 38 seconds remaining to tie the game and UMass escaped with a point against a Providence team that hasn’t won since December 11th and hasn’t won a conference game since beating Merrimack 2-0 on November 5th, a span of 15 games.
After getting out to an early 2-0 lead on goals by Michael Marcou and Joel Hanley, UMass allowed Providence to score the next three goals in a five-minute span during the middle of the second frame. Eric Baier, Derek Army and Kyle MacKinnon each lit the lamp for the Friars, who figured to gain two points for the first time in 98 days, but couldn’t contain Langeraap when it counted most. Alex Beaudry stopped 42 shots for Providence, which only managed to get 22 shots on Paul Dainton in 65 minutes.

at Maine 4, Vermont 2
ORONO, ME - Gustav Nyquist began and ended the scoring, getting the empty netter he couldn’t last weekend at UNH to ice away the Cats and earn a weekend split for the Black Bears. Joey Diamond scored the game winner for Maine, which moved back into fifth place over idle Northeastern.
After Nyquist opened the scoring just six seconds into the game, Sebastian Stalberg and Jack Downing scored in the first period for Vermont to give the Cats the lead, but the Black Bears’ relentless offensive attack finally got some defensive support and Maine walked away with two points for the first time in seven conference games. Shawn Sirman stopped 17 shots for Maine and Rob Madore turned away 35 shots for Vermont. Vermont’s loss coupled with the UMass tie drops them into 8th place by themselves.

at Merrimack 3, UNH 2 (OT)
ANDOVER, MA - Jordan Heywood scored 1:42 into overtime to finish off a weekend sweep of the Wildcats for Merrimack, which has won six in a row and eight of its last nine Hockey East games. The Warriors didn’t trail at any point during the weekend series, and move into third place alone in the conference, leapfrogging idle BU.
With leading scorer Stephane Da Costa sidelined with an injured knee, Merrimack scored the game’s first two goals before a late-second period scrum put UNH on an extended man advantage, which the Wildcats scored twice on to tie the game. Paul Thompson scored his conference-leading 24th goal and assisted on Dalton Speelman’s tying goal just 71 seconds later.
With the win, Joe Cannata moves into first in the conference alone with 19 wins. He stopped 38 UNH shots to secure the win.