NU hopes for playoff magic

A year ago, Northeastern arrived at playoff time like a runaway train, riding 13-1-2 streak after Jan. 1. The Huskies then reeled off six straight playoff wins to capture its first Hockey East tournament title since 1988 before falling to eventual national champion North Dakota.

While NU coach Jim Madigan has no illusions that his defending champions have a guarantee on regaining lightening in a bottle, he does know that his perennial underdogs are battle-tested.

“We’re not on that 19-and-whatever run that we were on last year but we are 9-3 in our last 12. We have a confident group. There’s confidence in our locker room. But, we’re not looking so much to defend as much as we are looking at UConn,” Madigan said.

No. 8-seed NU (16-13-5, 9-10-3 HE) hosts No. 9 Connecticut (12-148, 8-10-4) in a best-of-three clash of Huskies starting Friday night. Other first-round matchups feature No. 12 UMass (5-27-2, 2-19-1) at No. 5 Providence (20-9-5, 12-7-3), No. 11 Maine (11-19-4, 5-15-2) at No. 6 Vermont (18-11-5, 10-8-4), and No. 10 New Hampshire (12-17-5, 7-11-4) at No. 7 Merrimack (14-14-6, 8-8-6).

The top four seeds, including tri-champions No.1 UMass-Lowell (22-9-3, 14-7-1), No. 2 Boston University (21-10-3, 13-6-3) and No. 3 Boston College (18-14-4, 13-6-3), and No. 4 Notre Dame (19-10-5, 126-4), all drew first-round byes.

Crimson cop share

Harvard claimed a share of its first ECAC regular-season title since 1993-94. The Crimson (22-52, 16-4-2 ECAC), who went 11-0-2 at home, earned a first-round bye for the conference tourney. . . .

In Atlantic Hockey, No. 5 Holy Cross (14-13-7, 11-10-7) earned a first-round bye, while No. 6 Bentley (11-16-7, 10-12-6) hosts No. 11 Sacred Heart (12-17-5, 10-15-3) in a best-of-3 series starting Friday.

A series win by the Falcons would give coach Ryan Soderquist his 200th victory.

Quiz of the week

This ex-NHL player, now in Russia’s KHL, holds the NCAA record for consecutive goaltender starts? Who is he? Answer below.

Another step forward

It took a goal by Patty Kazmaier Award finalist Megan Keller to clinch a Hockey East women’s quarterfinal series for top-seed Boston College as upstart No. 8 Merrimack gave a good accounting.

“It’s gone well. To be in the playoffs in our second year is quite an achievement,” said Warriors coach Erin Hamlen, whose club improved to 11-22-3 from 5-26-3 a year ago. “We have set high goals for this group, and we’ve made a lot of strides. Year Two has been pretty good and Year Three will be better.”

The Warriors skate a young lineup without a solitary junior or senior. The linchpins are sophomores Paige Voight (15 goals 11 assists) and Katelyn Rae (18-7-25), the Warriors’ so-called Energizer Bunny.

Other youngsters making contributions are highly-skilled freshman Mikyla Grant-Mentis (9-18-27) and goalie Lea-Kristine Demers who joins sophomore Samantha Ridgewell to provide a solid 1-2 tandem. Dominque Kremer is a consistent leader on the back end.

As tough as they come

If there is a more tenacious player in college hockey than UMass-Lowell senior Joe Gambardella (17-28-45), I’d like to know. Coincidentally, Gambardella and Northeastern senior Zach Aston-Reese, the top scorer in the nation with 29-30-59 totals, both hail from Staten Island, N.Y. . . .

Bruins draft pick Anders Bjork (19-25-44) of Notre Dame displayed some nifty git-up-and-go during their weekend series at BU to close out the regular season.

Bjork (101) recently joined his dad, 1983 All-American Kirt, as the only father-son duo with 100 career points for the Irish. Kirt had 161 points. . . .

Don’t bet against Maine junior Nolan Vesey on Senior Night. North Reading’s Vesey, whose dad, Jim (Bruins) and brother Jimmy (Rangers) own NHL pedigree, has twice bagged hat tricks on a Senior Night.

Vesey, a Toronto draft pick, also did it as a freshman, before lighting up NU for three on Saturday.

Quiz answer

Ex-Cornell star Ben Scrivens with 104 consecutive starts.

Drop the puck!