BU gains inside track on title
Delivering championship trophies is one of the best parts of the job for Steve Metcalf. The Hockey East commissioner will be at Matthews Arena Saturday afternoon to award the Bertagna Trophy to the winner of the women’s conference championship game between Northeastern and Providence.
When and where Metcalf will hand out the trophy for the men’s regular season title is still up in the air, although it has been whittled down to three teams. Two points separate Boston University, Merrimack, and Northeastern heading into the final weekend of the season.
BU (22-10-0, 16-6-0) has the inside track, entering its home-and-home series with Providence in first place. After dropping four in a row, the Terriers bounced back last weekend with a pair of wins at Vermont. Senior defenseman Domenick Fensore had a goal and three assists in the two games for BU, and was named the conference’s Player of the Week.
Sixth in the PairWise rankings, the Terriers are on track to be the only team from Hockey
East to reach the NCAA Tournament, and coach Jay Pandolfo is hoping his squad has put their struggles behind them.
“We need to continue to play the way we did [against Vermont],” said Pandolfo. “We’ve got to keep building our game, get back to being consistent every night. That’s the big thing, consistency. If you have that, we have enough talent and skill to have a good team, but we have to make sure we’re playing consistent hockey.”
Providence (14-11-7, 9-7-6) has plenty to play for as well as it enters the weekend tied with Maine for sixth. The top five teams get a bye, with the top four hosting a quarterfinal contest. The Friars did not play last weekend and still have an outside shot of moving up, but will likely be hosting a first-round game next week. Senior Parker Ford of Wakefield, R.I., leads Providence in scoring with 11 goals and 14 assists.
“They’re going to be fresh. They’re going to be hungry, so we have to match that,” Pandolfo said. “This is playoff time now. We’re playing for a regular-season title, so there’s a lot on the line for us, and we have to make sure we respond.”
Merrimack (20-12-1, 15-8-0) sits one point behind BU for first place, but has just one game left in the regular season, Saturday night when it hosts Vermont. The Warriors continued their late surge last weekend with a sweep of UMass Lowell to run their winning streak to four.
Lunenburg native Alex Jefferies reached the 40-point mark with a goal and two assists over the weekend, scoring the game-winner and assisting on the other in Saturday’s 2-0 win in
North Andover. The junior forward was named the conference’s Player of the Week along with UConn’s Ryan Tverberg.
A split with UMass last weekend dropped Northeastern (16-11-5, 13-6-3) to third, two points behind BU and one point behind Merrimack, but with a game in hand on the Warriors. After dropping the opener at Amherst, the Huskies salvaged the split with a 4-0 win at home, thanks in part to Devon Levi’s 32 saves, his sixth shutout of the season. The performance was all the more impressive when it was revealed that he had been battling an illness.
“It was pretty bad,” said Northeastern coach Jerry Keefe. “For him to go in there and give us what he gave us is incredible. He was playing on pure adrenaline. He didn’t feel well and was dehydrated. But it just shows his character. He knew the importance of the game, and he was outstanding.”
The performance capped a month in which the junior posted a .920 save percentage and a 2.10 goals against average, while recording 229 saves in seven games to earn the conference’s Goaltender of the Month.
The Huskies close out with a home-and-home against Lowell (16-13-3, 10-9-3), beginning Friday at Tsongas Arena.
Last year, Northeastern entered the final weekend in second place but managed to clinch the program’s first regular season title on the last day of the season. Keefe isn’t thinking about the conference title as his squad gets ready to take of the fifth place River Hawks.
“We just focus on our games,” said Keefe. “That’s all we can do at this point is focus on Friday night, one game at a time. We want to take care of business, and whatever happens, happens.
”We’re going to see a hungry team. UMass Lowell is a really good team, and obviously coming off two losses, you know that they’re going to be ready.”
Both Merrimack and Northeastern are on the NCAA tournament bubble, tied at 17th in the PairWise, but could move into contention with wins this weekend and a deep run if the conference tournament.
Crimson surge
Harvard closed out the season with wins at Clarkson and St. Lawrence last weekend to clinch the No. 2 seed in the ECAC tournament and move up to No. 7 in the PairWise.
The Crimson have a bye for this weekend’s first round and will host a quarterfinal series next weekend.
Sophomore defenseman Ian Moore had the game-winning goal in the season finale and was named the conference’s Defender of the Week.