New England fans certainly know that it has been a year of change in college hockey.
For starters, Boston University and Boston College pulled off Hockey East quarterfinal upsets but are nowhere to be found in the NCAA tournament field after their respective fifth- and seventh-place finishes. The same goes for Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.
With the “brand name” programs out, UMass clinched the top spot in Hockey East for the first time ever and Northeastern wound up winning its second playoff title in four years, while American International continued its historic season with the Atlantic Hockey championship. The Yellow Jackets and Arizona State will both be making their first-ever NCAA appearances this weekend, a feat that has not happened since 2007.
Third-year head coach Eric Lang’s club was projected to finished fifth in Atlantic Hockey by the coaches, but this past weekend’s 3-2 wins over Robert Morris and Niagara in Buffalo, N.Y., extended the record win total to 22 and allowed it to stand atop the league as first-time winners of both the regular-season and tournament titles.
Like any championship, this one was about the people who helped to steer the ship in the right direction. AIC had never finished above .500 at the Division 1 level before this year, but Gary Wright — the longtime coach from whom Lang inherited the program after his assistant coaching stint alongside Brian Riley at Army West Point — was one of those key figures.
Wright coached Lang’s only two seniors, defenseman Ryan Polin and forward Shawn McBride, through a 7-29-3 freshman season in 2015-16. The year before, AIC won only four games.
“Coach Wright means everything in the world to me,” said Lang, who played at AIC from 1994-98. “It’s really important that he gets some acknowledgement here. He gave 30 years to the institution and is one of the most influential people in my life. … There are some people that this means a lot to. Our great alumni and our institution, we’re really proud.”
The Yellow Jackets needed overtime to decide both the semifinal and championship games, but juniors Blake Christensen and Hugo Reinhardt put home the winning goals, ensuring that the Jack Riley Memorial Trophy would return to New England for the first time since Holy Cross won its second in a three-year span in 2006. Junior Zackarias Skog made 22 saves to backstop the championship victory and has a .942 save percentage over five postseason games to date.
“We wanted to be consistent and we wanted to take what we did in the regular season, reset, and do it again in the playoffs,” said McBride. “The regular-season championship is great, but that wasn't what we were after. To get them both really means a lot.”
The Yellow Jackets will have to reset once again as St. Cloud State — the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament for the second straight year — presents a stiff test in Friday night’s tournament debut in Fargo, N.D., but Lang knows they will be ready.
“If we're just happy to get there, it won't be a good result,” Lang said. “These guys have been unbelievable at refocusing and hitting the reset button, and that won't change for us.”
Staying consistent, staying home
Though Boston College ousted Providence in the Hockey East quarterfinals two weekends ago, Northeastern’s league title allowed the Friars to become the second-to-last team to clinch an NCAA at-large bid. Head coach Nate Leaman’s club has now qualified for six consecutive national tournaments, trailing only Denver (12) for the longest active streak in the country.
The Friars will be making the three-mile drive downtown to Dunkin’ Donuts Center for their regional action for the third time in five seasons, but this year’s path is much like the one that led to the 2015 national title. As the No. 4 seed that year, Providence defeated current NCHC rivals Miami and Denver to clinch a spot at the Frozen Four in Boston.
Granite State guys
UMass and Harvard will open Friday’s doubleheader at the Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H., but brothers Matt and Alex Steeves (Bedford, N.H.) will be returning to their home state and skating for Notre Dame during the nightcap against Clarkson at SNHU Arena.
Matt, a sophomore, scored two of his three goals this season against the Penn State team that the Fighting Irish defeated on Saturday to win their second straight Big Ten title, while the other came against Boston College on New Year’s Eve. Alex ranks second among Notre Dame freshmen with seven goals and led the team with five shots on goal in the B1G title game.
Junior Cal Burke’s (Boxborough, Mass.) 28 points rank third on the Irish, while his 12 goals are tied for the team lead. He has seven points in his last nine games, including a Saturday goal.
Harvard’s roster also boasts a New Hampshire product in sophomore Reilly Walsh. The Andover native has 31 points in 32 games, which ranks third among ECAC defensemen behind Crimson junior Adam Fox and Quinnipiac senior Chase Priskie.
More history for Minutemen?
This has been a season of historic proportions for UMass, which is the No. 4 overall seed in only its second-ever NCAA tournament appearance. The Minutemen have shattered their program record with 28 wins and first-ever Hockey East regular-season title this season, while sophomore Cale Makar is the first of three straight teammates at the top of the league scoring charts with his 46 points — a single-season record for a UMass defenseman — in 37 games.
Should the Minutemen and second-seeded Clarkson advance past Friday, history would repeat itself in Manchester as there would be a rematch of the only other NCAA tournament win in UMass history. On March 23, 2007, Jonathan Quick’s Minutemen earned a 1-0 overtime win over Clarkson before falling to league rival Maine in the East Regional Final at Rochester, N.Y.
Clarkson’s nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2) is the longest in the nation entering the tournament.
Best vs. Best
Two of the regional semifinals involving New England teams see national bests squaring off. Harvard has the nation’s best power play at 28.8 percent and will face the No. 2 unit of UMass (28.7) to open the entire 16-team tournament and the Manchester bracket.
In addition, Makar and Fox are the top two offensive defensemen in the NCAA field and one of them could potentially finish as the nation’s overall leading scorer. Currently, Fox is two points behind Michigan State’s Taro Hirose and Penn State’s Alex Limoges with 48 points, including a nation-leading 39 assists, while Makar is four back of the leaders.
Quinnipiac junior Andrew Shortridge brings a nation-leading 1.51 goals against average and .941 save percentage to Allentown, Pa. There, he will face North Andover, Mass., native Joey Daccord, whose seven shutouts for Arizona State tie Providence’s Hayden Hawkey for the national lead.
When it’s tight and when it counts
Northeastern earned all four of its Hockey East postseason wins — two against Maine in the quarterfinals and one each this past weekend against Boston College and Boston University — by a single goal. Sophomore Zach Solow scored the team’s nation-leading sixth overtime game-winner of the year in Friday’s semifinal win over BU.
The Huskies also lead the nation with 14 wins in 17 one-goal games this season. Although all three of its goals came in the first period of Saturday’s title game against BC, Northeastern’s 51 goals in the third period of games tie for second nationally and trail only St. Cloud State.
From Commonwealth Avenue
BU played Friday night’s Hockey East semifinal against Northeastern without Joel Farabee, the team’s leading scorer and Hockey East Rookie of the Year.
Following the 2-1 overtime loss, Farabee signed an entry-level contract with the Philadelphia Flyers that begins next season and joined senior captain Bobo Carpenter (North Reading, Mass./N.Y. Islanders), junior defensemen Chad Krys (Ridgefield, Conn./Chicago) and Dante Fabbro (Nashville), and goaltender Jake Oettinger (Dallas) in signing National Hockey League contracts from BU this week.
Friday’s 3-0 semifinal win over UMass marked the 600th for Boston College head coach Jerry York at his alma mater. It was also his 63rd all-time in a Hockey East postseason game, which allowed him to pass Boston University legend Jack Parker for most in league history.
