I did a little playing with some numbers tonight regarding Hockey East.
 I throw them out for discussion.

First, it would appear that only Boston College has clinched home ice
with two weeks to go as evidenced by the min-max point totals as
featured below.

At first glance it appeared the Merrimack was still mathematically
alive for home ice, but they lose the tie-breaker to BU (BU won season
series 2-1), so with 1 point BU would shut the Warriors out.  That
means BU must lose all their games which would give Providence 4 points
(for at least 26 points) and would also not allow Merrimack to gain
home ice.

1.  BC - High 37, Low 29
2.  Maine 36-28
    UNH  36-28
4.  BU   32-24
5.  Providence 28-22
6.  Merrimack 25-17
7.  UMass 22-16
8.  Northeastern 18-10
9.  UMA-Lowell 16-8

Merrimack, now without one their top players for the rest of the season
(Rosa) does have the easiest schedule down the stretch based on the
average league winning percentage of its opponents.  On the other end
of the spectrum is BU, who has the most difficult finishing schedule.
They do hold one game in hand on Providence, who they are battling for
the final home ice spot, but the two schools will meet twice next
weekend.  Providence will play only once on the league's final weekend,
so the Friars really need to take 3 of 4 points on the weekend.  BU
will finish the season at Maine for both its last two games, while
Providence plays Lowell in its only game.  Providence already beat BU
once this season, so by taking 3 points next weekend PC would also win
the tie-breaker.

Boston College has the second easiest schedule despite the fact that
they play UNH twice to close the season, so that stat is somewhat
deceiving.  All three teams (BC, Maine, UNH) competing for the HE title
should take 4 points this weekend.  Since all three have tough two-game
series to close out the year the league might be decided by who does
better *this* weekend against the teams they should beat (on paper).
There have been few easy games in Hockey East this season.

One team cannot make the Hockey East playoffs and right now the team on
the outside looking in is UMass-Lowell.  Lowell's schedule is somewhat
more favorable and UML and Northeastern will play each other in the
last game of the season in what could amount to a preliminary round
playoff game.

Opponents League Winning Percentage in remaining games:
1.  Merrimack   .383
2.  Boston College .450
3.  Providence .467
4.  Lowell .475
5.  Maine .491
6T  UNH .519
6T  Northeastern .519
8.  UMass .608
9.  Boston Univ. .612