Weekend Wrap-around ▲ UMass Drops To 10th Place In Hockey East

Another weekend without gaining any points has put the Massachusetts hockey team in a precarious position with just a few weeks left in the season.  It also sets up an interesting matchup this weekend as the Maine Black Bears come to town currently inhabiting last place, but are just two points behind the Minutemen.

 

Conference     Overall
    GP W-L-T   PTS GF-GA     GP W-L-T GF-GA
1 Mass.-Lowell 16 10-3-3   23 43-23     24 15-5-4 69-41
2 Boston College 14 9-1-4   22 61-28     24 16-4-4 100-45
  Notre Dame 13 10-1-2   22 50-23     25 14-4-7 88-57
4 Boston University 14 7-4-3   17 51-38     24 13-7-4 86-66
  Providence 12 7-2-3   17 39-27     24 16-4-4 85-54
6 Vermont 14 5-7-2   12 38-44     27 11-14-2 63-72
7 Northeastern 15 4-8-3   11 43-45     25 9-12-4 70-68
  Connecticut 15 4-8-3   11 33-47     25 8-14-3 61-77
9 Merrimack 14 2-7-5   9 26-45     25 7-13-5 54-72
10 Massachusetts 15 2-9-4   8 32-66     25 7-14-4 61-97
  New Hampshire 12 2-6-4   8 33-43     24 8-12-4 82-85
12 Maine 12 2-8-2   6 17-37     26 5-15-6 46-82

 

The Black Bears did not gain any ground on the Minutemen this past weekend after dropping a home and home series to Boston University with the Terriers outscoring Maine 11-3.  It was a disappointing showing from Maine after they started the week on a positive note by tying top ranked Quinnipiac.  Also near the bottom of the standings is New Hampshire, currently tied with UMass in 10th, whose sweep at the hands of Notre Dame prevented them from getting any separation from UMass.

Merrimack, just one point ahead of UMass to begin the weekend, was in the same place relative to UMass after this weekend’s games as well.  The Warriors are in a freefall, losing their last nine games in a row.  Their losses this weekend came against Hockey East’s hottest team, Northeastern.  The Huskies have won six in a row and their wins allowed them to leapfrog a number of teams in the standings, including UMass.

The big matchup of the weekend was the home and home between Lowell and Providence.  Not surprising, the two evenly matched teams split with both squads taking the game on their home ice.  After the historic win and total domination of UMass on Friday, Boston College suffered a bit of a letdown the next night as they tied UConn at home.  The Huskies are now three points against of the Minutemen in the standings.  They tie against BC did give UConn a point on the weekend after they dropped a game to Vermont on Friday.

After getting two goals and four assists against Maine BU’s Ahti Oksanen was named Hockey East Player of the Week.  Northeastern’s Adam Gaudette was Rookie of the Week while Fighting Irish goaltender Cal Petersen was Defensive Player of the Week.

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Quinnipiac stayed #1 in the USCHO rankings even with their tie against Maine.  Providence slipped one spot to #4 with their split against Lowell.  BC is right behind them at #5 while they River Hawks stayed steady at #8.  BU’s sweep of Maine helped them move into the top ten at #9.  Notre Dame coming in at #10 means that half of the top ten teams in the country come from Hockey East.

USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll

January 25, 2016

Team (First Place Votes) Record Points Last Poll
1 Quinnipiac (30) 19- 1-5 975 1
2 North Dakota (15) 20- 3-3 949 2
3 St. Cloud State ( 4) 20- 5-1 871 5
4 Providence ( 1) 16- 4-4 841 3
5 Boston College 16- 4-4 832 4
6 Michigan 14- 3-4 753 6
7 Harvard 11- 4-3 671 9
8 Massachusetts-Lowell 15- 5-4 627 8
9 Boston University 13- 7-4 554 11
10 Notre Dame 14- 4-7 524 13
11 Yale 11- 4-4 503 12
12 Nebraska-Omaha 15- 8-1 502 7
13 Denver 12- 7-5 398 15
14 Cornell 11- 5-3 361 10
15 Penn State 16- 5-3 278 14
16 Rensselaer 13- 7-6 266 16
17 Michigan Tech 13- 7-4 168 17
18 Bowling Green 15- 7-5 161 18
19 Minnesota State 13- 8-5 110 20
20 Minnesota 13-10-0 72 NR
Others receiving votes: Dartmouth 25, Robert Morris 25, Minnesota-Duluth 14, St. Lawrence 9, Union 4, Alaska-Anchorage 3, Northeastern 2, Holy Cross 1, Miami 1.

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All five of those ranked teams would make the NCAA tournament based on the current pairwise.

Rk Team PCWs RPI Rk QWB-† W-L-T Win % Wgtd Win % – ‡
1 Quinnipiac 59 .6110 1 .0085 19-1-5 .8600 .8468
2 St. Cloud State 58 .6063 2 .0058 20-5-1 .7885 .7812
3 North Dakota 57 .5913 3 .0045 20-3-3 .8269 .8192
4 Providence 56 .5894 4 .0048 16-4-4 .7500 .7672
5 Harvard 55 .5847 5 .0062 11-4-3 .6944 .7021
6 Michigan 54 .5770 6 .0027 14-3-4 .7619 .7400
7 Boston College 53 .5700 7 .0045 16-4-4 .7500 .7458
8 Notre Dame 52 .5680 8 .0046 14-4-7 .7000 .6967
9 Nebraska-Omaha 51 .5663 9 .0049 15-8-1 .6458 .6471
10 Yale 50 .5642 10 .0029 11-4-4 .6842 .6990
11 Boston University 49 .5615 11 .0099 13-7-4 .6250 .6205
12 Mass.-Lowell 48 .5593 12 .0035 15-5-4 .7083 .7137
13 Denver 47 .5582 13 .0043 12-7-5 .6042 .6087
14 Cornell 46 .5504 14 .0037 11-5-3 .6579 .6398
15 Minnesota 44 .5455 15 .0045 13-10-0 .5652 .5517
16 Penn State 44 .5453 16 .0016 16-5-3 .7292 .7018
17 Rensselaer 42 .5432 17 .0044 13-7-6 .6154 .6111
18 Dartmouth 41 .5409 18 .0031 10-8-1 .5526 .5730
19 Minnesota-Duluth 41 .5279 19 .0049 8-10-5 .4565 .4609
20 Bowling Green 39 .5277 20 .0001 15-7-5 .6481 .6489
21 Minnesota State 39 .5269 21 .0008 13-8-5 .5962 .6000
22 Miami 39 .5251 22 .0051 9-11-3 .4565 .4505
23 Robert Morris 36 .5211 23 .0035 15-7-4 .6538 .6667
24 Michigan Tech 36 .5193 24 .0008 13-7-4 .6250 .6280
25 Clarkson 34 .5132 25 .0045 11-10-3 .5208 .5229
42 Massachusetts 18 .4710 42 .0000 7-14-4 .3600 .3750

 

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Here’s a good article on Conor Sheary having to face Devils coach John Hynes whom he credits with his fast rise to the NHL.

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5 Comments

  1. RDW

     /  January 25, 2016

    \
    #ALLRIGHT…?… Nah, didn’t think so. Nice try Mick and Rocko. It is #ALLOVER

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Anonymous

     /  January 26, 2016

    I think UMASS Hockey needs a complete reorganization.

    Like

  3. umassattack

     /  January 26, 2016

    In my humble opinion I think this hockey season is over for the Minutemen, as well as the Black Bears. They are in a race to the bottom of Hockey East. Both these team are quite similar in a number of ways, and a bit different in a few other ways.
    Since the Christmas break UM has a (1-6) record, the Black Bears are (1-4-2). UM has scored (11 goals) in those seven games and Maine has scored (11 goals) in their seven games. However UM gas given up (34 goals) in those seven games while Maine gave up (22 goals) in their seven games.
    I figure the coaches and fans of the Black Bears are looking at this up coming week-end series with the Minutemen exactly the same way as we UM fans are looking at it. They think they have the team they need to play to grab some points, UM thinks they have the team to play to grab those same points.
    However, the Minutemen have the WORST home record in all of Hockey east (2-7-1), (2-8-1) if you toss in the Team USA game…..not good! On the other hand…. if you’re Maine, well you know you are playing 500 on the road at (5-5-3). So with the amount of goals UM is giving up, and with the lack of intensity that I believe they are playing with, I think you have to give the edge to Maine and hope for a split. And we even have Red Gendron… the former UM Hockey Assistant Coach on the bench as Maine’s head coach. Two former assistant coaches now both fighting as head coaches for the cellar of Hockey East. By the way, I think 12th place is between UM and Maine because I feel that Merrimack and U.N.H. have ……just slightly easier schedules the rest of the way.

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