You’ll notice I keep tweaking the weekly Monday post and what it covers. As readers if there’s something you’d find interesting or informative coming off a weekend of hockey, I’m always open to suggestions.
Last week at this time Boston University found itself atop the national USCHO rankings for the first time this season. They went out the next night and dropped a 3-2 decision to Harvard. After bouncing back with a home win over Colgate, they travelled to Dartmouth yesterday where they lost 2-0. Needless to say, they will not be #1 when rankings are covered later in this post. BU wasn’t the only victim of the suddenly resurgent Harvard squad. The Crimson also took down the River Hawks 4-2 in Lowell on Saturday. After outscoring UMass 14-2 in two games last week Vermont travelled up to Maine and swept the Black Bears by a combined score of 10-4. The Catamounts now have the 7th best offense in the country.
Providence didn’t allow a goal this past week, shutting out Army 3-0 on Tuesday and then Boston College 1-0 on Saturday. Merrimack swept Clarkson at home during the weekend. This coming weekend’s opponent for UMass, Notre Dame, continues to struggle, losing 3-2 in overtime to Union on Friday and then getting shellacked at home by Ohio State, 5-1. In addition to getting shutout by Providence, Boston College dropped a 6-2 decision to Minnesota on Friday. The then #3 Gophers travelled to Northeastern the next night, losing a shocker 3-2. UConn dropped a 1-0 decision at Brown in their only game on the weekend. New Hampshire played only once this past week, a 2-1 loss last Tuesday to RPI.
With all that, here’s how the Hockey East standings look currently. Vermont continues to lead, though they’ve played four more games than any other team. Boston College now has a losing conference record and find themselves tied with Notre Dame for 6th. Despite going winless in their first ten games, Northeastern has now won three of their last four with two of the victories coming in conference and are tied with UConn for 8th. UMass is tied for last with New Hampshire, who has three games in hand on the Minutemen.
| Conference | Overall | ||||||||||
| GP | W-L-T | PTS | GF-GA | GP | W-L-T | GF-GA | |||||
| 1 | Vermont | 12 | 8-3-1 | 17 | 43-23 | 15 | 11-3-1 | 52-25 | |||
| 2 | Boston University | 8 | 6-1-1 | 13 | 33-16 | 13 | 9-3-1 | 44-25 | |||
| 3 | Mass.-Lowell | 7 | 5-0-2 | 12 | 28-10 | 14 | 8-3-3 | 51-36 | |||
| 4 | Providence | 8 | 5-3-0 | 10 | 12-10 | 13 | 7-5-1 | 24-24 | |||
| 5 | Merrimack | 7 | 4-3-0 | 8 | 16-13 | 15 | 10-4-1 | 41-27 | |||
| 6 | Notre Dame | 6 | 2-2-2 | 6 | 12-15 | 16 | 6-8-2 | 42-45 | |||
| Boston College | 7 | 3-4-0 | 6 | 18-17 | 14 | 7-7-0 | 41-38 | ||||
| 8 | Northeastern | 8 | 2-5-1 | 5 | 17-28 | 13 | 3-9-1 | 25-43 | |||
| Connecticut | 6 | 2-3-1 | 5 | 11-14 | 14 | 3-7-4 | 22-32 | ||||
| 10 | Maine | 8 | 2-6-0 | 4 | 20-31 | 15 | 3-11-1 | 32-55 | |||
| 11 | New Hampshire | 5 | 1-4-0 | 2 | 8-16 | 12 | 4-8-0 | 30-32 | |||
| Massachusetts | 8 | 1-7-0 | 2 | 17-42 | 13 | 4-9-0 | 35-56 | ||||
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With BU losing two of three this past week we were likely going to get a top team in this week’s rankings. That team is North Dakota. Interesting to see that seven different teams are getting first-place votes currently, including #3 BU and #7 Lowell. Vermont moved up two spots to #11. Quinnipiac’s split with the Minutemen dropped them one spot to #15. Providence’s two shutouts gained them four spots to #16. Boston College at #17 is on the verge of dropping out of the rankings entirely, which would be very unfamiliar territory for them. Merrimack on the other hand breaks into the polls this week at #18.
USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll
December 01, 2014
| Team | (First Place Votes) | Record | Points | Last Poll | |
| 1 | North Dakota | (29) | 10- 3-2 | 957 | 2 |
| 2 | Minnesota State | ( 5) | 11- 3-0 | 830 | 7 |
| 3 | Boston University | ( 4) | 9- 3-1 | 826 | 1 |
| 4 | Miami | 10- 4-0 | 789 | 5 | |
| 5 | Michigan Tech | 12- 2-0 | 781 | 6 | |
| 6 | Minnesota | ( 2) | 8- 4-0 | 758 | 3 |
| 7 | Massachusetts-Lowell | ( 1) | 8- 3-3 | 667 | 4 |
| 8 | Minnesota-Duluth | ( 3) | 9- 5-0 | 652 | 8 |
| 9 | Harvard | ( 6) | 7- 1-2 | 587 | 18 |
| 10 | Denver | 8- 3-0 | 564 | 10 | |
| 11 | Vermont | 11- 3-1 | 562 | 13 | |
| 12 | Nebraska-Omaha | 7- 3-2 | 456 | 11 | |
| 13 | Colgate | 9- 5-1 | 397 | 9 | |
| 14 | Bowling Green | 10- 3-1 | 366 | 15 | |
| 15 | Quinnipiac | 9- 4-1 | 286 | 14 | |
| 16 | Providence | 7- 5-1 | 221 | 20 | |
| 17 | Boston College | 7- 7-0 | 159 | 12 | |
| 18 | Merrimack | 10- 4-1 | 128 | NR | |
| 19 | Northern Michigan | 8- 3-1 | 109 | 19 | |
| 20 | Robert Morris | 8- 1-3 | 107 | NR | |
| Others receiving votes: St. Cloud State 104, Union 67, Yale 61, St. Lawrence 39, Michigan 9, Ferris State 7, Dartmouth 5, Penn State 4, Alaska 2. | |||||
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When you don’t give up any goals on the weekend you get named Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week, which is exactly what happened to Providence’s Jon Gilles. Gilles has a league best .940 save percentage this season.
Northeastern’s Kevin Roy was named Player of the Week after scoring the game-winner against the Gophers. Jarrid Privitera of Vermont was the Rookie of the Week after scoring three goals this past week, including the game winner against the Minutemen last Tuesday.
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WARRIOR HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE WEEK | |
| #15 KEVIN ROY, NORTHEASTERN (Jr. F; Lac-Beauport, Que.) |
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| Junior forward Kevin Roy fired home the game-winning goal against No. 3 Minnesota with 2:36 remaining in the third period to help Northeastern complete the 3-2 win Saturday night. The victory marked the Huskies’ 500th win at Matthews Arena. |  |
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PRO AMBITIONS ROOKIE OF THE WEEK | |
| #19 JARRID PRIVITERA, VERMONT (Fr. F; Old Tappan, N.J.) |
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| Vermont was a perfect 3-0-0 last week thanks in part to the offense provided by rookie Jarrid Privitera. The forward from Old Tappan, New Jersey scored a goal in all three games, including the game-winner against Massachusetts on Tuesday and crucial insurance goals for the Catamounts in two non-league tilts at Maine. |  |
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HEA DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK | |
| #32 JON GILLIES, PROVIDENCE (Jr. G; South Portland, Maine) |
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| Gillies earns Hockey East Defensive Player of the Week accolades for the second time this season after going 2-0-0 on the week, shutting out both Army and No. 11 Boston College. The junior netminder made 65 saves over the weekend, including 43 in the Friars’ win over the Eagles for his third shutout of the season and the 12th of his career. |  |
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– See more at: http://www.hockeyeastonline.com/men/pres1415/201412/dec1wr.php#sthash.7tKpHOlK.dpuf
Fear The Triangle - UMass Hockey Blog 
ganderson9754
/ December 2, 2014Word on the street is the Gophers are too comfortable reading their own press clippings. I have every confidence that Mike Guentzel, who I believe is really the brains behind the operation, will fix this. From this Gopher fan’s perspective, better to lose a few now than in March. They also have some terrific young players who need seasoning. As for the Irish- nothing better for a slump than a trip to the Mullins Center!
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