Monday, October 18, 2010

Hockey East Weekend Roundup

Another eventful weekend of college hockey leads us into this Weekend Roundup. Almost all of Hockey East was in play at one point or another (with the exception of those farmers up in Vermont), so there's a decent amount to cover...

Boston University
Only in action once this weekend, our Terriers came away with one point thanks to a tie with UMass-Amherst. Although they moved up two spots to #8 in the national ranking, I would argue that this weekend was a bit of a letdown following victories against Wisconsin and Notre Dame in the Ice Breaker. Hopefully they can grab two victories this coming weekend, with games against UMass and PC.

Boston College
Those choir boys down at BC continue to impress this year. They took down UDenver (a top ten ranked program) on both Friday and Saturday night. Goalies John Muse and Parker Milner took care of business, and that's a deadly sign for the rest of Hockey East. If their defense continues to keep pace with their offense, it's going to be a long year for everybody else.

Northeastern
NU looks to be in for a long season if their play continues like this. They only played once this weekend, skating to a 1-1 tie with RPI on Friday night. The Huskies looked rough in that game, going 0-8 on the powerplay. The only bright spot will and continues to be goalie Chris Rawlings, who made 29 saves on Friday night.

UMass-Amherst
The Minutemen played to the aforementioned tie with BU on Saturday night, in a game that nobody expected them to even contend in. It's a point that they probably needed, after being swept by Minnesota and even losing their exhibition game against New Brunswick. A big plus for them was the emergence of freshman Jeff Teglia, who performed spectacularly in the absence of Paul Dainton.

UMass-Lowell
In play twice this past weekend, coming away with two ties. On Friday night it was a 2-2 tie against Niagara, highlighted by freshman goalie Doug Carr stopping 34 of 36 shots to keep the River Hawks afloat (what the hell is a River Hawk again?). On Saturday, ULowell battled to a 4-4 tie against RIT, with the game tying goal being scored by Lowell with 1.3 seconds left in regulation. This brings their record to 0-1-2 on the year, and they look for their first win this Friday night at home against PC.

Maine
Maine played a rare Thursday-Friday series against Michigan State last weekend, and came away with a tie and a loss. Thursday night saw the Black Bears pull out to a 3-1 loud, only to have to settle for a 4-4 tie. On Friday, Maine forward Spencer Abbott scored two goals in literally ten seconds, but the Spartans of Michigan State still prevailed with a 3-2 victory. This has to be a disappointing start to the year for Maine, who has been predicted across the board as a favorite to contend with BC for tops in HE. They look to turn things around at home against North Dakota this Friday.

UNH
New Hampshire was only in play once this weekend, a game against Michigan which resulted in a 3-3 tie. This isn't a bad result for the Wildcats, as UM is a top ranked program in the country. UNH has been decently impressive thus far, and they look to continue that trend against Northeastern this Friday.

Merrimack
Also only in play once, the Mack beat the crap out of UConn on Saturday night, 7-1. Before you start to be impressed by that result, please remember that UConn hockey sucks and I'm pretty sure they've never even been nationally ranked. Ever. Of course the clowns over at Warrior Rink Rat are probably throwing parties all week, but let's not be fooled here. This is about as impressive as quackquack misspelling basic words. It could happen any day of the week.

Providence College
Minnesota Duluth (not to be confused with regular Minnesota) handed the Friars a two night beat-down extravaganza this past weekend. PC lost 5-3 on Friday night and 7-1 on Saturday night, which probably isn't that surprising since, well, PC blows. To be fair, MD is currently ranked 5th in the country. But still.

Redd10's Updated Power Rankings
1. BC
2. UNH
3. BU
4. Maine
5. Vermont
6. Merrimack
7. UMass Lowell
8. Northeastern
9. UMass Amherst
10. PC



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