Hockey East Tournament Preview

After being the strongest conference in college hockey last year, Hockey East was a mess this year. League champion New Hampshire won 1 non conference game this year, a 5-2 win over Dartmouth. The Wildcats also lost to 8th seeded Vermont in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs. With New Hampshire currently sitting 15th in the Pairwise, the regular season champ might not make the NCAA Tournament. New Hampshire needs either Minnesota-Duluth to lose the WCHA play-in game, or for the loser of Ferris State-Northern Michigan to also lose the CCHA consolation game.

Vermont meanwhile faces Boston College, who is gunning for a #1 seed. Here, however, is reason #334,232 why the Pairwise is stupid: by sweeping UMass in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs, Boston College also hurt their chances in the pairwise. This is because a sweep knocked UMass from the “Teams Under Consideration” pool, thus hurting BC’s pairwise ranking. This means that while Boston College can finish as high as 3rd, they can also finish as low as 7th.

Columbus draftee Cam Atkinson leads Boston College with 24 goals and 45 points. Brian Gibbons is just behind him with 42 points. Although the Eagles finished 2nd in the league, they were the best statistically. They were the highest scoring team at 3.81 gpg, and the 2nd stingiest defensively, allowing just 2.47 gpg. Their power play was 2nd best in the league, and they had the best penalty kill.

They face a Vermont team who, although they finished 8th in the conference, has nearly the same Pairwise rank as league champ New Hampshire. In fact, they have the same record. A 6-1 non-conference record obviously boosted Vermont, as did their wins over Yale, Minnesota-Duluth and Denver. In fact, if Yale ends up making the tournament, Vermont could have beaten 5 or as many as 6 NCAA tournament teams this year, depending on New Hampshire’s fate. The Catamounts have endured a subpar season from goaltender Rob Madore, and (stop me if I’ve said this before) need him to step up to win the Hockey East tournament. Find the best coupons for Hockey Monkey.

The other semi pits defending champion Boston University against Maine. Maine is doing it without goalie Scott Darling, who is suspended indefinitely for violation of team rules. Maine and BU were two of the three worst teams in the conference in scoring defense, and they were the worst two when factoring only conference play. Kieran Millan is enduring quite the Sophomore slump, as his .891 save percentage is dead last in the conference. Darling’s wasn’t much better at .895, although Maine had a .688 winning percentage with him in net.

To me this tournament seems set up for Boston College to take the autobid, and thus take a #1 seed into the NCAA Tournament, but if they lose the semifinal against Vermont, they could fall to 6th or 7th. A lot is riding on this tournament, moreso than any other except the WCHA Final Five.