Two big, big series this weekend. Lowell plays BC
twice and UNH plays Northeastern twice. Up until
now, UNH and BC have been looking insurmountable
as HockeyEast home-ice playoff teams ... but that
could change.
 
What happened out in Amherst yesterday? I
speculate that the Minutemen had the proverbial
horseshoe you know where. They do have quite a
good veterinary school out there! UNH soundly
outplayed Amherst but to no avail.
 
The main thing that Amherst and senior goalie
Brian Regan did is to give Northeastern a little
"heads up" going into the Huskies weekend series
with UNH. These Wildcats can be beat ...
especially if you play them three times in just a
few weeks. Recent UNH losses to Maine and Amherst
were both failed attempts to win the third of
three games in a short period. A recent UNH
victory over Northeastern could mean that the
Huskies are bound to take at least one this
weekend. The Huskies are also much more talented
than Amherst and also stronger than Maine ... so a
Husky sweep isn't out of the question either.
 
BC looked pretty dominating in its last HockeyEast
game against Merrimack. But if anyone can slow
them down, its the gritty Riverhawks of Lowell.
The only BC-Lowell match this season was a closely
fought game where Lowell was clearly in the
position to win that won on the road before Gionta
scored with about 8:00 to go. If Northeastern
continues its miracle performance against UNH and
Lowell is able to contain the mighty BC attack, we
could have a suddenly different playoff race.
 
In any case, BU is looking pretty comfortable with
a weekend series against the struggling Minutemen
on their plate. Looks like one more HockeyEast
Championship for the Terriers.
 
Also, it looks like third place in HockeyEast will
get the unenviable opportunity to host the Maine
Black Bears in the first round.
 
Finally, with Lowell's 2-0-1 domination of
Northeastern this season, a first round
quarterfinal series with the Huskies would
hopefully result in the Riverhawks' sixth straight
trip to HockeyEast's semi-finals.
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.