Boston College remains the top team in the country following their 5-0 over UMass last Friday (though they’re losing to BU in the Beanpot as I type this).  Merrimack crept closer to the top 10 following their drubbing of the Minutemen last weekend.  UNH picked up a first place vote after sweeping Maine, which resulted in the Black Bears falling three spots to #18.  BU remained at #14.  Not much difference in the USA Today/USA Hockey poll.

INCH has Merrimack #9 in their power rankings.

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Chris Barton can send a thank you note to Amherst for helping him gain Hockey East Player of the Week honors.  Nine point weekend.  You don’t see those very often.  No UMass players were award winners or Top Performers but it was nice to see Kevin Moore’s debut highlighted in the weekly release.

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For those wondering, here are all the times UMass has given up double digits in goals in the modern era:

93-94  Alaska-Fairbanks 12  UMass 4
95-96  Boston University 14  UMass 1
96-97  New Hampshire 10  UMass 0
96-97  Maine 10  UMass 3
97-98  Maine 12  UMass 2

That BU result was actually a playoff game believe it or not and probably has to be the most embarassing loss in UMass history.  I’m happy to say that’s one of the games from that era that I did not see in person.  The UAF result looks pretty bad given what type of program they have, but that was UMass’ first year with the hockey program when they were playing a mix of DIII and low level DI teams.

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The BC student paper has a recap of Friday’s game with this line, “The name Minutemen seemed fitting, since BC limited their good play to a total of about a minute.”  Ouch.  The truth hurts.

Dick Baker has a good analysis of the weekend and the shortcomings of the team as a whole.

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The Globe had a must read article on Scott Crowder and his Pond Hockey tournament which wrapped up successfully yesterday, complete with video.  Next up will be similar tournaments in Manchester, NH and on Lake Champlain.