As the longest regular season in college sports winds down to its final weeks, the meaning of Division 1 hockey games is that much greater. There still are only two points at stake for Hockey East, ECAC and Atlantic Hockey teams over the next three or two weekends, but shrinking is the amount of time left for a team to maximize its potential for the season.
The playoff races are tight as each of the top four Hockey East teams are still in contention to win the regular-season title, while the top seven ECAC teams are separated by six points and a pair of New England teams are fighting to stand atop the Atlantic Hockey race come next week.
This weekend’s Hockey East slate sees New Hampshire host Northeastern for a pair of important games that could change things in the middle of the race, while Maine and Boston College meet in Orono under a similar scenario. Providence and UMass play a single game Saturday night as two of the league’s top three teams. In addition, Boston University visits Vermont and UMass Lowell, which is tied for second, plays a home-and-home with Merrimack.
Quinnipiac hosts St. Lawrence and Clarkson in ECAC play, while the remaining action features New England travel partners Brown and Yale visiting Harvard and Dartmouth. Quinnipiac and Yale are separated by only one point as the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the current standings.
First-place American International has the weekend off from Atlantic play, but Bentley and Holy Cross play a home-and-home series and Sacred Heart and Holy Cross do the same.
HOCKEY EAST
Northeastern (19-9-1, 11-7-1) at New Hampshire (11-10-8)
Friday/Saturday, 7 p.m. at Whittemore Center, Durham, N.H.
What to watch for: This weekend presents a big opportunity for the Wildcats as they host the Hockey East club clinging to the final home-ice spot with three weekends to go before the postseason. UNH trails the Huskies by only four points from their eighth-place position entering the first two games of a series concluding with a March 8 season finale in Boston. The Wildcats are 4-1-4 this season after losses, which they were handed last Saturday in Vermont.
Fun fact: Of the 13 defensemen leading their Division 1 teams in scoring entering the weekend, Northeastern junior Jeremy Davies is the only one from Hockey East.
Boston University (11-15-3, 9-8-2) at Vermont (12-16-2, 5-13-2)
Friday/Saturday, 7:05 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.
What to watch for: The calendar year of 2019 has treated both of these teams similarly as they enter weekend with nearly identical records (Vermont 5-8-1, BU 5-7-1) since the beginning of January. BU gained some momentum when junior Jake Oettinger shut out UConn last Saturday, while Vermont will be looking to bounce back from 4-1 and 2-1 losses at Northeastern as it desperately needs wins to remain alive in the league playoff hunt.
Fun fact: Should junior Stefanos Lekkas start both games this weekend, he will become just the fifth-ever Vermont goaltender to appear in at least 100 career games.
Boston College (10-16-3, 9-7-3) at Maine (12-14-4, 8-8-4)
Friday, 7 p.m./Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at Alfond Arena, Orono, Maine
What to watch for: Maine enters this weekend set in the midst of a 3-1-1 run and can win the season series against BC after dominating the Jan. 16 game in Chestnut Hill, 7-2. A Friday night win also would flip the teams in the standings as Maine and Boston University are tied for sixth, only one point behind the Eagles, who have lost four straight. However, junior Graham McPhee is coming off a strong performance for BC as he scored both goals in last Saturday’s 4-2 setback to UMass.
Fun fact: Though junior Mitchell Fossier is Maine’s leading scorer by six points, nine different Black Bears have at least 10 points. Chase Pearson is their first 15-goal scorer since Blaine Byron in 2016-17 and only the second in the last five seasons.
UMass Lowell (17-10-2, 11-6-2) vs. Merrimack (7-21-2, 4-15-1)
Friday, 7:15 p.m. at Tsongas Center, Lowell, Mass.
Saturday, 7 p.m. at Lawler Rink, North Andover, Mass.
What to watch for: The Warriors will be playing for pride over the next few weekends as they were eliminated from Hockey East playoff contention with last Saturday’s loss to Maine, but Friday’s hosts will be looking to remain tied for second in the league and avoid a three-game losing streak after being swept by Providence. Ryan Dmowski (East Lyme, Conn.) has a 3-2-5 line in his last six games for the River Hawks and scored twice in last season’s win over Merrimack, but the Warriors ended Lowell’s season in the playoffs the following week.
Fun fact: The River Hawks had won eight consecutive road games before last Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Providence, their longest such streak since 2013.
UMass (24-6, 16-4) at Providence (18-9-5, 11-7-2)
Saturday, 5 p.m. at Schneider Arena, Providence, R.I.
What to watch for: UMass extended its program records for overall and Hockey East victories as sophomore Matt Murray picked up a 3-0 Thursday shutout against UConn, and the Minutemen now have the chance to complete a three-game season sweep after taking both ends of a November home-and-home. After going 1-2-1 in four games, Hayden Hawkey (21 saves on Saturday) and the Friars bounced back for a big sweep of their own against UMass Lowell.
Fun fact: On Thursday, UMass sophomore defenseman Mario Ferraro scored his first goal of the season and Cale Makar dished out his 25th asist, tying the program’s single-season record for a defenseman.
ECAC HOCKEY
Yale (13-9-3, 11-6-1)/Brown (10-10-5, 7-6-5) at Dartmouth (9-12-4, 8-7-3)/Harvard (14-8-3, 10-6-2)
Friday/Saturday, 7 p.m. at Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.
Friday/Saturday, 7 p.m. at Bright-Landry Hockey Center, Cambridge, Mass.
What to watch for: It’s a New England rivalry weekend for four of the ECAC’s clubs as Yale and Brown visit the region’s other travel partners after both teams took points of its games with Cornell and Colgate. Behind seven combined points from ECAC Player of the Week Robbie DeMontis and Rookie of the Week Curtis Hall, the Bulldogs posted a combined 8-2 score in sweeping that series. Harvard had its six-game ECAC win streak snapped against Clarkson last Saturday, while Dartmouth will look to sweep Yale after a three-point visit to the North Country.
Fun fact: Brown junior Zach Giuttari (Warwick, R.I.) had two assists in Brown’s Saturday tie with Colgate. The Rhody native defenseman went five consecutive games without a point before that game, following a streak of six out of eight games with a point.
St. Lawrence (4-24-2, 2-14-2)/Clarkson (20-10, 11-7) at Quinnipiac (22-6-2, 11-5-2)
Friday/Saturday, 7 p.m. at People’s United Center, Hamden, Conn.
What to watch for: The Bobcats visited the North Country to begin February and beat these two teams by a combined 11-4 score, so they will look to build upon that momentum and that of last weekend’s three-point performance against Union and RPI. Quinnipiac has won in all sorts of ways this season, which represents the mark of a good team. Sophomore Odeen Tufto’s goal with 34 seconds left provided the latest winner last Saturday.
Fun fact: The game Saturday night is a meeting of the only ECAC clubs to have reached 20 wins this season. Cornell and Union both have 15 wins entering this weekend’s action.
ATLANTIC HOCKEY
Holy Cross (8-18-4, 8-13-3) vs. Bentley (15-12-3, 14-8-2)
Friday, 7:05 p.m. at Bentley Arena, Waltham, Mass.
Saturday, 7:05 p.m. at Hart Center, Worcester, Mass.
What to watch for: Though Bentley had its eight-game winning streak and nation-long 12-game unbeaten run snapped against Niagara last Saturday, the Falcons still have an outside shot to catch first-place American International, which is idle this weekend, in the Atlantic Hockey race. Another big effort against the rival Crusaders is necessary in that quest with Bentley looking to build off scoring 11 goals during the first home-and-home trade in October and November.
Fun fact: Bentley junior Aidan Pelino posted a .924 save percentage and 1.88 goals-against average during his team’s 12-game unbeaten streak from Jan. 5 to Feb. 14, which was the longest in the nation this season.
Sacred Heart (13-14-3, 12-10-2) vs. Army West Point (10-16-5, 8-11-5)
Friday, 7:05 p.m. at Webster Bank Arena, Bridgeport, Conn.
Saturday, 7:05 p.m. at Tate Rink, West Point, N.Y.
What to watch for: Last weekend’s split with RIT allowed Sacred Heart to take sole possession of fifth place in Atlantic Hockey and open up a five-point advantage over the Army team it faces this weekend. A split was the result when these two teams met in November as the road team won both games, but the Pioneers have the first home game in this series and look to follow up a 4-3 overtime win last Saturday that ended with senior Liam Clare’s first goal of the year.
Fun fact: Austin Magera is looking to become the first freshman to lead Sacred Heart in scoring since Justin Danforth in 2013-14. Magera has 11 goals and 23 points in 29 games thus far, leading the team in the latter category by five.
