It’s conference championship week in Division 1 men’s college hockey.
As the Hockey East final four teams converge on TD Garden for Friday’s semifinals and Saturday’s championship, there will not just be a trophy at stake but also significant ramifications on the PairWise race ahead of NCAAs.
The ECAC Hockey field includes a pair of New England teams, one of which looks to shock the Quinnipiac-led field. An Atlantic Hockey series comeback also led to the return of one local program to the cusp of a championship.
Here are the biggest takeaways from this past weekend and looking ahead to one of the most exciting weekends on the college hockey calendar.
Hopes are alive
In what was essentially an NCAA tournament elimination game in the Hockey East quarterfinals, Massachusetts scored twice in the first five minutes en route to a complete performance against a Providence team that was winless in three games down the stretch. Saturday’s 3-1 win moved the Minutemen from potentially outside of the national picture to No. 14 and gives them a 68 percent chance — according to College Hockey News’ PairWise Probability Matrix — of continuing their season as the hosts of a regional in Springfield, Mass., even without a league title.
Though Greg Carvel’s team doesn’t have the top-to-bottom firepower of the Boston College team that stands in its way, it can play strong from the back end out. Freshman Michael Hrabal made 27 saves last time out and has stood tall all year in goal, while juniors Ryan Ufko and Scott Morrow (Darien, Conn.) are two of the best defensemen in the league.
No. 1 survives scare
Boston College finished as Hockey East’s best team and is already locked atop the NCAA bracket, but it took overcoming UConn’s three-goal comeback in the third period to win 5-4 and advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2021. Though the Eagles’ freshman class was held to just one goal, Cornell grad transfer Jack Malone came up big as his second goal turned out to be the difference and Hockey East Goaltender of the Year Jacob Fowler’s 30-save effort secured the win.
Greg Brown’s team has enjoyed consistent success throughout the year while riding high of late with a 10-game win streak, the longest by a Hockey East club since UMass finished its 2020-21 national championship season with 14 straight victories. The Eagles have had no trouble scoring their 4.4 goals per game, but allowing four in consecutive games is a first since January.
Celebrini and the Terriers finish strong
Boston University coach Jay Pandolfo has emphasized finishing games strong all season, and the Terriers did just that to reach the league’s final four. The Terriers built a 3-0 lead in the second period, but only 26 seconds after Northeastern captain Justin Hryckowian made it a one-goal game, stud freshman Macklin Celebrini scored the goal that equaled the final 4-2 score.
The 17-year-old Celebrini — who scored a nation-leading 1.69 points per game and was the only freshman in the country with at least 25 goals and 25 assists during the regular season — continued his historic winter with the key insurance goal. Scoring in 15 of BU’s 18 second-half games has given him 30 goals, which is the most by a BU player since Chris Drury in 1996-97 and only the fourth time since 2000 that a freshman has reached that mark.
MIAA GIRLS HOCKEY TITLES: St. Mary's wins Division 1 | Duxbury wins Division 2
Especially after Beanpot heartbreak on Garden ice just over a month ago, expect Pandolfo’s Terriers to be extra motivated.
Black Bears bounce back
With freshman standout linemates Josh and Bradly Nadeau and goaltender Albin Boija playing such prominent roles, it would have been reasonable to wonder how Maine would respond from a 1-5-0 run in February and March that included being swept by archrival New Hampshire in Durham.
Well, it’s safe to say that Ben Barr’s club has answered that question emphatically, though it will now take its show away from the confines of Orono and Alfond Arena. The Black Bears have rattled off four straight wins, sweeping UMass in two one-goal games in its final regular-season series before rolling to a 5-0 win that eliminated the Wildcats. Both Nadeau brothers rattled off four points, and Boija pitched an 18-save shutout to advance Maine to Boston for the first time since 2012.
Barr’s success helping to build eventual national champions at UMass and Providence is well documented, and that trajectory has continued in just three years at Maine. The Black Bears are on the cusp of reaching that national stage, too.
Big Green back to Lake Placid
All four of the best-of-three quarterfinal round series in ECAC Hockey were decided in two games, and two New England teams will be moving on to championship weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y. While Quinnipiac rolled past RPI 5-1 and 5-2 behind freshman Andon Cerbone’s (Stamford, Conn.) five-point weekend, Dartmouth continued its outstanding postseason run with a sweep of Union to reach its first conference final four in eight years.
The Big Green found offense from beyond their leaders during the weekend as junior Braiden Dorfman and freshman defenseman Matt Fusco (Westwood, Mass.) scored in each game of the series. A Dexter Southfield grad, Fusco finished the regular season with just one goal before busting out and also contributed to a playoff-starting effort that included the 35 blocked shots over the two games. That type of effort and being opportunistic offensively will be key as Dartmouth looks to top a field that includes two of the top three shot-suppressing teams in the country.
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac is no stranger to this playoff stage, having gone to Lake Placid in four straight seasons. As crucial as the team’s defensive-first structure is, the rest of the league will have to watch out for junior Collin Graf (Lincoln, Mass.) leading the forward lines in the playoffs, as he’s especially hot with points in 11 of his last 12 games and 22 goals on the season.
MIAA BOYS HOCKEY TITLES: St. John's Prep wins Division 1 | Boston Latin wins Division 2 | Marblehead wins Division 3 | Dover-Sherborn/Weston wins Division 4
Yellow Jackets are title-bound again
A one-year hiatus from Atlantic Hockey championship appearances was long enough for American International, which won back-to-back games at second-seeded Holy Cross to emerge with a three-game semifinal series victory. Next Saturday at No. 1 RIT, Eric Lang’s Yellow Jackets will be seeking their fourth conference postseason title, which have come in their three previous appearances in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
Holy Cross had gone 10-1-0 in its previous 11 games before dropping consecutive games for the first time since November. What makes AIC’s run to this point even more impressive, though, is who most recently led the way. In Sunday’s deciding 3-1 win, the Yellow Jackets never relinquished the 2-0 lead that was built by freshmen Theo Angesved and Dario Beijo, who had each scored just once all season entering the night.
While the team’s top two scorers are graduate student Dustin Manz and senior Julius Janhonen, sophomore John Lundy paces the goal scoring with 14. Freshman Nils Wallstrom has been the overwhelming leader in net, sporting a .921 save percentage for the season and going eight games down the stretch without allowing more than three goals, which included stopping 76 of the 77 shots he faced in the game two and three wins.
