The postseason is here for three of New England’s ECAC programs, while Holy Cross also plays a best-of-three set this weekend in hopes of joining three of its regional rivals in the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinal field.
All of the ECAC squads will be on home ice during their first-round sets with Brown welcoming Princeton to the Ocean State’s capital city for a rematch of last weekend’s regular-season finale won by the Tigers. Dartmouth and Yale are the two best squads from the league in action as the top four seeds await the winners of these opening sets.
In Atlantic Hockey, three of the top four teams hail from our region, so only Holy Cross is facing a first-round test. The Crusaders are in Pittsburgh to take on a Robert Morris team it had some success against during the regular season.
Hockey East still has regular-season games to play, but there is a lot at stake. Northeastern, UMass Lowell, and Boston University are all competing for the remaining home-ice slots, while the four teams below them jockey for position in next weekend’s quarterfinals with either Boston College or New Hampshire headed to Amherst to face top-seeded UMass.
ECAC HOCKEY
This weekend’s first-round series are best-of-three with Sunday’s games only being played if necessary. Among New England teams, No. 1 Quinnipiac and No. 4 Harvard earned byes and will skate on home ice in the quarterfinals next weekend.
No. 9 Princeton (10-16-3) at No. 8 Brown (11-13-5)
Friday-Sunday, 7/7/5 p.m. at Meehan Auditorium, Providence, R.I.
What to watch for: The Bears finished the regular season with a 5-1 loss to Princeton last Saturday and will get a rematch to open the conference playoffs in their first playoff home game since the 2012-13 season. Princeton returns to Providence in the midst of a 3-0-1 streak that allowed it to move within three points of the Bears in the final standings. Senior Tommy Marchin didn’t score a goal last weekend but has three and 10 points in his last nine games; he has scored a point in nine of Brown’s 11 wins.
Fun fact: Junior defenseman Zach Giuttari (Warwick, R.I.) scored one of Brown’s three goals during last season’s ECAC first-round series. This season, he has scored five of his 16 points in the last five games.
No. 11 Rensselaer (10-21-3) at No. 6 Yale (13-13-3)
Friday-Sunday, 7/7/4 p.m. at Ingalls Rink, New Haven, Conn.
What to watch for: Yale will be looking to repeat its regular-season successes against the Engineers during a postseason series in New Haven, though the Bulldogs enter having lost four straight games after being swept by Princeton and Quinnipiac last weekend. Senior Joe Snively scored and assisted, contributing to two of Yale’s three goals. Freshman Justin Pearson (Nashua, N.H.) scored three of his five goals this season during 4-2 and 3-2 wins over RPI in December and January, while junior Corbin Kaczperski made 44 combined saves.
Fun fact: Yale has a 2-0-1 record in all-time postseason meetings against RPI, including a pair of 3-2 games in the 2008 first round that weren’t decided before a combined four overtime periods.
No. 12 St. Lawrence (5-27-2) at No. 5 Dartmouth (11-14-4)
Friday-Sunday, 7 p.m. at Thompson Arena, Hanover, N.H.
What to watch for: The Big Green and Saints will collide in an opening playoff series for the second consecutive year after Dartmouth won last year’s series in three games and went 1-0-1 this season. Drew O’Connor ranked fifth among ECAC rookies with 22 points and carries Rookie of the Week honors into the “second season” as he scored three times during last weekend’s split at Union and RPI. Junior Adrian Clark allowed three goals against SLU ― which has been outscored by a 4.0-2.06 margin on average this season ― during two of his 19 consecutive appearances this year, but his 2.08 goals against ranked fourth in league games.
Fun fact: Dartmouth would play at No. 4 Harvard next weekend if it wins this series, potentially creating the exact same path to the ECAC semifinals in Lake Placid that it did last season.
ATLANTIC HOCKEY
This weekend’s first-round series are best-of-three with Sunday’s games only being played if necessary. Among New England teams, No. 1 American International, No. 2 Bentley, and No. 4 Sacred Heart earned byes and will skate on home ice in the quarterfinals next weekend.
No. 9 Holy Cross (10-19-5) at No. 8 Robert Morris (12-20-2)
Friday-Sunday, 7:05 p.m. at Colonials Arena, Pittsburgh, Pa.
What to watch for: Though the Crusaders lost out on the eighth-place tiebreaker to Robert Morris, they have to be feeling good entering the postseason after going 6-3-2 over their final 11 games of the year. Senior Mitch Collett led the Crusaders with a 4-7-11 line in that span, while Tommy Nixon has a .935 save percentage in five of those games. Nixon recorded a 32-save shutout in his Feb. 16 start against the Colonials, while freshman Erik Gordon recorded his first collegiate win in the same fashion on Dec. 8 in Pittsburgh. The two teams split four meetings this year, but RMU’s one more conference win (11-10) was just enough for the tiebreaker.
Fun fact: The Crusaders traveled to Pittsburgh and were swept in a quarterfinal series two seasons ago, while RMU achieved the same result last season on road ice. Defensemen Johnny Coughlin and Spencer Trapp recorded points for Holy Cross in the set last March.
HOCKEY EAST
This is the final weekend of the Hockey East regular season.
The top eight seeds will advance to the quarterfinal round next weekend with the top four hosting the bottom four. Connecticut, Vermont, and Merrimack have already been eliminated from postseason contention.
New Hampshire (12-12-9, 8-9-6) at Northeastern (22-10-1, 14-8-1)
Friday, 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena, Boston
What to watch for: With a Friday night win, Northeastern would tie a program record for regular-season victories (set in 2008-09) and gain home ice and a top-four seed for next weekend’s Hockey East quarterfinals. The Huskies will get a big boost with the return of junior defenseman Jeremy Davies after he served a one-game suspension from Hockey East, but four players scored goals during a 4-2 win over Boston College in his absence. Northeastern had a five-game win streak snapped last Friday in Chestnut Hill; the last two wins came by a combined 12-3 score two weeks ago at Whittemore Center.
Fun fact: Northeastern captain Eric Williams played in his program-record 150th consecutive game last Saturday. No player in Huskies history has appeared in more games than the native of Newmarket, Ontario.
Massachusetts (26-7, 18-5) at Connecticut (11-20-2, 6-15-2)
Friday, 7:05 p.m. at XL Center, Hartford, Conn.
What to watch for: This game carries no weight in how the final Hockey East standings will look as UMass already clinched its first regular-season title and UConn is locked into the first non-playoff spot. The Huskies snapped a three-game skid with last Friday’s 5-1 win over Vermont behind a 34-save effort from freshman Tomas Vomacka and two goals from Jonny Evans. Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week Cale Makar scored twice and added two assists last weekend as the Minutemen, still boasting 3.79 goals per game to lead the league, swept Merrimack and Maine.
Fun fact: UMass sophomore Mitchell Chaffee scored twice and added three assists in two meetings with the Huskies this season, which the Minutemen won by 7-4 and 3-0 scores.
UMass Lowell (18-11-4, 12-7-4) at Vermont (12-19-2, 5-16-2)
Friday, 7:05 p.m. at Gutterson Fieldhouse, Burlington, Vt.
What to watch for: While Vermont sits outside the playoff picture in 10th place entering its final game of the season, the River Hawks still have plenty to play for as they could finish anywhere from second through fifth in Hockey East depending on other results. Lowell is only 1-3-2 in its last six games after losing and tying New Hampshire last weekend, though freshmen Chase Blackmun and Reid Stefanson have both logged five points in that span. The Catamounts have lost five straight but could potentially spoil Lowell’s hopes at a top-four seed with a win.
Fun fact: UMass Lowell has lost by a 1-0 score twice in its last five games, marking the first time that has happened for the River Hawks since 2011-12.
Boston University (14-15-4, 12-8-3) at Maine (14-15-4, 10-9-4)
Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at Alfond Arena, Orono, Maine
What to watch for: Providence’s 3-1 win over Boston College on Thursday night locked the Black Bears into the No. 6 seed, but there are still plenty of Hockey East seeding scenarios involving BU. If UNH wins and Vermont gains at least one point against UMass Lowell on Friday, the Black Bears would make a return visit to Boston for next weekend’s quarterfinal series should the Terriers also take care of business to end the regular season on Saturday. These two teams haven’t met since Nov. 16-17 when a series in Boston was split, though Maine’s Jeremy Swayman made 79 saves over the two games.
Fun fact: BU junior defenseman Chad Krys (Ridgefield, Conn.) joined classmate Dante Fabbro in recording five points in what was his 100th collegiate game last Saturday against Merrimack. BU won that game, 5-1.
