Starting off the weekly summary post is news that I first reported on Twitter that senior forward Emerson Auvenshine is likely done for the season.  This means his career in a Massachusetts sweater is finished as well.  Auvenshine recently underwent surgery to repair a ligament in his knee and will not recover by the end of the season.

It’s dreadful to see an athlete close out a chapter in his career this way.  It’s unknown what his post graduation plans are. Auvenshine was not an everyday player for the Minutemen in his career, but whenever given the opportunity to dress his strong effort on the ice was always noticeable.  He proved versatile earlier this season when the Minutemen were short on defensemen and moved back to the blueline, not looking out of place.  He even scored the game-winning goal against Northeastern earlier this season in his first game at defense.  He finishes his career with two goals in 40 games.

In other roster news, it was reported before one of the games that senior Zack LaRue would be out for an indefinite amount of time.  While there’s no specific timetable for his return, it is hoped that he’ll recover in time for the end of the season.

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Hockey East cleaned house in the recent holiday tournaments.  All in all the conference captured four holiday tournament titles, two by the Lowell alone.  After capturing the Frozen Holiday Classic a couple weeks ago with a win over UConn, the River Hawks travelled west last week to participate in Minnesota’s Mariucci Classic.  After beating RIT in the opener they faced rival Merrimack, who knocked of host #8 Minnesota, in the championship.  Lowell ended up defeating their nearby neighbors 3-1.

Boston College won the Ledyard Bank Classic in Hanover, NH this past weekend, beating a couple Ivies in Brown and host Dartmouth.  Providence who were the victors of the Catamount Cup that UMass participated in a couple weeks ago didn’t double up on the tournaments like Lowell, but they did win a surprisingly high scoring 5-4 affair against Colorado College with an overtime game-winner.  The Friars then completed the sweep against the Tigers the next day 5-3.

Elsewhere in Hockey East Boston University, missing Jack Eichel who had just returned from a disappointing World Juniors tournament, tied Union 3-3 at home.  Vermont dropped a 3-1 decision to Yale in New Haven.  Northeastern went to the north country to play a couple games against St Lawrence where they picked up a tie and an overtime win.  UMass’ next opponent Maine hosted Canisius and swept the Griffs by a combined 7-2 score.  New Hampshire had a pleasant week, travelling out to Omaha mid-week where they split against #12 UNO, their loss coming in overtime.  Picking up the win for the Wildcats was Danny Tirone who had just joined the team in recent weeks and was making his debut.

Lowell’s Dylan Zink was named Hockey East Player of the Week after picking up MVP honors at the Mariucci.  Maine’s Nolan Vesey was named Rookie of the Week for his two goal, one assist weekend.  A .942 save percentage in Minnesota gained Merrimack goaltender Rasmus Tirronen Defensive Player of the Week honors.

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The polls are pretty wacky this week.  North Dakota is the new #1 team in the country, but they received fewer first place votes than both #2 BU and #3 Harvard.  Lowell’s tourney victories have propelled them to #6 while Vermont’s stumble against Yale dropped them to #12.  The other three ranked Hockey East teams are #14 Providence, #16 Boston College, and #18 Merrimack.