Tension building in Hockey East

By Chris Maza Fan
Fanatic Sports Staff

And down the stretch they come! The Wildcats in the lead with Newton University and Black Bears in second, neck and neck! Minutemen falling back with Boston University coming up strong!

Yep, it's getting into mid-February and there's bunching at the top of Hockey East. UNH had a commanding lead, but let it slip through its fingers by failing to record a point in a lost weekend against rival Maine last weekend and needs to rebound. Boston College is coming off a high-flying week with a commanding 7-1 drubbing of UMass and a Beanpot championship over BU. The Black Bears improved their stock with the four-point weekend and BU, other than the Beanpot championship loss, has been playing its best hockey after the holiday break.

Let's take a look at the standings:

1. UNH 12-5-3, 27 points (13-10-4 overall)
2. Boston College 11-6-2, 24 points (16-8-2)
3. Maine 11-6-2, 24 points (14-9-3)
4. UMass 11-9-0, 22 points (16-11-0)
5. Boston University 8-9-2, 18 points (11-12-3)
6. UMass-Lowell 8-9-2, 18 points (14-12-2)
7. Vermont 7-8-4, 18 points (13-9-4)
8. Northeastern 8-10-1, 17 points (13-12-1)
9. Merrimack 7-11-0, 14 points (10-15-0)
10. Providence 4-14-2, 10 points (9-16-2)

If the Wildcats want to maintain their lead, they need to pick up two points tonight as they only have one game, while both Maine and Boston College have home-and-homes.

Maine is in a very interesting situation in terms of its national tournament hopes. While a sweep of BU would be monumental for its hopes for a regular season title, it could actually hurt their USCHO PairWise Rankings as Boston University's RPI rating would drop dramatically.

In fact, having a handful of teams fighting for home ice could only help Hockey East teams in terms of national tournament seedings. If teams start falling off quickly, it could lead to fewer of the top teams in the league making the national scene. The college hockey tourney is a funny thing. After all, UNH is on top of the league, but is squarely on the bubble for the tournament at this point, thanks largely to a very difficult early schedule that didn't go so well for a very young team.

It's coming down to the wire and every point counts for each of the top eight teams. Stay tuned.