Hockey East teams face rough roads to Frozen Four

By Chris Maza
Fan Fanatic Sports Staff

The Hockey East conference has had a representative in the national championship game in 16 of the last 20 seasons and each of the last four. Can one of the three teams in this year's field make it? The paths of each team are not easy, but if there's one thing a couple of them have, it's history on their side.

But before we get into that, let's just take the time to go over some general Hockey East history within the tournament and let's see if you can make an argument it being the toughest conference in college hockey. All of these facts are according to Hockey East.

• At least two Hockey East teams have qualified for the Frozen Four 13 times since the league formed in the 1984-85 season. The second-highest number of times that has happened for a conference in that span is five (WCHA, CCHA).
• Since 1993, 17 of the 34 teams that have advanced to the national championship game have been Hockey East teams and twice both teams vying for the title were from the conference. Since the formation of Hockey East, only one other conference has been able to do it once (WCHA).
• Over the last 12 seasons, Hockey East has dominated in terms of Frozen Four qualifiers with 20. The WCHA is second with 14.
  

We'll let those facts just speak for themselves. But with that said, are any of the teams in this year's field at all strong enough to make it to Ford Field for this year's Frozen Four?

Boston College: Northeast Regional (DCU Center - Worcester, Mass.)

History: BC holds an impressive 31-20 (.608) record in what we'll call from here on out at the Hockey East Era (1985-Present). No team in the conference has made more tournament appearances and only one Hockey East team has made more Frozen Four appearances than the Eagles, who sit at 18 and 10, respectively. The Eagles have gone to six title games in that time and have won two of them. They are the only Hockey East team to win more than one national championship in the 2000's. BC won the whole thing in its last tournament appearance in 2008 before missing the tourney altogether last year.

This year: Boston College has the shortest trip to its regional game, needing to just drive down the Pike about 30 minutes to Worcester. But that just might be the easiest part of the whole trip. Boston College is ranked third in the USCHO Poll and also in their bracket are No. 4 North Dakota, No. 8 Yale. It's the only bracket that has more than one team that received first-place votes in the poll.

The Eagles, who are the first seed in the Northeast Regional, will take on Alaska, who scooted in as the last at-large team. But make no mistake, the Nanooks are not to be looked past. Boston College is third in the nation in goals per game, but Alaska has done a pretty good job of keeping the puck out of the net, ranking ninth overall. Some think the travel might have an adverse affect on the Alaska squad, but seeing as the team has to travel to Michigan, Ohio and Indiana just to play a lot of its league games, it shouldn't be much more of a problem than any regular-season game. The problem for the Nanooks will be the fact that they have had difficulty scoring this season and the tandem of Parker Milner and John Muse has been one of the best in the nation behind a terrific defense.

Should the Eagles get past Alaska in the first round, either North Dakota or Yale will stand between them and the Frozen Four.

The Boston College-North Dakota history in the tournament has been well-documented. The two teams met in the 2000 and 2001 NCAA championships, each taking one apiece. Since then, the Sioux and the Eagles have met up in the tournament four times, all in consecutive seasons from 2005 to 2008. In 2005, North Dakota topped the BC in the quarterfinals, but the Eagles have had the last laugh(s), beating the Sioux for a spot in the title game the next three years. And, of course, we can't forget the regular season game in 2007 in which the ice at Conte Arena started to melt after a power outage and the game was called after two periods because there was too much fog. This year, North Dakota comes into the tournament as one of the hottest teams in the nation, winning 12 of their last 13 games, including the WCHA Final Five (beating the nation's 11th, 1st and 6th-ranked teams consecutively). Goalie Brad Eidsness is eighth in the nation in terms of goals against average with an impressive 2.09 mark over nearly 2,330 minutes this season.

Should the Eagles take on Yale, they will be facing oneof the most dynamic scorers in the nation in Broc Little. In fact, Yale is the top-scoring team in college hockey overall, averaging more than four goals per game. Especially impressive is Yale's power play, which converts on nearly one quarter of all of its opportunities. The Bulldogs are missing their best play in Sean Backman, which has to be a major concern, but the rest of the team has proven itself to have more than enough firepower to compete. On top of that, the Bulldogs live up to their name with physical play, which could come into play against a smaller team like Boston College.

New Hampshire: East Regional (Times Union Center - Albany, NY)

History: UNH has made 16 appearances, including the second-longest active streak in college hockey with nine consecutive tournament bids. Honestly, it could be said that this team more than any other has squandered its chances in the tournament with an unimpressive 11-15 mark in the playoffs, but they have been to four Frozen Fours and two title games. Last year very easily could have been another appearance for the 'Cats, who outplayed Boston University for most of the game, only to have a puck go off the Jerry Pollastrone's glove as he attempted to stop a shot and into the net in a game even BU coach Jack Parker said his team was "very, very fortunate" to have won.


This year: In Albany, New Hampshire may face two teams that will hold distinct home ice advantages in RIT and Cornell. And let's not forget No. 2 overall Denver, who at several points this season held the top spot.

Cornell will be the Wildcats' first-round opponent in a battle of two contrasting styles. Cornell is defensive-minded all the way and it shows in their stats. They boast what some consider the best goalie in the nation in Ben Scrivens, whose 1.78 GAA is tops in the country. As a result, Cornell is tied with top-ranked Miami for first in the Division I in team defense (1.85 goals/game). UNH, on the other end of the spectrum, relies on outgunning opponents, ranking 11th in the nation in team scoring, led by Hobey Baker hopeful Bobby Butler, who is second in the country in goals scored.

Should the 'Cats move on to play Denver, they run into a team that still feels like it has something to prove after losing two WCHA tournament games. Denver is a very ballanced team with good offense and a better defense. Bruins draft pick Joe Colborne is the man to watch with the game on the line as he is tied for first with eight game-winning goals this year. It would also be an interesting storyline of two Florida Panthers draft picks between the pipes in Brian Foster and Marc Cheverie. Cheverie is second in the nation in winning percentage behind BC's Parker Milner, but keep in mind Cheverie has played 32 games (24-5-3) to Milner's 13 (10-2-1).

If the 'Cats next opponents be RIT, they would be facing a true Cinderella story. RIT was ranked 25th in the PairWise Rankings and was a far cry from an at-large bid, but won the AHA, so none of that mattered. The Tigers are in the first national tournament in the school's history and carry with them a 10-game winning streak. Should they be able to beat No. 2 Denver, the momentum would definitely be on their side. RIT has been a pretty explosive offensive team and their team defense has been subperb with Jared DeMichael (2.00 GAA) between the pipes. Granted, some stats might be skewed a bit by the fact they play in a weak conference, but the fact of the matter is RIT is a balanced team, something UNH has had some difficulty with this season.

Vermont: West Regional (Xcel Energy Center - St. Paul, Minn.)

History: Vermont has only been a part of Hockey East since the 2005-06 season, but have already become a viable threat as part of the league, going to the Frozen Four last year in its first appearance as a Hockey East team. They beat Yale, then Air Force in a double-overtime game and then were victimized by a tough-luck goal in a loss to BU after outplaying the Terriers pretty much all game, preventing them from moving on to the title game. The Catamounts, who were part of the ECAC before joining Hockey East, have been to five tournaments altogether and have made it to the frozen four in two of them.

This year: As the No. 4 seed in the West, Vermont takes on maybe the softest of the top seeds in Wisconsin. The Badgers are certainly a great team, but some consider North Dakota or even Cornell to be better squads. Wisonsin lost to St. Cloud State in the Frozen Five, but salvaged the tournament with a win over Denver, otherwise the Badgers surely would have lost a No. 1 seeding. If there's one thing Wisconsin knows how to do, it's score. In a year when the WCHA has been very tough, the Badgers ranked first in the league and second in the nation in scoring offense. Scoring has been a problem for Vermont this year, ranking in the bottom half of th3 country in that respect, so the Catamounts may end up relying heavily on Rob Madore, who has had a habit of coming up with big perfomances in the postseason.

Should the Catamounts advance, it could be the team that beat the Badgers in the Final Five that they face next. St. Cloud State has been in the top-10 in the polls for the better part of the season. While not an elite team in any area, St. Cloud is proficient in all of them and has hung with what might be the most difficult conference schedule this year. The one place where St. Cloud is deficient is on the penalty kill, but likewise, Vermont is one of the worst in the country in that department.

Northern Michigan is another team that isn't overly impressive in any area, but gave itself a major boost by making it to the CCHA final. What would make this matchup interesting is in making it to the final, the Wildcats knocked Ferris State out of tournament consideration in the process and was one of the reasons UVM ended up in the tournament at all. As one of the better defensive teams in the nation, Northern Michigan could prove a challenge to a UVM team that just plain doesn't score many goals. Even a couple of goals could end up in a win and a ticket to the Frozen Four for the Wildcats.

Hockey East providing suprises, but how good is it?

By Chris Maza
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.