Two exciting series this weekend are BU-Maine and Prov-Lowell. A third will be
interesting to see how well a hot team stays hot against someone they should beat
but yet has the capacity to trip them up. I'm talking about
Merrimack-Northeastern. A Saturday night game between two struggling teams who
will rest on Friday is Amherst-BC.
 
BU-Maine
    If I wasn't such an avid Lowell fan, this is where I'd preferably be given
the opportunity to watch a game. This rivalry is certainly strong enough that
these two games will be played with a fierce intensity. Jack Parker's comments to
Dave about how this means nothing to Maine has to be a tactic or something.
Parker looks to be trying to show his players that Maine will be ripe for the
taking. However, this is Maine's whole season. They have BU on home ice in front
of sellout crowds and this ends their season all but for a meaningless game
against Amherst next weekend. BU is going to have to pull out all the stops. This
is a real toss up for me as far as picking winners. I'm torn between thoughts
that have different teams sweeping. I'll go out on a limb however and predict a
Maine sweep. It just means too much to Maine. Maine wins 5-2 on Friday and barely
gets a 8-7 overtime victory on Saturday.
 
Prov-Lowell
    Friday's game at Providence will go easily to Lowell. The Friars will be
short 7-men and Lowell is still smarting from the whipping PC handed them a few
weeks ago in Lowell. This game may be the catalyst Lowell needs to get things
going again. PC will have their 7-men back on Saturday, but Lowell should tighten
down the hatches and pull out another one for the sweep. Scores are 6-3 on Friday
and 7-5 on Saturday.
 
Merrimack-Northeastern
    The Warriors have to keep their minds off the BU/BC games next weekend and
concentrate on the not-to-be-underestimated Huskies. Merrimack has been playing
solid hockey and whoop'd this same Husky squad 7-2 a few weeks back. A Friday
night voctory should come pretty easily but the difficulty will lie in the
sweep-attempt on Saturday. This is where I see Crowder generating an upset and
preventing Merrimack from solidifying their home-ice playoff position. Robitaille
will have game that wins him ROTH honors. Scores will be 5-2 Merrimack on Friday
and 4-0 Northeastern on Saturday.
 
BC-Amherst.
    The Minutemen beat up on a hapless BC team that can't seem to pull it
together. A late game surge by the powerful BC forwards will fall short, however.
Score 7-6 Amherst.
 
After weekend PREDICTED standings!
               Pos.  Team    Pts  Games remaining
          ---> 1     UNH     34     2
          ---> 2     BU      32     2
PREDICTED ---> 3     MAINE   31     1
          ---> 4     LOWELL  23     1
          ---> 5     MERR    21     2
STANDINGS ---> 6     PROV    21     1
          ---> 7     BC      17     2
          ---> 8     AMHERST 16     1
          ---> 9     NE       7     2
They above are PREDICTED standings as/of Monday based on above game
predictions!!!
 
- Paul.
 
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