After last night's 2-2 tie between UNH and Maine, UNH remains in first place, two points ahead of Maine, which has a game in hand. If Maine wins that "game in hand," the two teams are tied.

The first tie-breaker in Hockey East is head-to-head play. Maine and UNH are even-up, splitting their season series with one win, one loss, and one tie each.

The second tie-breaker is wins in conference play.  If Maine wins its "game in hand," the two teams will have the same number of conference victories.

The third tie-breaker is record against conference opponents from the top of the standings on down.  In this tie-breaker, UNH at this point is the clear winner. UNH is 2-0-1 vs. BU, which is currently in third place. Maine lost to BU in their first outing, so the Bears couldn't match UNH even if they swept BU in the final regular-season series.

Of course, all of these musings assume that the relative standings remain as they are--and in Hockey East, that's certainly not a sure thing.

Dave Wollstadt