Fan Fanatic Sports Staff
There's no doubt that Hockey East has once again been one of the most competitive and most entertaining conferences in college hockey.
Teams like New Hampshire and Maine have made a strong early push not expected by many, including yours truly. Boston College is once again one of the top teams in the conference and BU has taken a nosedive after its national championship last year.
But even with all the excitement the league has brought us, how good IS Hockey East this year? The conference does have six teams ranked in the USCHO poll, but the leading teams in the league have all had a hard time putting away opponents in out-of-conference games, which could lead some to believe that this year's national champion will not come out of Hockey East. Last year, Hockey East was dominant, winning 66.9 percent of their games against teams from other conferences. This year that number has dropped to 59.5. A Hockey East team has won the national championship six times since Hockey East started tallying out-of-conference records in 1993. Only once has it happened when the conference's non-conference winning percentage was below 61.5 percent - when Boston College won it in 2008.
Seeing as the heralded Frozen Fenway game featuring the two programs that won national championships over the last decade has just been played, it seems like a good time to review the season thus far, team by team. First, let's take a look at the standings:
Hockey East Standings (Overall record in parentheses)
1. New Hampshire 9-2-3, 21 Points (9-7-4)
2. Maine 8-4-1, 17 Points (11-7-2)
3. Boston College 7-4-2, 16 Points (10-6-2)
4. UMass - Lowell 6-4-2, 14 Points (12-7-2)
5. UMass - Amherst 7-6-0 14 Points (12-8-0)
6. Vermont 4-5-2, 10 Points (10-6-2)
7. Boston University 4-7-2, 10 Points (6-9-3)
8. Northeastern 4-9-1, 9 Points (8-10-1)
9. Merrimack 4-7-0, 8 Points (7-11-0)
10. Providence 2-7-1, 5 Points (7-9-1)
UNH, who just broke back into the poll at No. 20, has been an absolute enigma this season, leading Hockey East, including a 5-2-3 mark in games against ranked conference opponents. But outside of the league, the Wildcats have looked completely inept with an 0-5-1 record. To their defense, the 'Cats have played second-ranked Miami twice (one loss, one tie), traveled for two road games against No. 3 Wisconsin (two losses) and played No. 9 Cornell (loss). Still, the team's inability to beat quality opponents outside the conference suggest that at this point the Wildcats are just pretenders in the race for a national championship and another early exit from the tournament may be in the making. New Hampshire boasts two of the top scorers in Hockey East in Bobby Butler and Blake Kessel. Butler is second in the conference in goals with 15 and tied for third in points. Kessel is the top-scoring blue liner in Hockey East with 22 points, good for fifth overall, and his 16 assists have him tied for third in the entire league.
Maine, ranked 16th nationally, appears ready to regain some of the dominance it displayed a few years ago and one of the main reasons for their success has been a high-powered offense. No team averages more goals a game than the Black Bears, who interestingly don't have a player in the top-10 in the league in scoring. They also possess the top power play in Hockey East. They're 3-3-1 outside the conference, but have lost to three of the four ranked opponents they have faced. They beat No. 8 Colorado College in the Florida College Classic and beat No. 7 Michigan State once, but also lost once to the Spartans and has notable back-to-back losses to No. 13 Union.
No. 12 Boston College has a good thing working for it right now. Having one of the best scoring offenses and one of the top defenses statistically usually equals good things. The Eagles have the best penalty killing team in hockey, denying opponents on 87.2 percent of man advantages, an impressive number, considering power play efficiency throughout college hockey is the highest it's been in recent memory. John Muse recovered faster than anticipated from his hip surgery, but really has not been the same player since his freshman campaign that resulted in a national championship. Luckily for him, he's got a strong defense that doesn't let much by them. Freshman Parker Milner is undefeated in three games as Muse's backup with a 2.34 goals against average, but as long as Muse is healthy, the Eagles will ride him. Much like the other top teams in the league, the Eagles have struggled against quality opponents out of conference. They hold a 3-2-0 record, but none of their wins have come against ranked opponents (Notre Dame was ranked when they beat them, but has slipped out of the poll). They lost to No. 1 Denver and unranked St. Lawrence.
No. 15 UMass-Lowell turned heads at the end of last season and early on this season, those necks remained craned to watch the River Hawks as they started the season 8-2-1. But three straight losses to Providence, Maine and New Hampshire knocked them down a peg and they've been fighting to get up and get some consistency ever since. As it stands right now, they are still in position for home ice. UML does have one thing on its side - the best goaltender in the league. Carter Hutton's 2.16 GAA blows away anyone else in the league and he is also tops in save percentage (.926). They need Hutton because the River Hawks are nothing special offensively, though that's not to say they are bad. They do have a nice 6-3-0 mark against OOC opponents, but if you look closer, you'll see that only one of the teams they have beaten have even gotten votes in the polls. They have a very important home-and-home series with the other Massachusetts state university this weekend.
UMass - Amherst's strategy of trying to just plain outgun opponents has led to some impressive wins, but also some pretty embarrassing losses. The Mass Attack is second in the league in scoring, and has James Marcou, who leads the nation in points, but they are near the bottom in defense and their penalty kill is one of the worst. They got off to a hot start, but have since come down to earth, including giving up seven goals in back-to-back games to Boston University and UNH. A solid 4-1 win over Northeastern is probably the only reason they're still in the poll. That said, the Minutemen are still in the hunt for home ice and probably have the second-best OOC resume at 5-2-0 with wins over No. 5 Yale and No. 13 Union. The lost to No. 17 Quinnipiac in overtime and an unsavory loss to Bentley shows that this team loses to too many opponents it really should be able to handle.
Vermont, ranked 18th, made a nice run into the national tournament last year and was one of the three teams that outplayed BU before losing to the Terriers in that tourney. Vermont is just 4-5-2 in Hockey East this season, but an extremely strong 6-1-0 mark against teams outside the league has kept the nation's attention. Their only loss came to No. 1 Denver, whom they beat the following night and they also have big wins over Yale and No. 10 Minnesota-Duluth.
Boston University seems to be suffering from the post-championship slump that BC did last season. To the Terriers' defense, they have been riddled with injuries and surely miss their two Hobey Baker finalist (and winner), but the real killer for this team so far is the fact that Kieran Millan looks like a shadow of the player he was as a freshman, much like BC's Muse looked last year. Millan is ahead of only Merrimack's Joe Cannata and is the worst in save percentage by 11 points (.869). Millan's backup Grant Rollheiser hasn't been much better and the Terriers aren't getting enough of a scoring punch to make up the difference. They're 4-7-2 in Hockey East and 2-2-1 outside the league and have had trouble stringing wins together. Perhaps the win over BC on Friday in the Frozen Fenway game and a weekend set against Providence and Merrimack will provide some momentum.
Northeastern had its one year and now it's back to the bottom of the barrel for the Huskies. You kind of knew that it would be this way after Hockey East player of the year and Hobey Baker finalist Brad Theissen jumped ship. Add to that the fact that they lost four senior defensemen last year and you get the worst power play unit in Hockey East, something that has tortured the Huskies. Northeastern has allowed 56 goals on the season and nearly half of them have come on the power play. They have a 4-1-0 OOC record, but only one win is notable - a 4-3 decision over Colorado College.
Merrimack has statistically the worst goaltender in Hockey East. Honestly, it's probably the one thing that's keeping this team from legitimately fighting for a spot in the Hockey East tournament. They aren't anything special offensively, but they're comparable to UMass - Lowell and they have some of the best special teams in the conference. But sometimes it seems like Joe Cannata couldn't stop a beach ball. He's been out-played by senior Andrew Braithwaite, though that's not saying much, and coaches probably still remember how horrid Braithwaite was last season (2-11-0, 3.08 GAA, .892 SVPCT).
It's really sad to see Providence so low. Providence is 5-2-0 outside of Hockey East, but the best competition they've faced has come from within the conference and they just don't have the talent to deliver. They average the lowest number of goals per game, giving no help to goaltender Alex Beaudry, who would be a winner on a lot of other teams. He is one of the premier goaltenders in the league, but is often forgotten thanks to the rest of his team's ineptitude.
