NCAA Selection Sunday is right around the corner, and there are still busy teams in all three conferences across New England's Division 1 men's college hockey landscape as conference championships come to a conclusion this weekend.
The Hockey East semifinal field contains two top seeds and a couple of upset-minded teams that will look to play spoilers in the NCAA bracket.
Both of New England's top ECAC Hockey teams took care of their quarterfinal business and will look to set up another head-to-head matchup on Saturday night in Lake Placid, while Atlantic Hockey features perhaps the nation’s biggest upset story in the form of a surging local squad.
Here are five storylines to watch during one of the most exciting weekends on the college hockey calendar.
Who will win Hockey East?
For the third time in the last four Hockey East tournaments, the semifinal field at TD Garden will feature just two of the top four seeds. No. 5 UMass Lowell and No. 7 Providence earned single-game quarterfinal round victories this past Saturday and will join Boston University and Merrimack in the mix on Causeway Street.
The top-seeded Terriers advanced after beating a surprise quarterfinalist, as No. 11 Vermont toppled No. 6 Maine in a Wednesday first-round game after winning just a pair of league road games throughout the regular season.
The tightness of the league has been showcased all the way through this past weekend. While BU was a 7-3 Saturday winner behind junior Nick Zabaneh’s first career hat trick, the other three quarterfinal matchups were decided by a single goal and two needed overtime.
Providence has won both of its playoff games in overtime, downing New Hampshire and then No. 3 Northeastern. Freshman Brady Berard (East Greenwich, R.I.) scored his first collegiate goal to decide the latter game four minutes into the extra session.
Seventh seeds have only advanced to the Garden four times in league history, though two of those occurrences have also come in the last four years. Both Boston College in 2019 and UMass Lowell in 2021 not only advanced but played in the title game.
Merrimack is back at TD Garden
Merrimack has had a long time to wait between trips to TD Garden. The Warriors moved into the Hockey East semifinal field for only the third time and first since 2011 after Saturday’s 1-0 double-overtime win over BC.
At No. 14 in the Pairwise Rankings, Merrimack is the only Hockey East team besides BU still in contention for an NCAA at-large bid, but the Warriors will be rooting for as few conference tournament upsets as possible in order to avoid dropping below the cut line.
Saturday’s win was their sixth straight following a 2-8-1 stretch that began on New Year’s Eve. Graduate Mick Messner’s lone goal came after 88:20, ending the longest scoreless span to start a game in the league’s postseason history.
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The win was also a second consecutive 36-save shutout for sophomore Hugo Ollas, who has split action with junior Zachary Borgiel all year.
Could Providence upset BU?
While likely Hockey East Rookie of the Year Lane Hutson (league-leading 44 points as a defenseman), senior forward Matt Brown and junior goaltender Drew Commesso (Norwell, Mass.) are keeping BU incredibly consistent, Providence has peaked at the right time to keep its season alive.
The Friars had lost three consecutive games to end the regular season — including two against BU — and won just three games in regulation in January and February, but Nate Leaman’s clubs are always tough and certainly have plenty of postseason history. No matter the result, Providence playing in a close game is a good bet after having gone to overtime in 14 of its 36 games, winning five of those.
None of the league’s top 20 scorers are in the Friars lineup, but senior Parker Ford (Wakefield, R.I.) provides great leadership and an all-around game along with his team-high 12 goals and 26 points. Bruins prospect Philip Svedeback has grown throughout his rookie year, stopping 47 of the 49 shots he faced in playoff victories despite his overall .909 save percentage for the season.
BU has not been to the semis since a three-year run from 2017-19. Providence was among the final four during the COVID-impacted final four in 2021, meaning that it hasn’t been to the Garden since playing BU in 2018. UMass Lowell has made three straight semifinal trips.
Quinnipiac and Harvard potentially meeting in the ECAC championship
Quinnipiac and Harvard will both see their seasons continue beyond the ECAC championship weekend as top-10 Pairwise teams, but at least one side’s win streak will have to come to an end this weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y.
The top-seeded Bobcats have won 12 straight and will look to avenge their last loss (Jan. 21) at Colgate when the teams clash in the semifinals.
The Bobcats bring everything to the table, as their offense scores four goals per game led by sophomore Colin Graf’s (Lincoln, Mass.) 54 points while former All-American Zach Metsa and the stifling defense just held Yale to five shots in Friday’s 3-0 win. Backstopping it all is Yaniv Perets, the sophomore who set a new program record with his 20th career shutout and remains one of three finalists for the Mike Richter Award, which is given to the nation’s top goaltender.
Second-seeded Harvard has six straight wins and remains unbeaten (8-0-1) since Feb. 3 after ousting Princeton in two 6-1 games. Junior Alex Laferriere scored twice in both games. Laferriere and Sean Farrell (Hopkinton, Mass.) have both tallied 20 goals, making them the Crimson’s first duo to reach that mark since 2017. Farrell is the program’s first 50-point scorer since 2014-15.
If the seeds hold true to form, Quinnipiac and Harvard would meet for the third time this season in the title game. Quinnipiac beat Harvard both times this season, outscoring the Crimson, 7-1.
Can Liam McLinskey continue his dominance for Holy Cross?
It’s safe to say that Holy Cross wouldn’t be playing for the Atlantic Hockey title Saturday night without the recent efforts of sophomore winger Liam McLinskey.
The Quinnipiac transfer scored four goals to help the seventh-seeded Crusaders advance past top-seeded RIT in this past weekend’s best-of-three semifinal series. It clinched Holy Cross' first championship appearance since 2006 following a convincing 5-1 win on Sunday night. While senior Grayson Constable scored twice, McLinskey was the most valuable Crusader for another weekend.
McLinskey is just the third 20-goal scorer in Atlantic Hockey and ranks sixth nationally with his 21 tallies this season, including nine in six postseason games. He scored the lone goal of Friday’s overtime win, which marked his sixth game-winner and third consecutive dating back to the quarterfinal round at American International.
RANKINGS: The final New England college hockey power rankings of the regular season
Goaltending has also been a recent strength of the Crusaders, who are 14-8-2 since December and finished the regular season on a 5-3-0 run. Junior Jason Grande allowed just one goal over the two recent victories, pitching a 40-save Friday shutout before making 25 stops in the clinching game.
Needing just one more win to reach the NCAA playoff field, Holy Cross will travel to fourth-seeded Canisius to play for its third-ever conference title. The Crusaders won in both 2004 (the inaugural year of Atlantic Hockey) and 2006, pulling off an upset of top-ranked Minnesota in the latter year’s national tournament.
