The second-to-last full weekend of Division 1 college hockey features several intriguing games involving New England clubs.
Archrivals Boston College and Boston University headline a trio of two-game Hockey East series and will look to establish some momentum after slugging starts to the season for both teams. Friday’s 7:30 p.m. game at Agganis Arena will be televised on NESN. Providence and New Hampshire also play a home-and-home, while Maine visits Vermont for two. UMass and Northeastern host single Friday games.
Quinnipiac and Princeton meet for a home-and-home in ECAC play, while that league’s other New England teams are in typical two-opponent action. Dartmouth and Harvard are both skating on home ice this weekend.
Holy Cross, Sacred Heart, and Bentley all host Atlantic Hockey games. For the Crusaders, it’s a one-game visit from AIC to complete a series that began earlier in the week. Bentley welcomes in Mercyhurst in hopes of extending its three-game winning streak.
HOCKEY EAST
Boston University (4-6-1, 4-3-1) vs. Boston College (3-6-1, 3-1-1)
Friday, 7:30 p.m. at Agganis Arena, Boston
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, Mass.
What to watch for: This two-game Battle of Commonwealth Avenue series is an interesting one as the first half has been rather underwhelming for both sides. A total of 23 NHL draftees line these rosters, but the teams have only seven combined wins on the year. Junior David Cotton has had a hand in 14 of 21 goals for BC, which has averaged 2.1 as a team. BU ranks fifth in Hockey East offensively and has, like its archrival, allowed at least three goals per game. With all that said though, you can throw the numbers out when it comes to BC-BU.
Fun fact: Friday marks the 278th all-time meeting between the Eagles and Terriers. BU is 5-2 in the series over the last two seasons.
Providence (7-4-2, 4-2) vs. New Hampshire (2-6-4, 1-3-2)
Friday, 7 p.m. at Schneider Arena, Providence, R.I.
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Whittemore Center, Durham, N.H.
What to watch for: The Wildcats hope that a four-goal breakthrough against Miami can lead to more when this weekend’s home-and-home series commences in the Ocean State, but the Friday night hosts will be looking to break a 2-3-1 skid that continued with a loss and tie at Denver. Senior Hayden Hawkey’s Friars still boast the No. 2 defense in Hockey East, despite allowing seven goals in Colorado.
Fun fact: Friar junior Jacob Bryson is one of just five Division 1 defensemen with double-digit points in November. He has three multi-point games this month, including one in last Saturday’s 4-4 tie at Denver.
Maine (4-7-1, 2-3-1) at Vermont (4-6, 1-5)
Friday, 7 p.m./Saturday, 5 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.
What to watch for: Trends are the story in this series as both teams have lost three of the last four games. These two teams lie at opposite ends of the discipline spectrum as the most (Maine, 18.2 minutes per game) and least (Vermont, 7.4) penalized teams in all of college hockey. The offenses rank at the bottom of Hockey East, having averaged 2.17 and 2.10 goals per game, respectively. However, Vermont is coming off a Saturday win over Dartmouth and, thanks to the play of junior Stefanos Lekkas, has allowed just 2.2 goals per game.
Fun fact: Vermont’s Nic Hamre and Maine’s Patrick Shea (Marshfield, Mass.) played together at Kimball Union Academy from 2014-16.
Connecticut (5-8-1, 2-6-1) at Massachusetts (11-1, 6-0)
Friday, 7 p.m. at Mullins Center, Amherst, Mass.
What to watch for: UMass hosts its I-91 rival for the first time since taking two of three games in last year’s season series. The teams enter this game in different places. The Huskies fell to BU and Yale at the Friendship Four last weekend to extend their losing streak to four, while the Minutemen beat Princeton in overtime for their nation-best eighth straight win. In the latter game, sophomore Matt Murray became the first goalie in UMass history to start a season 8-0 with a 23-save effort.
Fun fact: Defensemen have scored 12 of the Minutemen’s 46 goals this season. Sophomore Cale Makar has six of them and 16 points to tie for the team lead.
Merrimack (4-9-1, 2-5) at Northeastern (8-3-1, 4-1-1)
Friday, 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena, Boston
What to watch for: Northeastern is 4-1-1 in November and looks to reach the five-win mark during the month for the first time since 2008-09. All four wins in that stretch have come by a single goal. Meanwhile, Merrimack heads into Boston with a 3-0-1 record after losing back-to-back games this season. These two teams also meet next Saturday in North Andover, but one of these aforementioned streaks will be curbed by then.
Fun fact: Northeastern senior Brandon Hawkins is one of three Huskies in the midst of a career-long point streak. The Bowling Green transfer has a 1-5-6 line over his last five games.
ECAC HOCKEY
Quinnipiac (11-2, 4-2) vs. Princeton (3-4-1, 3-2-1)
Friday, 7 p.m. at Frank Perrotti, Jr. Arena, Hamden, Conn.
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Hobey Baker Rink, Princeton, N.J.
What to watch for: The ECAC’s top teams look to pile up crucial points in their final league games of the calendar year. Sophomore Keith Petruzzelli (Wilbraham, Mass.) has allowed just four goals and pitched two shutouts over a four-game span that includes wins over Colgate, Cornell, and two against Maine. So far, sophomore Odeen Tufto has outpaced Princeton’s dynamic duo of Ryan Kuffner and Max Veronneau with a league-high 18 points.
Fun fact: Quinnipiac’s Michael Lombardi (Barrington, R.I.) has recorded his first three collegiate points over the last five games.
Brown (1-5-1, 1-3-1) at Clarkson (7-4, 1-1)/St. Lawrence (2-10, 0-2)
Friday, 7 p.m. at Cheel Arena, Potsdam, N.Y.
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Appleton Arena, Canton, N.Y.
What to watch for: The Bears have lost three one-goal games and allowed empty-net goals to decide the last two, so they’ll look to start turning their one-win record around on the road this weekend. Brown is still looking for some of its leaders to emerge as three of the team’s top four scorers are freshmen, accounting for seven total goals. First comes a Clarkson team that just finished a 3-1 stretch of non-conference play, including a sweep of seven-win Michigan Tech.
Fun fact: Brown sophomore Alec Mehr had three goals and five points in four combined games against the Golden Knights and Saints last season.
Yale (3-2-2, 2-2-1) at St. Lawrence/Clarkson
Friday, 7 p.m. at Appleton Arena, Canton, N.Y.
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Cheel Arena, Potsdam, N.Y.
What to watch for: Six different scorers and two goaltenders helped the Bulldogs go unbeaten at the Friendship Four. Now, they’ll look to extend the streak to at least three in the North Country. The Saints, like Clarkson, haven’t seen a New England-based ECAC team yet, though one of their wins came against Holy Cross; the other was two weeks ago at Minnesota. SLU has given up at least three goals in every game and only scored more than three in its two wins, while Clarkson boasts the league’s No. 2 defense.
Fun fact: Sophomore Kevin O’Neil scored Yale’s league-leading third shorthanded goal of the season in Saturday’s win over UConn in Belfast.
Colgate (3-7-1, 1-2-1)/Cornell (5-4, 3-1) at Harvard (3-3-2, 1-2-2)
Friday, 7:30 p.m./Saturday, 7 p.m. at Bright-Landry Center, Cambridge, Mass.
What to watch for: The Big Red got a non-conference taste of Harvard and suffered a 4-1 defeat Saturday at Madison Square Garden, but this weekend’s ECAC action marks Colgate’s first look at a potent Crimson attack. Harvard clicks at a nation-best 35.1 percent on the power play, while its opponents have two of the 10 worst killing units. Reilly Walsh (Andover, N.H.) is tied for the ECAC lead with four power-play goals, so his unit could make it a tough weekend for the visitors.
Fun fact: Despite its 3-3-2 record, Harvard has the No. 1 offense (3.88 goals per game) and shots on goal rate (33.88 per game) in the ECAC.
Cornell/Colgate at Dartmouth (3-3, 3-2)
Friday/Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.
What to watch for: Dartmouth has alternated losses and wins all season, so it will look to continue that trend and then break it as the Red and Raiders invade Hanover after last Saturday’s defeat to Vermont. Drew O’Connor had a two-goal game against the Catamounts and has four on the season to tie sophomore Quin Foreman (Needham, Mass.) for the team lead and pace another strong freshman class in the ECAC. With these games, the Big Green is continuing a four-game homestand with its final ECAC games of the calendar year.
Fun fact: Though Dartmouth is 3-3 on the season, it averages 3.5 goals and 33 shots per game, respectively the 11th and ninth-best marks in the country.
ATLANTIC HOCKEY
Mercyhurst (5-7-2, 3-4-1) at Bentley (5-7-1, 4-5-1)
Friday/Saturday, 7:05 p.m. at Bentley Arena, Waltham, Mass.
What to watch for: Bentley has three home games in a short span as Harvard makes a short Tuesday trek to Waltham after this weekend’s Atlantic Hockey series. The Falcons are riding a three-game winning streak after defeating Boston College and Holy Cross by 4-2 scores. Ten different players have scored Bentley’s last 12 goals; senior Drew Callin has a team-leading five on the season, but none during the win streak. That balance could post challenges for a Laker club that has the league’s second-worst goal differential at -15.
Fun fact: Bentley and Mercyhurst have played once series in each of the last two seasons.
Robert Morris (5-6-1, 4-3-1) at Sacred Heart (2-7-3, 2-5-1)
Friday, 7:05 p.m./Saturday, 2:05 p.m. at Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, Conn.
What to watch for: In order to break a five-game winless streak that continued with a 0-1-1 showing at Canisius last weekend, the Pioneers will have to top a club that most recently held a 10-2 scoring advantage over Mercyhurst en route to its first sweep of the season. SHU scored back-to-back goals to start last Saturday’s game, including sophomore Jordan Kaplan’s first of the season, but the ultimate result was its third one-goal loss of the year.
Fun fact: Robert Morris has won all four games played between these teams in Bridgeport, including two by a combined 7-2 score last year.
American International (6-7-1, 6-4-1) at Holy Cross (1-9-2, 1-5-1)
Saturday, 7:05 p.m. at Hart Center, Worcester, Mass.
What to watch for: The Yellow Jackets overcame a 2-0 deficit with three unanswered goals and then broke a 3-3 tie to win on Tuesday, so revenge will be on the Crusaders’ minds as they look to break an 11-game winless streak when the series shifts to their home ice. While Holy Cross is struggling in the scoring department, AIC has scored five more goals (42) than it did at the 14-game mark last year.
Fun fact: Yellow Jacket sophomore Tobias Fladeby has scored five goals, including two game-winners in his last three games. He has a team-leading eight on the season after recording seven total points as a freshman.
