After all, another weekend of Division 1 men’s action did nothing but tighten up conference races for teams all across New England.
Only five points separate the top six Hockey East teams, though UMass still holds a three-point advantage at the top. Providence was a big winner in Hockey East with its home-and-home sweep of Northeastern, but UMass Lowell remains a point ahead of the Friars after taking three points from Boston College. New Hampshire went 2-0-1 in three games during the week to join the middle pack, sitting only two points behind Providence.
Yale used a Saturday night win to jump into a tie for the ECAC’s top spot with Cornell. Four points separate this league’s top seven clubs. In addition to Yale’s climb up the ladder, Harvard swept Clarkson and St. Lawrence on home ice, Brown took four points in New York’s Capital District, and Dartmouth picked up one league victory of its own.
American International remains atop Atlantic Hockey after another week of play after exploding for eight goals in Saturday’s win at Mercyhurst. Outside of New England Hockey Journal’s Top 10, Vermont clinched a four-point weekend in Hockey East as Merrimack visited Gutterson Fieldhouse, while Bentley swept its AHC set as Sacred Heart and Holy Cross split one.
TOP 10
1. Massachusetts
Record: 19-5 (11-3 Hockey East) / Last week: 1
UMass will finish the month of January with three of its five losses after splitting a weekend series at Maine, 4-2 and 3-4. The Minutemen controlled the shot total for the second straight weekend with a 98-61 advantage, but Maine’s Jeremy Swayman made 53 saves to steal Saturday’s 4-3 contest against Matt Murray who made 30 stops and lost for only the third time as a UMass sophomore. Sophomore Mitchell Chaffee and senior Jacob Pritchard finished the weekend with 2-1-3 lines, while rookie defenseman Marc Del Gaizo scored once and added two assists. Freshman goaltender Filip Lindberg tallied Friday’s 4-2 win with 25 stops.
2. Providence
Record: 15-7-4 (8-5-1 Hockey East) / Last week: 4
The Friars recovered from their third consecutive Hockey East loss in a big way, extending their unbeaten streak against Northeastern to six consecutive games with 4-1 and 3-0 wins. Senior Hayden Hawkey made 34 saves en route to his fifth shutout of the season and 13th career on Saturday night, while the Friday contest was won on the strength of shorthanded goals from Kasper Bjorkqvist and Jason O’Neill. Junior defenseman Spenser Young (Brentwood, N.H.) finished the weekend with three assists.
3. Quinnipiac
Record: 18-5-1 (7-4-1 ECAC Hockey) / Last week: 2
The Bobcats had the weekend off from ECAC play after concluding non-conference play with a 4-1 win over Holy Cross on Tuesday night. Junior Alex Whelan was one of four different goal scorers and also added an assist, while freshman Desi Burgart and senior Brandon Fortunato scored for the second consecutive game. Sophomore Andrew Shortridge made 25 saves en route to his 10th win of the season.
4. Northeastern
Record: 15-7-1 (9-5-1 Hockey East) / Last week: 3
Consecutive losses for the first time since the Huskies’ second weekend of the season dropped them into a second-place tie with Boston College in Hockey East, but three other teams have closed to within two points. Despite the losses to Providence, junior defenseman Ryan Shea (Milton, Mass.) scored his first goal of the season in Friday’s road contest and sophomore Cayden Primeau finished the weekend with 60 saves.
5. UMass Lowell
Record: 14-8-2 (8-4-2 Hockey East) / Last week: 6
The River Hawks closed the weekend with one of the two longest unbeaten streaks in all of college hockey (6-0-1) after a 3-1 win and 4-4 tie against Boston College. Senior Ryan Dmowski (East Lyme, Conn.) scored his third consecutive game-winning goal in Friday’s road tilt before scoring twice and adding an assist during the series finale. Freshman defenseman Chase Blackmun entered the weekend with two points before recording assists in each game as well as a goal on Saturday. Junior Tyler Wall earned the victory with 24 saves.
6. Harvard
Record: 10-6-3 (7-5-2 ECAC Hockey) / Last week: 8
The Crimson returned home and swept its ECAC foes from the North Country to make it three straight wins and four in the last five games. Sophomore Jack Badini scored in the first and second periods of Friday’s 4-3 win over Clarkson before assisting on classmate Reilly Walsh’s (Andover, N.H.) deciding goal at 2:12 of overtime. Saturday’s 7-3 win over St. Lawrence started with six unanswered goals and saw six players, including Walsh, record two points.
7. Boston University
Record: 10-10-3 (8-5-2 Hockey East) / Last week: 5
The Terriers picked up a 7-2 win over Merrimack last Monday before splitting a non-conference series with Arizona State that opened with a 4-2 victory. Freshman Joel Farabee (2-2-4) and junior Patrick Harper (1-3-4; New Canaan, Conn.) each logged four points over the three games with both of Farabee’s goals coming in the win over the Sun Devils. Junior Jake Oettinger made 30 and 38 stops in the two victories before freshman Vinnie Purpura made his first collegiate start in Saturday’s 3-0 setback.
8. New Hampshire
Record: 9-8-8 (5-5-5 Hockey East) / Last week: 10
Thanks to a five-game unbeaten streak (3-0-2) and 7-1-3 run over its last 11 games, UNH now stands four points out of second in Hockey East. The Wildcats skated to a 4-4 tie at Maine last Monday and a 2-2 draw at UConn before dominating a 6-0 contest against the Huskies on Saturday. Junior Liam Blackburn’s point streak stands at 15 games after a five-point week that included two goals. Freshman Angus Crookshank (2-2-4) and senior Ara Nazarian (0-4-4; Boxford, Mass.) both posted four points over three games. Sophomore Mike Robinson (Bedford, N.H.) made 36 stops in his third shutout of the season and has a .937 save percentage over the three games.
9. Yale
Record: 10-7-3 (8-4-1 ECAC Hockey) / Last week: 7
The Bulldogs moved into a first-place tie with Cornell following Saturday’s 3-2 win at RPI. Junior Robbie DeMontis (3-0-3) and senior Joe Snively (1-2-3) both had three points during the weekend that also included a 4-3 overtime loss to Union. Against the Engineers, freshman Justin Pearson (Nashua, N.H.) scored his fourth game-winning goal of the year, while junior Corbin Kaczperski made 11 of his 30 saves in the third period.
10. Boston College
Record: 8-12-3 (8-4-3 Hockey East) / Last week: 9
Following a win over Providence, the Eagles failed to claim a Hockey East win over this past weekend against UMass Lowell. Despite the 3-1 loss and 4-4 tie, five players recorded two points apiece. Junior David Cotton scored a goal and assisted on senior captain Christopher Brown’s fifth marker in six games during his 100th collegiate contest. Junior Joseph Woll stopped 33 shots in Saturday’s draw, allowing BC to salvage one point out of the weekend.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Ryan Dmowski
UMass Lowell / Sr. / F / East Lyme, Conn.
Dmowski scored three goals and added an assist as the River Hawks took three out of four points from Boston College on the weekend. He netted his fifth game-winning goal of the season on Friday before factoring into three of the River Hawks’ four goals the following night. The Gunnery product had six shots on goal in each game and finished the series with a plus-3 rating. He has logged points in six straight games and six goals in the last five.
Hayden Hawkey
Providence / Sr. / G / Parker, Colo.
Hawkey continued his stellar final season in the Providence net with the weekend sweep against Northeastern, stopping 53 of the 54 shots he saw over the 4-1 and 3-0 wins. Saturday’s 34-save effort went down as his Hockey East-leading fifth shutout of the season.
Jeremy Swayman
Maine / Soph. / G / Anchorage, Alaska
Swayman went 1-1-1 and posted a .919 save percentage last week, but the Bruins prospect finished the three-game span with a bang. The sophomore posted 53 saves on 56 shots en route to a 4-3 win over UMass on Saturday night and finished the three games with 113 stops, which were 24 more than any other goaltender in the country.
