Holy Cross entered the semester break with a 2-11-2 overall record and was in the Atlantic Hockey cellar at 2-7-1. The Crusaders have since played their best hockey of the season, gaining at least one point during six consecutive weekend series to move into a tie for eighth place with Army West Point.
Fifth-year head coach David Berard dubbed Friday’s 5-3 win at Bentley as one of his team’s most complete efforts of the season, and it led to finishing off a three-point weekend against the team that is now the closest challenger to first-place American International in the standings.
“We didn’t play the way we feel we need to play in order to be successful,” Berard said on Friday, looking back to the October and November games during which his team was outscored by a combined 11-6 margin. “We had a lot of transition going on after graduating a big senior class, getting young guys in, and having guys in different roles. … I think we've steadily improved since we played them in November and thought this was a really solid road game.”
Winning is hard, but Berard’s club is finding ways to do so at the right time. Since ending a four-game losing streak a month ago, the Crusaders have gone 5-2-2 and been one of only four Atlantic Hockey teams to average at least three goals per game (3.22) in that span.
Berard, a former Providence goaltender, is confident in his team as it ends the regular season with a two-game series at Air Force this weekend. Thirteen players have scored goals in that span, while senior Tommy Nixon has taken the starting job in net over the last three games and posted a .953 save percentage.
But it all goes back to keeping it simple, trusting the process, and playing the right way.
“Guys are just understanding the identity of our hockey team, how hard it is to win, and what we need to do to win on a nightly basis,” Berard said. “When we struggled in the first half, it was after Thanksgiving, we had a standings board in the lounge and erased it because I think we were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves to win games. When you’re focused on winning, you’re focused on the results and not the process. We’ve started working on getting better every week, and it’s starting to pay off for us now.”
Though the Crusaders have a pretty experienced group overall, freshman Anthony Vincent has been as consistent as they come in putting his name on the scoresheet. While playing with a pair of senior captains in Peter Crinella (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and Michael Laffin, the Wilton, Conn., native has 21 points to tie senior defenseman Johnny Coughlin for the team lead and rank fourth among all Atlantic Hockey rookies.
Vincent has logged 10 of his points over the last dozen games, including a goal and an assist on Friday, living by the team’s day-to-day motto that has led to the most recent successes.
“Everything starts with practice, so our motto is about having a good practice on Monday and that will lead into the rest of the week. I feel like we've been having better Monday practices, which have resulted in better weekends,” Vincent said. “Playing with older guys has been great experience because they’re always talking to me in practice, telling me that they can feed off of my energy. If I bring that every night, I feel like I can help as well.”
Finest in February
A handful of Division 1 games will be played before the calendar flips to March this weekend, but Harvard, Northeastern, and Sacred Heart currently stand as the only teams in the country that posted six wins during the month of February.
Through this past weekend, 34 of the nation’s 60 teams had played seven or eight February games, and Sacred Heart is the only one-loss team in that group. The Pioneers have gone 6-1-1 during the second month of 2019 to move into fifth place in the Atlantic Hockey standings, thanks in large part to the defense holding opponents to a nation-low 20.75 shots per game. Senior defenseman Mike Lee (Hamden, Conn.) has 11 assists over SHU’s last eight games, including four over this past weekend’s home-and-home set with Army West Point.
Maine’s Mitchell Fossier, Northeastern defenseman Jeremy Davies, and Quinnipiac’s Odeen Tufto all have 12 points this month, trailing only Princeton senior Ryan Kuffner for the national lead. Fossier, Quinnipiac rookie Wyatt Bongiovanni, and Harvard captain Lewis Zerter-Gossage all have six goals apiece.
As far as goaltenders, Stefanos Lekkas has continued to play in every game this season for his Vermont team. Lekkas leads the nation with his .957 save percentage in February, though he and the Catamounts were only 2-5-1.
Looking to clinch
Come Thursday night, a pair of Division 1 programs could bring back regular-season titles from their respective conferences back to Western Massachusetts.
American International has already clinched a share of first in Atlantic Hockey after Bentley earned only one point out of its home-and-home series against Holy Cross. The Yellow Jackets, who have already set Division 1 program records with 17 wins and 106 goals scored, can take the title outright when it begins a two-game series against Sacred Heart on Thursday night after previously never even completing a .500 season at this level.
UMass holds a five-point edge atop the Hockey East standings and can clinch their first-ever regular-season title with a win against Merrimack. The Minutemen set their program wins record with the first of two home-and-home wins over Boston College two weekends ago and had not finished in the top-four of the league standings since 2006-07.
More history at Quinnipiac
Quinnipiac senior Chase Priskie scored twice in Saturday’s 5-3 loss to Clarkson and once in Friday’s 7-2 win over St. Lawrence to reach 39 goals for his career. Priskie passed Ed Muzyka ‘86 to become the top scoring defenseman in Bobcat history. His 17 tallies this season are the most by a Division 1 defenseman this season, as he passed Mercyhurst junior Joseph Duszak, and set a single-season program record among blueliners.
Priskie became only the fourth defenseman in Quinnipiac history to reach 100 career points back on Dec. 29 against Colgate. He has five goals and 18 points since that date.
Also this weekend, junior Alex Whelan became the fourth different Quinnipiac skater to reach the 10-goal mark this season as well as the eighth to post 20 points.
Rarity for Vermont, BU
Vermont needed a Friday night win over Boston University in order to keep its slim hopes for a Hockey East playoff berth alive, so head coach Kevin Sneddon opted to pull Lekkas in favor of an extra skater for the final seconds of overtime in a scoreless game.
Lekkas was saddled with the loss despite making 43 saves as BU defenseman Chad Krys scored an empty-net goal with 16 seconds to play. The Elburn, Ill., native, whose .932 save percentage is the best in Hockey East, is responsible for 11 of the 31 games since 2000 in which a Vermont goaltender has made 40 or more saves.
Before Krys scored his fifth goal of the season, the Terriers were 16 seconds away from their second scoreless tie of the season. Prior to Dec. 1 at Boston College, BU had not been involved in a 0-0 game since skating to two during the 2006-07 season.
Wilkins consistent for Friars
Providence junior Josh Wilkins became only the third Hockey East player on a team other than UMass to reach the 30-point mark as he scored a goal in Saturday’s 3-2 win over the Minutemen, joining Fossier and Davies. Despite his team-leading point total, Wilkins had not scored a goal before Saturday since completing a 13-game point streak on Jan. 15 at Brown.
The Raleigh, N.C., native has now reached the 30-point mark in three straight seasons. A Friar had not accomplished that feat since 2002-03 when Devin Rask and Peter Fregoe both did.
Northeastern nuggets
Northeastern recorded its 20th victory of the season with Friday’s 6-3 triumph at New Hampshire, reaching that mark for the second consecutive season for the first time in program history. Following this past weekend’s play, the Huskies have more Hockey East wins (13) than any team other than first-place UMass.
Davies scored twice and added two assists to lead the Huskies to Saturday’s 6-0 win over the Wildcats. He is the first Northeastern defenseman to post back-to-back 30-point seasons since Dan McGillis, who did so in 1994-95 and 1995-96 before embarking on a professional career that included 634 games in the National Hockey League.
Sophomore Cayden Primeau pitched his fourth shutout of the season and eighth career on Saturday, moving into sole possession of third in Northeastern history in the latter category.
Loose pucks
― Defenseman Chase Blackmun became the second UMass Lowell skater to earn Hockey East Rookie of the Week honors this season after totaling two goals and two assists in last weekend’s home-and-home series against Merrimack, including a three-point night in Friday’s 6-3 home win. He logged only two points in his first 17 games and now has 10 in the last nine.
― Dartmouth junior Adrian Clark became the first Big Green goaltender to turn in five shutouts in a season since Chester Gale in 1919-20 with Friday’s 28-save effort against rival Yale. It was his second blank sheet of the season against the Bulldogs and was won when sophomore defenseman Brendan Less scored his first collegiate goal only 45 seconds into the game.
― Freshman Chase Gresock scored his Merrimack team-leading 10th goal of the season, sending Saturday’s eventual 3-3 tie with UMass Lowell to overtime. His second goal of that game came with only 48 seconds left in regulation. He is the first rookie to score 10 goals for the Warriors since Jace Hennig (14) and current New Jersey Devil Brett Seney (11) both did so during the 2014-15 season.
― At the other end of Merrimack’s roster, senior Derek Petti (Tewksbury, Mass.) matched Gresock with three points on Saturday. Petti has logged points in four consecutive games, totaling two goals and seven points in that stretch against Maine and UMass Lowell.
