This past weekend of Division 1 action around New England included a pair of nationally-ranked clubs in UMass and Providence facing off in a Hockey East series.
The Minutemen earned a pair of one-goal wins over the Friars to remain unbeaten through five Hockey East contests and increase its first-place lead to three points over a Northeastern club that also swept its weekend of league games on home ice. Both teams have ranked in the top portion of each of the season’s New England Hockey Journal Top 10 rankings.
Elsewhere, Commonwealth Avenue rivals Boston College and Boston University kept pushing historic winless starts in the rear-view mirror with three combined wins on the weekend. Merrimack split its non-conference set at Bemidji State.
In ECAC Hockey, Harvard picked up its first win of the season as part of a three-point weekend, and Dartmouth earned a victory on the road to move within one point of Princeton for the early league lead. Brown and Quinnipiac also posted splits, while Yale earned a point.
Sacred Heart continued its Atlantic Hockey slate with a Friday night win over Army West Point, while Bentley and American International were both swept in tight series.
Top 10 teams
1. Massachusetts
Record: 8-1 (5-0 Hockey East) / Last week: 2
The Minutemen showed a flair for the dramatic in both games of their latest Hockey East sweep against Providence as freshmen Ty Farmer and Anthony Del Gaizo scored the deciding goals with less than two minutes to play in the 3-2 wins. Six different players lit the lamp over the weekend, but senior Brett Boeing had an assist in each game, including one on the Saturday winner. Sophomore Matt Murray earned both starts, stopping 29 of the 31 shots he faced.
2. Providence
Record: 5-3-1 (2-2-0 Hockey East) / Last week: 1
The Friars suffered their first back-to-back losses since last November, coming back from two-goal deficits in both games before coming out on the short end of 3-2 scores against UMass. Junior defenseman Jacob Bryson factored into three of PC’s four goals in the series, scoring the first on Thursday before assisting on both on Saturday. Freshman Jack Dugan also had a point in both games.
3. Quinnipiac
Record: 7-2 (2-2 ECAC Hockey) / Last week: 3
Junior Andrew Shortridge pitched a 3-0 shutout for his second win of the season Friday against RPI, but the Bobcats settled for another split in ECAC play as Union handed them a second consecutive Saturday loss by 5-1 score. Daniel Winslow (Fairfield, Conn.) and Michael Lombardi (Barrington, R.I.) scored their first collegiate goals on the weekend, while Chase Priskie scored his 29th career goal to set the school’s Division 1 record for a defenseman.
4. Northeastern
Record: 6-3-1 (3-1-1 Hockey East) / Last week: 5
Deficits after two periods were no problem for the Huskies during a weekend of league action at Matthews Arena as they rallied to defeat UConn and UMass Lowell in one-goal affairs. Brandon Hawkins scored with 1:14 left to down the other Huskies, 3-2. A night later, fellow senior Patrick Schule capped a three-goal run and a 5-4 win at the 2:14 mark of overtime. Junior Grant Jozefek and freshman Tyler Madden each had four-point weekends.
5. Boston University
Record: 2-4-1 (2-2-1 Hockey East) / Last week: 4
Sophomore Shane Bowers scored his second goal of the game 3:06 into overtime on Saturday night, lifting the Terriers to a 3-2 win at New Hampshire. BU returns home with back-to-back wins for the first time this season. Bowers scored tied the score on a power play in the second period before scoring BU’s third shorthanded goal in as many games to earn the win. Junior defenseman Chad Krys (Ridgefield, Conn.) scored the opening goal for his fifth point in four games since returning from injury.
6. Boston College
Record: 3-5 (3-1 Hockey East) / Last week: 6
The Eagles jumped above .500 on the season in Hockey East play with 4-1 and 3-2 wins over Vermont in Chestnut Hill. David Cotton, Logan Hutsko, and Julius Mattila continue to impress together as the trio combined for five goals and six assists on the weekend, including four points apiece from Cotton and the sophomore Hutsko. Cotton scored the winner with 22 seconds left in the second period of Friday’s series-clinching win. Juniors Joseph Woll and Ryan Edquist split the goaltending duties, with the latter earning a 23-save win in his first start of the year.
7. Dartmouth
Record: 3-2 (3-2 ECAC Hockey) / Last week: 9
A split was the Big Green’s result for the second straight weekend as a 3-0 win at Yale followed a 4-2 loss against a fellow Ivy League foe in Brown. Junior Adrian Clark made 31 saves at Yale, becoming the first Dartmouth goalie to shut out the Bulldogs since current head coach Bob Gaudet in 1979. Junior Will Graber and sophomore Quin Foreman (Needham, Mass.) each finished the weekend with 2-1-3 lines, including one goal apiece in each game.
8. Yale
Record: 2-2-1 (2-2-1 ECAC Hockey) / Last week: 7
The Bulldogs managed a single ECAC point out of the weekend as they earned a 3-3 draw with Harvard before falling to Dartmouth in New Haven. Senior Joe Snively continued his torrid, nine-point start to the season with a goal and an assist against the Crimson, matching the Friday night line of rookie defenseman Jack St. Ivany. Junior Corbin Kaczperski made 30 saves to lift the Elis to a point in his third start in four games.
9. Connecticut
Record: 4-4-1 (2-3-1 Hockey East) / Last week: 8
The Huskies had leads after the first and second periods, but host Northeastern rallied for a 3-2 win Friday night in Boston. Freshman defenseman Roman Kinal scored his first collegiate goal in the opening period before senior Max Kalter snapped a four-game scoring drought in the second. Junior Adam Huska made 17 of his 36 saves in the third period, eclipsing the 30 mark for his third straight game and fifth this season.
10. Harvard
Record: 1-2-2 (1-2-2 ECAC Hockey) / Last week: Not ranked
Harvard picked up three of four points on the weekend with a 3-3 tie at Yale and a 5-2 first victory of the season at Brown. Sophomore defenseman Reilly Walsh (Andover, N.H.) found the back of the net in both games, posting the winning tally in a game at Brown that featured five different goal scorers. Junior Adam Fox had a goal and three assists on the weekend and has four multiple-point games over the first five. Senior Michael Lackey had a 55-save series, making 32 in Friday’s tie.
Players of the Week
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Ryan Lohin
UMass Lowell / Jr. / F / Chadds Ford, Pa.
The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect had a five-point weekend against New Hampshire and Northeastern after missing four straight games due to injury. Lohin scored twice in each game for his first four goals of the season and added an assist in Saturday’s overtime loss in Boston. Both of his tallies against UNH came with an extra attacker on the ice in the third period.
Adam Fox
Harvard / Jr. / D / Jericho, N.Y.
Fox has yet to be held off the scoresheet this season as he recorded two points in both of Harvard’s games at Yale and Brown. He assisted on two of the Crimson’s three goals in a 3-3 tie at Yale before scoring a shorthanded goal and adding an assist on the game-winning goal in the following night’s 5-2 triumph over the Bears.
