Some quick hits as the college hockey regular season enters its final full month…
One can forgive fans of the Boston University men’s hockey team for being a little flummoxed when they juxtapose the DCU/USCHO.com poll with the Hockey East standings.
Right behind the UMass Lowell and UMass in the league standings sit the Terriers at 9-6-3 (13-10-3 overall). However, BU sits at No. 19 in the national rankings — re-entering this week after being unranked — behind No. 16 Northeastern (16-8-1, 8-6-1 Hockey East, fourth) and No. 17 Providence (17-10-2, 8-8-1 Hockey East, fifth). Lowell (14-6-3, 11-5-1) is first in the league and No. 14 nationally, while defending NCAA champion UMass (13-8-2, 10-4-2) is one point behind the River Hawks and No. 10 in the national poll.
Of the five nationally ranked Hockey East clubs, BU has the weakest overall record, which is probably the main reason the Terriers have struggled to crack the top 20. But since the beginning of 2022, BU has been making a case that it belongs. The Terriers have gone 6-1-0 in January, beating Providence at home and UMass on the road last weekend. Also, the Terriers did not lose in regulation during in that stretch, its only setback a 2-1 overtime decision at home against Vermont on Jan. 21.
“We’re in a hard league,” BU coach Albie O’Connell said during a conference call last week. “If you look at the results around the league, any team can beat any team on any given night.”
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Lowell, which has lost three of its last four, will look to rebound Friday at Boston College and Saturday at home vs. Dartmouth.
“Sometimes you have to fail in certain situations in order to get better,” River Hawks coach Norm Bazin said after his team’s 4-3 loss to in-state rival UMass last Sunday. “We need to be hungrier.”
Lowell was without two key defensemen in the loss, junior Marek Korencik of and freshman Isac Jonsson. While Bazin stressed he does not use injuries as an excuse for a poor team performance, he said having those two players back could help righten the River Hawks’ ship.
“Those guys are big for us,” Bazin said. “When you talk about net-front battles, (that’s) an area those two guys can help out with. Hopefully they get back soon. We’re going to have to be, on the offensive side of things, perhaps better in that area, too.”
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Merrimack (12-11-1, 7-8-0) will face two opponents at home this weekend — New Hampshire (12-11-1, 6-8-1) on Friday and Maine (4-14-4, 2-10-2) on Saturday. Both games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
Warriors coach Scott Borek said he’s only focused on UNH this week and won’t worry about Maine until Friday night’s game is over.
“It’s just kind of a superstition I have,” Borek said. “The way we approach it is, we’re playing UNH on Friday, and that’s the only opponent we watch or break down or do any work on. (I) go get ready for Maine right after that game is over. That’s how we go about these kinds of weekends.”
It will be the first meeting of the season between the Warriors and the Wildcats, who were both riding five-game winning streaks before losing 3-2 at Connecticut — UNH’s loss was in overtime on Jan. 22, while Merrimack fell three nights later in regulation. Both teams were off last weekend.
“I’m impressed with UNH right now,” Borek said. “I feel like we’re probably running into one of the hottest teams in the league. We just have to make sure our energy level matches theirs.”
Merrimack has another contest at UConn on Feb. 8, making it three games in five nights for the Warriors.
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UMass coach Greg Carvel was blunt in his assessment of this weekend’s opponent, Long Island.
“Don’t know anything about them, and don’t care,” Carvel said. “I only care about my team at this point. If we don’t play the way that we’re supposed to, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. There’s no easy wins, there’s no guaranteed losses. It’s all about your own team. To me, the challenge this week is to carry what we feel like we (saw) in that game (a 4-3 win at Lowell Jan. 30), carry it forward and see if we can keep pushing it forward.”
The Sharks are in only their second year of existence as a college hockey program. An independent, LIU is 7-14-3 so far this season, following a 3-10-0 COVID-abbreviated debut season.
