Time to look towards the 28th Hockey East Championship Tournament which starts tomorrow in Lowell and will conclude a week from Saturday at the TD Garden. First let’s take a look at the quarter final series matchups:
#1 Boston College Eagles vs #8 Massachusetts Minutemen
The preview for this one will be coming tomorrow per the normal schedule.
Prediction: BC wins 2-1
#2 Lowell River Hawks vs #7 Providence Friars
The Friars did take one game from the River Hawks, but that came back in late January thanks to a superb effort from goaltender Alex Beaudry which allowed Providence to gain the 1-0. These teams just met last weekend and the Hawks dominated, outscoring the Friars 9-3 and outshooting them 72-48. Providence went 0 for 6 on the power play on the weekend. Tim Schaller is due to return from injury for the Friars but it’s tough to see how his team, winless in their last three weeks, can overcome Lowell in the series
Prediction: Lowell wins 2-0
#3 Boston University Terriers vs #6 New Hampshire Wildcats
The Terriers swept the season series 3-0 but the teams last met on December 8th, back before BU had any off-ice problems and still had their full complement of players. The Wildcats’ biggest problem against BU was scoring goals, managing just 2 in those three games. The Wildcats played better in the second half of the season but still haven’t proven they can win consistently. They also make the trip to Agganis losers of two straight. It remains to be seen how far BU can go in the post season missing the likes of Charlie Coyle, Max Nicastro, and Corey Trivino but they likely still have enough tools to dispatch this low-scoring UNH squad.
Prediction: BU wins 2-0
#4 Maine Black Bears vs #5 Merrimack Warriors
The Warriors have everything to play for in this one. Not only would they like to advance to the semifinals for the second year in a row and just the third time in school history, but they’re playing for an NCAA berth. As of right now, assuming no crazy tournament upsets, they’re the last team in. A series loss would be devastating. Maine on the other hand doesn’t have that kind of desperation. The Warriors did well against the Bears on the season, going 2-0-1 in the games and not allowing Maine to score more than two goals in any game. In my eyes motivation and goaltending will win out in this one and the Warriors have the advantage of both.
Prediction: Merrimack wins 2-1
Semifinals
Boston College over Merrimack 3-1 (ENG)
The Merrimack defense and goaltender Joe Cannata are excellent, but BC just has too many weapons.
Boston University over Lowell 3-2 OT
This one feels like it has the potential to be a dramatic back and forth battle. I’ll pick Sahir Gill with the game winner
Finals
Boston College over Boston University 5-3
MVP: Barry Almeida
That’s how I see it. Yeah, yeah, I know. ZZZZzzzzzzz. Another BC-BU game in the Garden… Been there, done that. Think I’m wrong? Leave a comment with your tournament predictions.
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Just as the crew over at BC Interruption were nice enough to take the time to do a Q&A with Fear The Triangle yesterday in advance of this weekend’s series, I returned the favor for their site.
College Hockey News has their preview of the Hockey East Tournament up.
Fear The Triangle - UMass Hockey Blog 
Carson
/ March 7, 2012i want so badly to pick umass to steal a game from bc – struggling with that…my heart says they will but if i had to put money on it i would probably say bc sweeps. also, i think there is a chance unh takes a game from bu. other than that, spot on.
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Nick
/ March 7, 2012BC over UMass 2-0.
Lowell over PC 2-0.
BU over UNH 2-1.
Maine over MC 2-1.
BC over Maine 5-2
Lowell over BU 4-2
Lowell over BC 3-2 (ot)
UMass Lowell Riverhawks 2012 Hockey East Champions!
MVP: Matt Ferreira UML
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rocks22
/ March 7, 2012Lowell win Hockey East? I’m pretty sure Bertagna and Jack Parker would never allow such a thing. It may even be in the league by-laws.
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George
/ March 7, 2012Think Nick is on the right track:
BC over UMass 2-0.
Lowell over PC 2-0.
UNH over BU 2-1.
ME Over MC 2-1.
BC over UNH 4-2
Lowell over ME 3-2.
Lowell over BC 4-2.
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Carson
/ March 8, 2012kind of off topic but something ive been pondering for a while…rocks how do you feel about the fact that we only got one goal all year from our incoming freshman class (tegeler)? of course guzzo is a “freshman”, but excluding him for a second, i was pretty underwhelmed by this class, especially larue, who came in as a pretty highly touted prospect…i mean last year we had guys like pereira, sheary, and gracel making strong offensive contributions as freshman, and guys like filiou and power seeing regular minutes. what are your thoughts on this years freshman class?
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rocks22
/ March 8, 2012I’ll probably get into that in my season recap coverage (hopefully not for weeks). I want to take a look at some past frosh classes, not just last years’. It’s a good question though and one that’s been on my mind as well.
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Anonymous
/ March 8, 2012Last years class was so good, you cant expect that every year.
Oleg has shown some improvement over the year and the goalies have shown flashes.
I dont think any of the forwards this year were expected to play regularly, unlike last year when you had a bunch of open spots and players like sheary, gracel & pereira.
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Carson
/ March 8, 2012granted that every class wont be as good as last years, but i disagree about none of the forwards being expected to play regularly. i feel like larue came in and a lot of people were hoping he would play on the second line (not knowing what guzzo would turn out to be).
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Anonymous
/ March 8, 2012Didnt know that.
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Anonymous
/ March 8, 2012go umass – destroy bc
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