Big weekend could narrow Hockey East's tournament prospects

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

There are six games remaining for most teams, but this weekend could be the decisive blows for a lot of teams could be landed this weekend in one way or another.

Two huge blows were already dealt to a couple of national tournament hopefuls before the games have even begun this week. Boston University had just started playing well and has thrust themselves into the conversation, but now will have to try to make it all the way back without their first line center, Corey Trivino after fracturing his fibula in a 5-2 win over Maine on Saturday. Vermont has been unable to put away winable games lately (1-2-3 in the last 6 games against Maine, Providence and Merrimack), is on the dangling on the edge in terms of the PairWise Rankings and just dismissed Justin Milo from the team. It was said to be in the best interest of the team, so you have to wonder what was going on to cause the coaching staff to kick the team's second-highest scorer while in the middle of the stretch run.

That will make things interesting heading into the final weeks, especially with some key matchups coming up this weekend. Let's take a look at the standings and some of those matchups.

1. UNH 13-5-3, 29 points (14-10-4 overall)
2. Boston College 12-7-2, 26 points (17-9-2)
3. Maine 11-8-2, 24 points (14-11-3)
4. Boston University 10-9-2, 22 points (13-12-3)
5. UMass 11-11-0, 22 points (16-13-0)
6. Northeastern 10-10-1, 21 points (15-12-1)
7. UMass-Lowell 9-10-2, 20 points (15-13-2)
8. Vermont 7-9-5, 19 points (13-10-5)
9. Merrimack 8-11-1, 17 points (11-15-1)
10. Providence 4-15-2, 10 points (9-17-2)

UNH and Vermont have a huge series tonight and tomorrow. The Wildcats are clinging to a three-point lead in the Hockey East standings and could use a pair of quality wins to improve their PWR. Vermont is fighing for its tournament lives. While the Catamounts are eighth in Hockey East and are not playing their best hockey at this point. Still, they're in a four-way tie for ninth in PWR with UNH (League's leader and 8th place team ranked the same nationally. Crazy, huh?), Cornell and Minnesota-Duluth. A split does neither team much good. A sweep puts one team in great position, while the other is most likely done, unless it can win the conference tournament.

UMass-Lowell is on the outside looking in and needs to sweep the series with Maine in order to have any shot outside of winning the Hockey East tournament. Lowell has been in a freefall lately, going 1-4-0 in their last five games and needs a huge spark. They have been in every game during that span, but have had a very hard time finding the back of the net, wirth the exception of the 4-1 win over Boston College. Maine has been resurgent this season and once again is an elite team in the year. They were on a tear, going 5-0-1, but has lost their last two games, giving up seven and five goals in a sweep by BU. Maine had the quandry of possibly losing ground if they swept BU because of the RPI rankings, but getting swept by the Terriers took care of that, too. Maine is ranked 17th and needs wins.

BU has also rediscovered themselves and is now in a position for home ice in the Hockey East tournament, but now must go the rest of the way without one of its leaders. It shouldn't be much of a problem against Providence, but it remains to be seen how much good a sweep of such a weak team would do for the rankings. It certainly doesn't help the strength of schedule, but given the fact the Terriers are only a game above .500 at this point, they can ill afford to lose to the Friars.

Boston College has a real shot to give themselves a No. 1 seed in the national tournament if they finish strong. Taking at least three points from Northeastern, another team fighting for a chance to play beyond the conference tournament would go a long way towards doing that. BC is possibly the hottest team in Hockey East other than BU, going 5-1-0 in their last six games, including a Beanpot championship. The Huskies have struggled all season long and really don't have much chance of tournament play beyond Hockey East, but it's all about getting hot at the right time. They are coming off a weekend sweep of UMass and have won their last four, so three or four points stolen from BC could change their prospects very quickly.