Massachusetts rose to the top of both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine national polls for the first time in program history after sweeping Vermont to retain first place in Hockey East and match its 17-win total from all of last season.
Last weekend’s 4-1 and 5-1 wins gave the Minutemen a one-point advantage over Northeastern for the No. 1 slot in the league standings in advance of a home-and-home series between the teams that will be played Friday in Amherst and Saturday in Boston. However, Boston College can at least temporarily tie UMass with a Wednesday night win over Maine.
Sophomore defenseman Cale Makar factored into four of the five Minutemen goals in Saturday’s 5-1 victory, scoring two and adding two assists. Makar earned his third Hockey East honor of the season (Defensive Player of the Week) and the team’s ninth for the effort.
“He looked like a Hobey Baker (caliber player) to me,” Minutemen head coach Greg Carvel said of Makar following a four-point Saturday. The Avalanche prospect from Calgary, Alberta, leads all Hockey East defensemen with a 8-16-24 line through 20 games after logging 21 points during his 34-game rookie campaign.
Several of the team’s unheralded players contributed in Friday’s win while the team was “missing a little bit of a spark,” Carvel said, while sophomore leading scorer Mitchell Chaffee missed the game due to illness. In addition to No. 2 scorer Jacob Pritchard, senior Brett Boeing, sophomore Oliver Chau, and sophomore Jake Gaudet scored goals, moving their season totals to five, four, and three, respectively.
UMass allowed just 43 shots on goal over the two games, helping Matt Murray improve to 14-1 in net this season. The sophomore has allowed eight goals in his last six games and more than two in only two starts this season. In addition, the Minutemen boast the best power play (32.1 percent) and penalty kill (88.9 percent) in Hockey East.
“Our special teams continue to be outstanding, our goaltending continues to be solid,” said Carvel. “When we can combine that with heaviness and getting pucks and bodies to the net, it’s a real tough formula to have to play against.”
This year’s Minutemen are only four wins shy of tying the program record of 21 that was set in 2006-07. Most recently, the 2009-10 squad won 18.
Wilkins going wild
Despite his team’s losses to Boston College and Boston University over the weekend, Providence junior Josh Wilkins extended his nation-long point streak to 12 games (6-12-18 in that span) with goals in both games. He became the first Hockey East skater and first from a New England club other than Quinnipiac to reach the 25-point mark this season, joining the Bobcats’ sophomore Odeen Tufto (11-18-29) and senior Chase Priskie (13-14-27).
The Raleigh, N.C., native Wilkins has now scored goals in back-to-back games three times this season and not been held off the scoresheet since Nov. 8 at UMass. He is also tied for the national lead with 11 points in the first period of games.
Rejected!
Merrimack has blocked more shots (75) than all but one team in Division 1 hockey over its last five games, at least reaching double digits in each one. Only Michigan (78) has logged more blocks in the nation and no other New England club has more than Holy Cross (60) in that span, dating back to Dec. 31.
Sophomore Dominic Dockery leads all of Hockey East with 49 blocked shots this season, including six apiece in two of Merrimack’s last three games. Boston University’s Kasper Kotkansalo ranks second in the league with 39 after posting 18 in three games last week.
Alabama Huntsville’s Cam Knight (North Reading, Mass.) ranks sixth in the country with 52 during his senior season, while Quinnipiac junior Karlis Cukste’s 43 are second to Dockery among players from New England clubs.
Making Pittsburgh proud
Bentley turned a five-game winless streak into beginnings of a three-game unbeaten run with this past weekend’s Atlantic Hockey sweep at Robert Morris. The Falcons, who had not won since Nov. 24 at Holy Cross, now have a two-point advantage over both Sacred Heart and Canisius for eighth in the league standings with their 6-7-1 mark.
Freshman Brendan Walkom in both the second and third periods en route to Saturday’s 5-1 win in his hometown of Pittsburgh, marking his first goals since his first collegiate tally back on Oct. 18 at American International. The South Kent School graduate followed the lead of junior Ryner Gorowsky, who finished Friday’s 5-2 win with three points.
The series-clinching win was also the 600th game in the head coaching career of the Falcons’ Ryan Soderquist. The Arlington, Mass., native is in the midst of his 17th season as the winningest bench boss in his alma mater’s history. Junior Aidan Pelino was named Atlantic Hockey Goaltender of the Week after making 24 of his 45 saves in that game.
Three for the ‘Saders
Holy Cross has earned Atlantic Hockey points in three consecutive games after taking three points from Niagara over the weekend, skating to a 3-3 tie before earning a 4-1 win at Hart Center. The Crusaders now sit just one point behind ninth-place Sacred Heart and Canisius with two games against American International on the horizon this weekend.
Senior defenseman Johnny Coughlin scored twice in the Saturday victory, while classmate Michael Laffin has seven points in his last six games after posting the winning tally.
Freshman Erik Gordon has started 13 consecutive games in net. The Duluth, Ga., native was strong against the Purple Eagles, stopping 63 of the 67 shots he faced for a 1.93 goals against average and .940 save percentage on the weekend.
Orp1K in the NHL
Washington Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik became the fifth Boston College product to play in 1,000 National Hockey League career, reaching the milestone with Monday night’s loss to a St. Louis Blues team that features a recent former Eagle in Manchester, N.H., native forward Zach Sanford.
Orpik joins Bill Guerin (1,263), Brian Leetch (1,205), Joe Mullen (1,062), and Brian Gionta (1,026) as the former Eagles to play in at least 1,000 NHL games. Michigan State and Boston University are the only other college programs with as many alums who reached that mark.
Loose pucks
― Harvard senior Michael Lackey made 46 saves in Saturday’s 2-1 win at then-No. 6 Quinnipiac, the most since Merrick Madsen made two more on Nov. 18, 2017 at Minnesota. Sophomore John Marino (North Easton, Mass.) scored his first goal of the season from the back end late in the first period.
― Despite Saturday’s loss, Quinnipiac has been ranked in the top-10 nationally for six straight weeks. Sophomore Andrew Shortridge continues to lead the country with a 0.98 goals against and .961 save percentage after making 25 saves against the Crimson, including 12 in the first period.
― Hockey East Player of the Week and Merrimack freshman Chase Gresock has scored in each of his team’s three consecutive wins after Saturday’s 5-2 triumph over Connecticut. The Warriors have not won four games in a row since the start of the 2014-15 season as this is their first three-game run since Feb. 10-17, 2017.
― Aside from Wilkins, New Hampshire junior Liam Blackburn and freshman Angus Crookshank are in the midst of two of the three other longest streaks in the nation. Blackburn scored twice against BU and once against BC over the weekend to make it 11 straight games with points, including five with goals. Crookshank and Penn State’s Brandon Biro have logged points in eight straight contests.
