If ever there was a need to prove that axiom, one look at the league standings says it all. Four of the top five teams — Northeastern, Boston University, New Hampshire and Providence — arguably have the top five goaltenders in the league.

Marc Robitaille, Michel Larocque, Tom Noble, Sean Matile and freshman Boyd Ballard have not only the five best goals-against averages, they also have save percentages of .907, .934, .924, .905 and .914, respectively.

In particular, Robitaille and Ballard have sparked the league’s two biggest surprises, Northeastern and Providence.

On the flip side, Hockey East’s biggest disappointment has been the Maine Black Bears, whose goaltenders have slumped in recent weeks.

Ballard won the league’s Rookie of the Week award for the third time after stopping 65 of 69 shots to lead the Friars to a surprisingly lopsided sweep of the Bears.

Hockey East’s KOHO Player of the Week is New Hampshire’s Jason Krog, who scored four goals and added an assist in a weekend sweep of UMass-Lowell. Krog now leads the country with an 18-18–36 scoring line. His plus-minus also stands at a stellar plus-18. Perhaps it’s too early to concede the Hobey Baker Award to Chris Drury after all.

Hockey East also recognized nine defensemen around the league. Blueliners rarely are given their due, since their accomplishments aren’t as easily measured as scoring totals and save percentages. The nine are: Providence’s Richard Miller, Northeastern’s Mike Jozefowicz, New Hampshire’s Jayme Filipowicz, Merrimack’s Darrel Scoville, UMass-Lowell’s Mike Nicholishen, UMass-Amherst’s Tom O’Connor, Maine’s Brian White, Boston University’s Tom Poti and Boston College’s Mike Mottau.

A sparse docket of games this week makes up in quality what it lacks in quantity. No. 1 Boston University travels to No. 4 New Hampshire, where the Wildcats affixed the only loss to BU’s 11-1-1 record. Fans planning on attending the game should note that it is on Friday, not Saturday, as had originally been listed by the league.

Last week’s record in picks: 4-6 Season’s record in picks: 64-30

No. 1 Boston University (11-1-1, 6-1-0 HEA) at No. 4 New Hampshire

(12-3-0, 6-3-0 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH

Boston University kicked off its three-game extended weekend with a Thursday-night 4-2 win over Merrimack. The Terriers then took on Boston College in a home-and-home series that became an outstanding advertisement for college hockey. Amidst exceptional fan enthusiasm, the Terriers topped BC 5-1 in a game that was much, much closer than that, before squeaking out a 3-3 tie at home with a last-minute six-on-four goal.

The Terriers had entered the weekend in sixth place in Hockey East and in first place in the ECAC.

Say what?

At the time, BU stood at 3-1-0 against Hockey East foes and 6-0-0 against those from the ECAC. Although no one in the ECAC office would be putting the Terriers in the league standings, the 12 points would have been good for first place. In Hockey East, however, the Terriers had been bypassed by teams playing as many as five more league games.

The three games — two wins and a tie — vaulted the Terriers into a third-place tie with four, two and three games in hand still remaining, respectively, against first-place Northeastern, second-place New Hampshire and their third-place neighbor BC.

On Thursday night, Merrimack stopped Chris Drury’s streak of points in 45 straight BU wins. His linemates, Mike Sylvia and Tommi Degerman, were also blanked.

"I don’t think that line, as a whole, played as well as they’ve been playing," said BU coach Jack Parker. "But Chris certainly played hard and had some chances. It’s nice to have guys step up when he doesn’t score and it’s nice to win a game when he doesn’t score.

"But I feel more comfortable when he gets goals," he added wryly.

Instead, a newly created second line stepped to the fore. Albie O’Connell, a winger throughout his BU career, moved to center between Chris Heron and freshman Juha Vuori. Although the White line — so named because of the color of its practice jerseys — scored three goals against Merrimack, by Tuesday, O’Connell was back on the wing. Vuori stayed on the second line with Heron, however, and O’Connell went to the third. Vuori, after a slow start in which he didn’t get a point in the first three games and scored a goal in only one of the first six, is now the Terriers’ top freshman scorer with six goals and four assists.

"When we recruited him, we thought he’d be doing this right off the bat," said Parker. "He really struggled the first few games. He struggled getting used to the face mask. He hadn’t played with one in a couple of years. He had trouble getting used to the smaller rinks, because he’d been playing on the big rinks in Europe.

"And the speed of the game is a little more controlled mayhem here than it is in Europe, where it’s more like soccer."

Having made the adjustments, though, he is now rising to expectations.

"He should progress faster [than the other freshmen] because he’s a lot older," said Parker. "He came in as an older freshman, and we expected him to step in and play. He had been scoring before he got on [the Heron and O’Connell] line, and he deserved to be on the second line."

Drury got back on the scoresheet in big ways in the two games against Boston College. Not only did he score two goals on Sunday and add a third with an assist in the 3-3 tie, he came through when his team needed his efforts the most.

In the first game, with the score tied 1-1 and the Terriers getting outshot 15-3 in the second period, he got open for a breakaway and, of course, scored. (Does anyone have a better percentage on breakaways?) In the rematch, with his team down 2-1 and killing a penalty, he scored a huge shorthanded goal. Then, with a minute left and down 3-2, he won a key offensive zone faceoff cleanly, leading to Mike Sylvia’s tying goal.

As clutch performers go, Drury is one of the best — BU’s Reggie Jackson.

"There’s only one Chris Drury," said Parker.

While the cluster of games gave the Terriers a chance to start cashing in their games in hand, it also presented four games in nine days, ending with this Friday’s game against UNH.

"We’ll be real concerned about our legs up there," said Parker. "It’s a big rink. Maybe [it’ll be a problem] or maybe we’ll be sharp because we’ve just finished playing.

"I guess it might be one too many games, but we go on break after that and they’d rather play than get ready for exams, I know that."

New Hampshire extended its winning streak to six games, and eight in its last nine, with 6-2 and 5-2 wins over UMass-Lowell.

"Any time you win two hockey games against a pretty good team like Lowell, the team has to overall play well," said coach Dick Umile.

Although the Wildcats put away the home game early in the third period, the rematch in the tight confines of Lowell’s Tully Forum stood at 2-2 with only four minutes to play. Then, like Drury against BC, Umile’s stars came to the fore. Jason Krog made a great play, combining with Derek Bekar for the game-winner. Less than two minutes later, Krog scored again.

With Mark Mowers sidelined due to the concussion he received a week earlier, Tom Nolan, Bekar and Krog came up big, scoring two apiece at home. In addition to Krog’s heroics at Lowell, Bekar scored and assisted on a goal and Nolan assisted on two others.

All four are major Hobey Baker Award candidates. In the national scoring race, they rank first, Krog with 36 points; second, Nolan with 31; fourth, Bekar with 24; and eleventh, Mowers with 21.

"Maybe Jason Krog is ahead of them just because of what he’s done, but they’re all pretty good players," said Umile. "It’s great to have a couple of them, and when I say ‘a couple of them’ I mean all four."

Fourth-liner Chad Onufrechuk replaced Mowers on his line with Nolan and Dylan Dellezay so the other two lines could remain intact. That looks like a likely scenario for the BU matchup as well. With just one game between now and post-Christmas tournaments, skipping that game can best leverage the break into the greatest recuperation time for Mowers.

"It hasn’t been officially stated yet, but we’re planning on him not playing," said Umile early in the week. "If he were to play it would be a pleasant surprise, but we’re going on break right after Friday’s game. In my mind, I’d just as soon have him get healthy and not play this weekend."

Umile traveled to Conte Forum on Sunday to see his opponent this week take on BC.

"It was everything that it was built up to be," he said. "It was exciting to go to the game and see a great crowd of 7,000 people for college hockey on a Sunday afternoon. It says a lot for the area and the teams. Right now, BC, BU and UNH are three real good teams that are playing pretty good hockey."

Umile specifically got to see Michel Larocque stop 29 of 30 shots. Given BU’s goaltender rotation, the Wildcats will be facing Larocque, who leads the league with a 1.69 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage.

"I was hoping maybe Jack would change it up," said Umile laughing. "I tell, you what, he played fantastic, but Tom Noble is playing pretty well too.

"We’ve got some pretty good goal-scorers and he’s a pretty good goaltender. We’ll see who wins the battle."

Since the teams have already split a home-and-home, this game marks the last time the two teams will meet prior to the playoffs. As such, the game assumes an even greater importance, even though it still is only December.

"I think it’s a certified Big Game," said Umile.

Prepare for another dandy.

PICK: Larocque is playing better than any goaltender in the league right now. Mark Mowers is almost certainly out. Tilt towards BU. The Terriers, however, are playing their fourth game in nine days, with the critical caveat that the last two were emotional, physical energy-sappers against BC. And the game is at the Whittemore Center. Tilt towards UNH.

UNH 4-2.

Maine (7-7-1, 4-5-0 HEA) at UMass-Lowell (6-7-1, 4-4-1 HEA)

Friday & Saturday, 7 p.m., Tully Forum, Lowell, MA

UMass-Lowell dropped two to No. 4 New Hampshire last week, 6-2 and 5-2, though the latter game stood at 2-2 with four minutes left.

"We actually had a pretty good week in terms of effort and sticking to our game plan," said coach Tim Whitehead. "The first night we got a little bit away from it, but the fact that there were so many four-on-fours turned it into a bit of a weird game.

"The second night we had a game with a lot more flow. We were able to establish our game plan and stick with it. I was definitely proud of the guys and how they played.

"There was just a great play by a great player, [Jason Krog], to win the game. That was pretty much it. The guy was even covered in the slot, but somehow he found a way to put it in the top corner."

The River Hawks played without All-Hockey East defenseman Mike Nicholishen , who had appeared in 130 straight games before hurting his knee in a Dec. 4 practice. He is not expected to play this weekend.

The power play, on which Nicholishen had been a fixture at one point, went 0-for-4 in both games.

"We had some decent chances both nights," said Whitehead. "Obviously, losing Nicholishen hurt us a little bit there. We’ve had a couple of spells when we haven’t had any power-play goals and then we’ve gone on a tear. It’s definitely not something we’re overly concerned with."

One week earlier in the Governors’ Cup, Whitehead had noted that some of his top players hadn’t been contributing at their expected levels. Had this problem continued?

"There are still a couple of our key players that aren’t playing their best hockey right now," he said, "but it’s definitely not from lack of effort. They’re just not sharp right now. Marty Fillion is one, obviously, and a couple of the kids that normally put the points up on the board.

"I definitely don’t see any reason why that shouldn’t swing back the other way this weekend. They haven’t played their best the last couple weekends, but they’re certainly working hard. It’s not like we’ve got lazy kids or anything. They’ve played well at other times for us this year."

In hosting Maine, the River Hawks are taking on another team on a losing streak. Lowell has dropped four straight; the Black Bears have lost three.

"I think it’ll be a real good weekend," said Whitehead. "You have two teams that both got swept last weekend, so they’ll both be pretty hungry. It’ll be a good weekend between two teams that work hard and have talent. I would expect a couple of one-goal games.

"I’m expecting a snowstorm," he added with a laugh, making reference to the propensity for blizzards to greet the Black Bears and, unfortunately in the past, keep fans away from what was typically a big-draw weekend.

The extended forecast as of this writing is for snow on Thursday and "Partly Cloudy" on Friday. Look for the weather system to stall. Get those shovels ready for six inches of "Partly Cloudy."

Although Maine’s recent struggles have been most pronounced in the crease, Whitehead doesn’t see a game plan oriented towards attacking that Achilles’ heel any more than usual.

"We’re not talking about pro hockey players, where you can tell Gretzky to shoot high glove-side," he said with a laugh. "We’re just going to focus on ourselves and play our game. Maybe make a few adjustments, but not with regard to their goaltending.

"I think they’ve got a couple of good goalies, but maybe they had an off-weekend. Their goaltending has certainly done well against us in the past, so that’s not anything that we’re really going to count on. We’re just going to have to worry about ourselves."

Maine ran into a hot goaltender last weekend in Providence’s Boyd Ballard and had the double-whammy of having their own netminding tandem turn frigid at the same time. Brian Masotta backstopped a Friday night 6-2 loss; Alfie Michaud returned to the crease in a 7-2 Saturday night defeat.

Although credit must be given to the Providence players who buried the puck in the latter game, Ballard’s play was so strong and Michaud’s play so weak that a swap of goaltenders would have likely resulted in a Maine win.

"I’ve seen that happen," said Maine coach Shawn Walsh. "Usually, over the years, our teams have done that to other teams. Tonight, it happened to us. What goes around, comes around."

Although Masotta had been somewhat of a question mark after transferring from Rensselaer, Michaud had played very well down the stretch last year after a tough start. It had seemed, then, that he was a known quantity. Although he has shown in the past that he can get the job done, there may be no goaltender in the league with a greater range of peaks and valleys.

Unfortunately for Maine, right now he’s in a valley, if not a canyon. Before last weekend, he was yanked not once, but twice, in the Governors’ Cup championship game. Then things got worse against Providence.

In a sense, this season is acquiring a very deja vu feeling for the Black Bears. Last year at this time, they were 5-7-1 against Division I teams and only 2-5-1 in Hockey East. They then got scalding hot, winning all but two games after Jan. 1, including 12 of their last 13.

"I really liked the way we played," said coach Shawn Walsh after the 7-2 loss. "Except for the goaltending, we played a great game."

Of course, the Black Bears hardly played flawlessly. They are a young team, especially on the blue line where they entered the season with only two defensemen with more than a half-season under their belts — David Cullen and Brian White — and two converted forwards — Shawn Mansoff and Jason Price — shifted to the rear guard. Given those limitations, mistakes were predictable.

Surprisingly, one of the most glaring mistakes was a cross-ice pass out of his own zone by Cullen on the power play that Providence’s Mike Omicioli picked off and netted.

"He handles the puck so much that you’re going to have that," said Walsh. "What we were doing was we were forcing the puck to Steve [Kariya] too much. Anybody in the rink could see what was going on. David thought there was a passing lane and Mike made a good play. He shot the puck, it hit our goalie and went in the net. With Boyd Ballard, that would have been a routine save.

"They made the same mistakes and Boyd Ballard made great saves. You’ve got to make some saves. The third period was ridiculous. It was an example of the whole weekend. We were dominant…. They’d come down, get one shot and score. There’s nothing you can do.

"We’ve got to get our goaltender playing like he played last year. Until that happens, you can’t win."

Sometimes, however, the problem is easy to identify, but the solution is hard to find.

"You just try to practice and see if we can get their confidence up somehow," said Walsh. "I’ve seen it happen before. It’s been happening to Dominik Hasek in the NHL and he’s a pretty good goalie.

"Alfie was really good for us last year, but he’s in one of those funks. We’ve got to help him get out of it, that’s all."

Meanwhile, the power play that had gotten every bounce while going over a 40 percent success rate has cooled down to a more realistic 34 percent.

"We developed a lot of chances," said Walsh. "The one kid in the net stopped us. I’m very happy with how we developed our chances, but we’re not going to score all the time."

Making matters worse for the power-play unit, however, were the shorthanded goals it allowed on both nights.

"Oh, yeah," said Walsh. "But we have a bigger concern than that. You saw the game."

PICKS: If Michaud returns to form, Maine could sweep; if he stays in a rut, UMass-Lowell could sweep. Look for Lowell to win 5-3 on Friday and Maine to bounce back 4-3 to send both teams into a break until the New Year.

Princeton (6-3-3, 2-3-2 ECAC) and Dartmouth (2-3-1, 1-3-1 ECAC) vs. UMass-Amherst (2-10-1, 0-8-1 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Hobey Baker Memorial Rink, Princeton, NJ Sunday, 2 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

UMass-Amherst tied Northeastern 1-1 at Matthews Arena, but lost 5-1 in the return match at home.

"The first night was one of the better games we played all year long," said coach Joe Mallen. "It was a good up-and-down hockey game. Brian Regan played real well in a goaltender’s duel with Marc Robitaille. We had plenty of chances to win the game, but just didn’t bury it. But it was a pretty strong performance, we thought.

"The second game got away from us at the end, but we had breakaways and plenty of scoring chances that we didn’t convert. They converted on a couple turnovers and next thing you know, the game was over."

Of UMass-Amherst’s 10 losses, three have been by one goal — with two of those in overtime — and four have been by two. The Minutemen aren’t having problems with respectability, but rather with getting over the hump in pure wins and losses.

"We’ve just been so close on so many nights," said Mallen.

They’ll look to get over that hump against two ECAC teams, Princeton and Dartmouth, to close out their 1997 schedule.

Princeton is one of the few ECAC teams with a winning record against Hockey East, having shut out Merrimack 2-0 and tied Providence 4-4. The Tigers are led by Jeff Halpern (9-10–19), the ECAC’s leading overall scorer, as well as Casson Masters (5-7–12) and Scott Bertoli (4-8–12).

Steve Shirreffs and Michael Acosta (both 0-9–9) are strong defensemen in front of Erasmo Saltarelli (5-2-3, 2.78 GAA, .906 SV%).

"I’ve got a lot of respect for Princeton," said Mallen. "They’re well-coached. They’re a good team. Last year, they showed a lot of team speed and they seem to be playing well right now. I hate to use the word challenge, but it’s going to be a real challenge for us to go down to Baker Rink."

Dartmouth has traversed a bizarre schedule in which the Big Green have played only six games to date. This Sunday afternoon match-up will mark their first return to action since Nov. 22. Having already taken their break, they will now play every weekend until the end of the season.

Against its weaker opponents, Dartmouth has seen success: Army (7-1), Union (4-0) and Vermont (2-2). Against stronger foes, however, the results haven’t been so pretty: Rensselaer (1-7), Cornell (1-4) and Colgate (2-7).

The paucity of contests to date makes an evaluation of this team difficult. It’s leading scorer, Curtis Wilgosh, has five points. Returning top scorers David Whitworth, Ryan Chaytors and Jon Sturgis have four, three and three respectively. But, again, that is in only six games.

The sophomore goaltending tandem of Eric Almon (2-3-0, 3.77 GAA, .890 SV%) and Jason Wong (0-0-1, 1.55 GAA, .938 SV%) may have to pay the price this weekend for their team’s rust following a three-week lull in competition.

"Under Bob Gaudet, they seem to have a renewed enthusiasm," said Mallen. "Last year, we went up there and played them and lost 6-5. They played, I think, one of their stronger games.

"At this point, we need to use these last two games before the semester break to see if we can build some positive momentum going into the second semester."

PICKS:The Minutemen drop a 5-3 contest at Princeton, but go into the break on a high note with a 4-1 win over Dartmouth.

While it’s true that every team in the league holds games in hand on the Huntington Hounds — led by BU’s five — you still have to admire the way that last year’s cellar-dwellers, who were predicted to finish there once again, have rebounded.

Their own Billy Newson took Koho Player of the Week honors for his assist and game-winning goal against UMass-Amherst in last week’s only league action.

Hockey East tapped UMass-Amherst’s R.J. Gates as the Rookie of the Week for his back-to-back goals in the same game.

Rounding out the honors is Providence freshman Boyd Ballard, who earned the Heaton/Hockey East Goalie of the Month award. In November, he had a 5-1-1 record, a 2.83 goals-against average, a .910 save percentage, and a 3-0 shutout against Minnesota-Duluth. In that time, he also was selected twice as Rookie of the Week.

With Hockey East posting a 31-11-2 record against nonconference foes, it says something about the league when it can also award its Player of the Week and Goalie of the Month awards to a sophomore and freshman, respectively.

On to the games…

The marquee attraction this week is No. 2 Boston University and No. 8 Boston College in a Sunday-Tuesday home-and-home. You have to go back many years to the last time these two megarivals faced off when both were in the top ten.

Is it Sunday yet?

Last week’s record in picks: 8-5 Season’s record in picks: 60-24

No. 2 Boston University (9-1-0, 3-1-0 HEA) vs. No. 8 Boston College (11-4-0, 5-3-0 HEA)

Sunday, 2 p.m., Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Tuesday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA WABU-TV68

Boston University continued to roll on last week with 4-0 and 6-3 wins over Clarkson and St. Lawrence, respectively. The wins completed a two-weekend, four-game sweep of ECAC teams. At the same time last year, the Terriers went 0-2-1 against the two North Country teams and Yale.

"We’ve got a lot of things to improve on, but getting all four of those wins and sweeping Clarkson and St. Lawrence — which isn’t done too often — was nice," said coach Jack Parker.

"In general, I was pleased. We seemed to play fairly well in most areas of the game. We didn’t play with a lot of emotion, but sometimes that happens when you play non-league teams. You don’t see them that often, so you don’t get as pumped up."

The power play, which ended October only 2-for-13 (15 percent), has ended November with a bang, going 7-for-13 last weekend to raise the Terriers’ mark to over 31 percent, good for second overall in Hockey East.

"It’s a couple things," said Parker. "One, we’re generating more shots, especially more shots from the point. That has helped us. But we’re also doing a better job of screening the goaltender. We’re not just letting him see everything and just trying to tip in shots, when actually we could be trying to screen instead. Those two things have helped.

"But I think the biggest thing is that we’ve improved our intensity, in terms of A: getting the puck into the zone, and B: getting control of the puck and keeping control. We’re not just taking a shot and having it come out or carrying it into the zone and having them take it away from us and throwing it back out. We’re doing a much better job of getting it in there and getting control."

Four big league games now loom for the Terriers before the break, beginning with Merrimack on Thursday (previewed below), the two BC tilts, and the final regular-season matchup with UNH next weekend.

Although many Hockey East teams have rivalries with BU born out of the Terriers’ consistent standing among league leaders this decade, on Commonwealth Avenue none matches that with Boston College. Finally, these two archrivals meet with both teams nationally ranked.

"I think that’s more for the media and the fans to get excited about," said Parker. "I think that when BU plays BC, it doesn’t matter if either one [is] in the top ten or not, or if one team is having a great year and the other team isn’t having such a great year.

"The bottom line is they’ve always been tough, emotional games. Even when they weren’t going well, or when they were going well and we weren’t going so well, there seemed to be a lot of energy and intensity generated by both clubs. Both clubs usually play real well against each other.

"The fans will be more excited because it seems like it means more — and it does mean more that way — but BU-BC and BC-BU games always mean something."

Although Michel Larocque was pulled from Saturday’s game after one period because Parker felt his goaltender was still hindered by a hip pointer suffered in practice, he still hopes to get Larocque two of the four games before the break. Tom Noble will definitely get the Thursday night game against Merrimack, to allow Larocque a little extra healing time. If Larocque is 100 percent by Sunday, he will likely then get that game, allowing for a natural return to the 50-50 rotation.

The two netminders are compiling eye-popping statistics. Noble has recorded a 1.76 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage, while Larocque stands at 1.85 and .925, respectively.

Boston College finished off an eight-game-in-16-days stretch with a Tuesday night 6-3 win over Brown, a 6-0 Friday night shutout of St.Lawrence and a 4-3 loss to Clarkson. Marty Reasoner, who has now scored in six straight games, totaled five goals and two assists in the games.

"Against St. Lawrence, we were perfect," said coach Jerry York. "Everything we touched just turned out to be the right play.

"Clarkson was, I thought, a much stronger team than St. Lawrence. We were in a battle all night long. Third period, we were dead even when they got a break on a power-play goal with about eight minutes left to give them the win, 4-3. We had some chances and they had some chances. We were two pretty evenly matched teams, I think.

"Clarkson is, in my mind, certainly a top ten team and probably a good bet to win the ECAC. I was very impressed with them."

The Eagles have been pretty impressive themselves.

"We’re very pleased with a lot of the things that are happening here," said York. "We just finished a month of November in which we played 11 games and finished 8-3. More importantly, we played some very good teams and showed some good promise for the most part, if you throw out the Maine game [a 12-5 loss]."

During the month, freshman goaltender Scott Clemmensen established himself as the team’s clear number one. He has now played in 11 of 14 games. Although his statistics and those of backup Andy McLaughlin suffered in the Maine blowout, both remain respectable: Clemmensen with a .871 save percentage and 3.19 goals-against average, and McLaughlin with .863 and 3.23 numbers.

Lost in the shuffle, at least for now, is Mike Correia, who had the inside track on the top spot going into the season. Correia was the only returning netminder with any significant collegiate experience, if 11 career decisions can be deemed significant.

Correia, however, suffered a severe hamstring pull in the preseason and was sidelined while Clemmensen and McLaughlin had a chance to strut their stuff. He’s healthy now but isn’t expected to see action against BU, the Eagles’ final games before the break.

"Mike is full up, ready to go 100 percent," said York. "Now it’s just a coach’s decision. It’ll be hard for us to get him into the lineup. He hasn’t played since October. He’ll probably be a second semester guy for us." Even then, there is no guarantee that Correia will break into the top two, something that seemed a fait accompli entering the season.

"He’ll have to earn it," said York. "Andy McLaughlin has posted some great numbers."

This week, Clemmensen will need to outduel two of the best in the league in BU’s Noble and Larocque.

"They’re even better because of their core defensemen in front of them," said York. "To get to the goalies, you have to get through their defense. They’re playing very well defensively as a team, particularly the six ‘D’ that play."

Certainly one key edge that BU has is the experience factor, as exhibited by its wealth of seniors, compared to BC’s reliance on primarily younger players.

"I’m very impressed with Boston University’s play this year, particularly by their senior class," said York. "Chris Kelleher, Chris Drury and Mike Sylvia have been real catalysts behind their fine start. Certainly, Tom Poti, [Tommi] Degerman and some of the younger players [have also contributed,] but that senior class, when you throw Tommy Noble in with two shutouts, makes them an imposing team."

PICKS: In a single game at a neutral site, the edge would go to BU: better goaltending, a more experienced defense, and even though most of the offense comes from one line, Drury’s ability to propel that line in big games is tough to match.

But the pick here is for the two Commonwealth Ave. titans to split, BC winning 3-2 at home on Sunday and BU returning the favor 4-2.

No. 2 Boston University (9-1-0, 3-1-0 HEA) and Army (7-6-0, 0-6-0 vs. aligned D-I) at Merrimack (5-8-0, 2-5-0 HEA)

Thursday, 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA

Saturday, 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA

So with two games against Boston College and another against UNH following the Thursday night Merrimack tilt, could Boston University look past the Warriors?

"I don’t think our team could ever look by Merrimack, to tell you the truth, because they’ve given us fits over the years," said coach Jack Parker. "It’s always a battle.

"You can go up there and watch them play a team and think, Boy, they don’t look that sharp tonight, but then they play you and don’t look like the same team. There’s no question that they’re always geared up for us. We have to make sure we’re geared up for them.

"We’ve had enough experience with not having great games against them. The last time we played them was in our building, the second-to-last game of the season. We had to win in order to win a Hockey East championship. We were tooth-and-nail with them, 2-1, and they’ve got more guys back from that game than we do, so I’m sure that we’ll have our hands full.

"It’s a tough building to play in so I doubt my guys will be thinking, Boy I can’t wait for that BC game. If they are, I’ll have to shoot them all!" he added, laughing. "They have no common sense!"

While BU has won its last five and nine of 10, Merrimack’s fortunes have been heading in the other direction. The Warriors, after winning four of the first five, have now lost five straight and seven of the last eight.

It’s getting tougher to figure out this team that is now struggling after earlier beating both Boston College and Maine.

Most recently, they lost 2-0 at home to Princeton and then traveled to New Haven, Connecticut, where they lost 6-2 to Yale.

"I thought we were right there," said coach Ron Anderson. "There were a lot of missed opportunities on Friday night. We had 35 shots. We had chances to score goals, we just didn’t.

"On Saturday night, Yale got a quick 3-0 lead on us and we had to play catch-up. That’s pretty hard to do in their building when they’re the first place team in the ECAC. We just came out a little flat down there. They had us 3-0 before we knew what happened."

Unfortunately for backup goaltender, Tom Welby, those three quick goals at Yale were on the only three shots he saw before getting yanked after 8:08 of play. With Cris Classen the apparent number one, and two other candidates pushing for the backup role, Welby could feel Roland Sperlich or Tim Thompson breathing down his neck. Even so, Anderson reaffirmed his faith in Welby.

"Right now, we still think [Classen and Welby] are our top two," said Anderson. "Tommy, like any freshman, is trying to get used to what’s going on around him.

"On the other hand, we’re trying to find an opportunity to get our other two guys in a little bit. One of them has been in a little. The other one, unfortunately, on the nights when he was not dressed, those were the nights that opportunities presented themselves.

"If you don’t happen to be dressed on a night when there’s a chance to get some work, guess what? You missed that opportunity."

After the Warriors opened the season allowing more than six goals a game, Anderson juggled his lineup to try to achieve a better defensive chemistry and also altered the team’s strategic approach to cut down on the goals-against.

Unfortunately, the changes have had the side effect of taming an offense that had been among the league leaders. In the last three games, the Warriors have scored a total of only three goals.

"We were concerned about how many goals we were giving up," said Anderson. "We were trying to become a little more defensive without impacting our offense, but obviously our offense has been impacted. Whether it’s because of more defensive concentration or because we’re just in a little bit of a rut, I’m not sure. We’re still getting our chances. We’re just not putting it in the net right now."

As a result, the juggling is likely to continue.

"We’ve got some people that every game we’re learning new things about them," said Anderson. "Sometimes good and sometimes bad, so we’re mixing things around as they develop. We had some people who went from not being in the lineup to playing regular shifts. They’re struggling again, so maybe it’s time for them to watch again. We’ve got a lot of people and we’re going to use them all. We just hope we can get consistent enough that we can get set on a specific group and stay with them."

Despite the recent setbacks, Anderson remains upbeat.

"We’re not discouraged," he said. "We know we’re playing well enough to get the job done. On certain nights, you’re not going to get it done and on other nights, you might. It just happens that misfiring on some scoring opportunities has cost us some games, but we’re not discouraged by any means.

"We know we’re normally a better second-half team than a first half-team anyways, so we’re setting our sights squarely on BU. We’ve got two games before we go into exams and one more game [after that against Dartmouth], so it’s really like a three-game semester. We’ll set our sights on all three games."

Army has remained undefeated against non-Division I teams with recent wins against St. Anselm and New England, but is still looking for its first D-I victim. Even so, the Cadets have swept a Nebraska-Omaha team that has already beaten UMass-Amherst and Union, and swept Denver. And the Cadets have lost by only a goal to Providence and took both UMass-Lowell and Colgate to overtime before succumbing.

Daryl Chamberlain remains the mainstay in Cadet nets while Greg Buckmeier and Andy Lundbohm once again are the most potent offensive weapons in the team’s arsenal.

PICKS: BU could be ripe for the upset here, but the Warriors’ recent play doesn’t inspire the confidence needed to walk out on that limb. BU, 6-4.

After the BU game, Merrimack could be ripe for an upset. Army has already thrown scares into teams with better records than the Warriors. If they think they merely have to show up, they will lose. Merrimack more than shows up, though, and wins 5-3.

No. 5 New Hampshire (10-3-0, 4-3-0 HEA) vs. UMass-Lowell (6-5-1, 4-2-1 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH Saturday, 7 p.m., Tully Forum, Lowell, MA

New Hampshire beat UMass-Lowell 4-2 and Maine 7-0 last weekend to take its second straight Governors’ Cup. In the championship game, the Wildcats sustained a

scary injury to Mark Mowers

which, thankfully, proved to be only a concussion, as opposed to the spinal injury it first appeared to be.

Even so, "only a concussion" makes sense as a phrase only in a relative sense. In every other way, it’s an oxymoron. UNH senior Greg Dumont was sidelined this year because of multiple concussions and a look around the hockey world, both professional and collegiate, points to extreme caution when dealing with this injury.

As a result, Mowers will not play this week and could also skip the Dec. 12 match against BU to take advantage of the break until post-Christmas tournaments.

In every other respect, the past week was an impressive performance by the Wildcats. Although purists could complain about Lowell’s two goals in 15 seconds at the close of the second period, as well as its strong play in the third, UNH still put on a clinic of offensive skill, solid defense and strong goaltending.

Derek Bekar made a strong case for Most Overshadowed Star with two pivotal shorthanded goals and an assist against Lowell, and three assists against Maine. Bekar has accumulated points in every game he’s played this year.

UNH is 9-1-0 with Bekar in the lineup and 1-2-0 in the games in which injury sidelined him. Coincidence? Perhaps, especially since the two losses were to No. 8 Boston College. But there’s no denying his contributions.

"He’s playing absolutely terrific," said coach Dick Umile. "All the credit is to him. He worked really hard in the off-season. That little extra jump that he’s got when he’s going by people is no accident. He’s paid a big price working in the weight room. He had deceptive speed, but he’s got explosion now."

Individual performances aside, the domination of then-tenth-ranked Maine was stunning.

"The whole thing came from defense," said assistant coach Chris Serino after the game, speaking along with fellow assistant David Lassonde while Umile went to the hospital to see Mowers. "Our defensemen stayed with them in our zone and didn’t give them any room. By doing that, we [forced them to] turn it over and got some good offensive breaks."

"Our forwards did a tremendous job backchecking and supporting the defense," added Lassonde. "I don’t think they had more than five odd-man rushes in the game. For a team like ours that’s somewhat wide-open in the way we play, that’s a tribute to our forwards and our defense."

Praise also went to goaltender Sean Matile, who, even though the game did not count as a league game, is on a pace to shatter league career shutout records.

"I thought Sean did a tremendous job of controlling rebounds and keeping them out of areas where they could outnumber us [on the power play]," said Lassonde.

"Shorthanded situations are 70 percent goaltending," added Serino. "They’re going to get shots. A lot of it is goaltending and Sean did a great job. As far as the offensive part of it goes — scoring shorthanded goals — that’s a tribute to great players making great plays."

UMass-Lowell will be looking to get back for the 4-2 loss to UNH, as well as redeem itself following a lackluster 4-0 loss to Vermont in the consolation game.

It was a weird one," said coach Tim Whitehead, after the loss to New Hampshire. "The difference in the game was the two shorthanded goals. You don’t see that a lot. They’ve got some dangerous players and we got a little lazy on the power play.

"Our so-called top two units weren’t really focused for the game and it came back to haunt them twice on the power play. Fortunately for them, a couple of their teammates were a little hungrier, so they made a game of it. It actually turned into a real good hockey game.

"In the third period, we carried play at some points and UNH carried it at other points. It was kind of an end-to-end, real good period, but we just dug ourselves a hole…. We were actually playing pretty well and just wanted to get an ugly goal, but just couldn’t seem to get one."

Reigning Rookie of the Year Greg Koehler got shifted to the wing in the third period, as Whitehead tried to juggle a lineup in which his key players weren’t producing. Koehler has been shut out in five of his last six games.

Whitehead’s juggling, however, couldn’t lift his team out of a consolation game stupor that lead to the 4-0 Vermont win.

"This afternoon was kind of a non-game for us," he said. "The guys didn’t seem to have much fire. I would have liked to have thought we could have gotten up for it. A win is a win. It all goes into your season record. The team that loses the championship game is going to have the same record for the tournament as Vermont, so a win definitely would have helped us.

"Maybe if we’d gotten a quick one, we could have ridden that through, but that’s what they did. It didn’t look like we had much legs as far as getting it going for a comeback."

On the technical side, Whitehead saw some specific areas of missed opportunities.

"We had some good shifts where we had a ton of pressure, but we kept shooting it into [Vermont goaltender James Tierney’s] stomach the whole night," said Whitehead. "That’s why we didn’t score. He’s a butterfly goalie and we kept putting it right into where his strength is. That hurt us.

"And we had trouble from the point, getting the puck to the net. As a result, we didn’t get any rebounds, which you normally get from a butterfly guy. That hurt us."

PICKS: New Hampshire could be vulnerable without Mowers, but the Wildcats are playing well enough to sweep anyways: 6-3, 4-3.

Northeastern (6-5-1, 5-3-1 HEA) vs. UMass-Amherst (2-9-0, 0-7-0 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Matthews Arena, Boston, MA Saturday, 8 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

Northeastern came back from a three-goal deficit to defeat UMass-Amherst 4-3 in the Huskies only action last weekend.

"We showed a little character coming back after being down by three on the road," said coach Bruce Crowder. "We found a way to win, so that was the plus and the most important thing."

By taking the only league action of the weekend, Northeastern leapfrogged BC into first place. Sensible Northeastern fans — who might call that phrase redundant while catty foes might term it an oxymoron — would be best to ignore games in hand and all the asterisks that might ruin the fun and simply savor the moment. The first place Northeastern Huskies. After last year’s trip to the cellar, the phrase does have a ring to it.

"It definitely sounds better than what was happening last year," said Crowder. "But we’ve got a long way to go. It’s definitely not something to tip your hat to, that we’re able to get into that position and be in first place. We realize that there’s a lot of work yet to be done here.

"We’ll take it. It’s something to be proud of, but there’s a lot of hockey left to be played."

Billy Newson assisted on one goal and scored the game-winner, for which he earned Hockey East’s Koho Player of the Week award. In the first 10 games this year, the 5-8 roadrunner had four assists, but hadn’t yet scored a goal. On the Tuesday leading into the weekend, he finally notched the bung-puller and the bubbly kept pouring against the Minutemen.

"He used to rely a lot on his speed to make up for mistakes," said Crowder. "What he’s getting better at is learning that he has to control his speed a little bit and change speeds.

"He’s really been snakebit this year. He’d been creating a lot of offensive chances for himself. Hopefully, what he’s realizing is that whatever he does up until he shoots the puck is fantastic and looks good, but what really counts is whether or not that lights goes on or whether he’s a part of it going on. I think he’s getting better in each and every game."

This week, the Huskies and Minutemen clash again in the second and third games of the season’s series. Psychologically, three games in a row against an opponent should make it a bit tougher to sweep, especially for a young team like Northeastern.

"I don’t think it affects it much at all," said Crowder. "Our thing with this young team is that no matter who we play, we’ve got to try to get better the next night out. We made a lot of mistakes on Saturday night — which a young team will do — but we found a way to win. What we’d like to do is continue to find ways to win, but eliminate our mistakes. Then when we get into games down the stretch that are going to be huge — not that these two aren’t — we play better.

>From the UMass-Amherst perspective, the season might be nicknamed Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. The Minutemen are coming oh-so-close, but in hockey, unfortunately, a tough loss only gets you an L.

"Despite where we stand record-wise, we’ve been in every game," said coach Joe Mallen. "We had a 3-1 lead against Northeastern the other night that we lost halfway through the second period.

"In our last two league games, the Providence game down in Providence and the Northeastern game, we outshot both teams. We just couldn’t outscore them. Right now, we’ve got to tighten up a little bit defensively and bury our chances.

"[Marc] Robitaille and [Boyd] Ballard played real well against us. Our goaltender, basically, has to outbattle their goaltender."

Which has been a surprising concern. Brian Regan, who for three years has weathered the lack of notoriety that goes with playing well for a losing team, has suffered some lapses. Most egregious was the 65-70 footer in overtime that handed a game to Vermont the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. That heartbreaker helped prompt Mallen to try sophomore Dan DiLeo in his second career game.

"I certainly wanted to see what he can do in a game situation," said Mallen. "He hadn’t had a start for us. It was designed to make our entire team work hard instead of relying on Brian Regan to make all the saves. And the finish to the Vermont game was a real long-shot goal they scored to end the game. So all three of those factors went into [the decision to start Dan]."

One major positive, though, has been R.J. Gates’s ability to bury the puck. In just four Hockey East contests, and five overall, the freshman has scored three goals, including the two against Northeastern that earned him Rookie of the Week honors.

"We’re seeing a lot of bright spots from our younger players right now," said Mallen. "I have to also give credit to Kris Wallis as well. They’re linemates and Kris is a good passer and a good playmaker. He’s really been getting the puck to R.J. and R.J. has really been tough in and around the net.

"But we have to give R.J. Gates a lot of credit. He’s basically a recruited walk-on. He’s found a way into the lineup and we’re extremely proud of his effort."

With only this series and two ECAC games before the break, the Minutemen need to break through with their first league win to avoid a Hockey East goose egg going into the break.

"At this point, we’ve got to stay positive," said Mallen. "Hopefully, the chemistry of our younger guys mixed in with our older guys is going to click in and we’re going to see some success down the road."

PICKS: Northeastern takes the opener at home, 4-2, but the Minutemen gain the split at home, 4-3.

Maine (6-4-1, 4-3-0 HEA) at

Providence College (8-3-1, 3-3-0 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI Saturday, 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI

Maine rode three power-play goals to a 3-1 win over Vermont in the Governors’ Cup opener, but got blown out of the championship game 7-0 by UNH.

"It was just a night where it wasn’t going to go your way," said coach Shawn Walsh. "What was going to go wrong, was going to go wrong. When you have nights like this, you just put them away, try to learn from them and move forward.

"Fortunately, in hockey you play 35 or 40 games. You don’t play just 10. So you just have to come back."

A key advantage for UNH, according to Walsh, was its superior experience, especially in comparison to a young Black Bears squad. UNH dressed two freshmen defensemen and two on the fourth line. Maine, on the other hand, dressed seven.

"Our team is capable of these games," said Walsh. "We’re a young club. You look at a UNH team and they’re very experienced. We play four freshmen on our second power play. We’re going to have nights like this.

"You hope they develop and get better. Jason Krog had four goals as a freshman. Now, he’s one of the best players in college hockey. That’s the growth you want to see."

Unfortunately for the Black Bears, there was little opportunity to use their 38 percent power play, which had been so effective in the opener, against UNH.

"The only real power play that mattered was the first one," said Walsh. "UNH did a good job and we didn’t. We didn’t score on it, but you can’t ask your power play to score every time. The next time we got a power play, the game was over."

Despite the loss, Walsh was happy with how his team played at the tail end of a lopsided game, especially in light of the potentially combustible feelings following the

Mark Mowers injury.

Oftentimes, a team frustrated with the scoreboard vents its frustrations in ugly ways. With UNH showing admirable restraint following the injury, a potentially ugly situation never even had to be defused.

"I was pleased that we were classy in the third period," he said. "We played hard. No garbage. That’s the way to represent our school."

Maine now travels to Providence for two games against a team it handled to a 6-3 tune in Orono on Nov. 1. The Black Bears will miss Ben Guite for the first tilt, due to the game disqualification he received for the Mark Mowers hit from behind. They will also be without Dan Kerluke, who will be sidelined for about a month with a shoulder injury.

For their part, the Friars beat Yale at home 5-2, getting more pucks into the back of the Bulldog nets than any team has so far this year. The win gave the Friars seven wins in their last eight games, but against Princeton on Sunday, they found themselves staring at a third-period 4-1 deficit. Three unanswered goals, including the game-tying one with six seconds left in regulation, got Providence a 4-4 tie.

"I thought Friday night was a decent game," said coach Paul Pooley. "I thought we played well as the game went on. I’m glad that [goaltender] Mark Kane had a nice game and played well. He made some nice saves in the third and held onto the victory for us."

Although Pooley was glad to see the comeback against Princeton, he gave his team lower marks than their win over Yale.

"We had one power-play goal, but besides that, our power play really wasn’t functioning," he said. "We made a lot of mistakes. We weren’t making the easy play. It’s fortunate that we came back, no question."

Mike Omicioli continues to shine with a goal and five assists in the two weekend games and a 3-2 loss to Northeastern the preceding Tuesday.

"He’s really playing well, making some great plays," said Pooley. "We’re getting a lot of solid performances.

"Jason Ialongo is really adding to our puckhandling skills on the ice.

"We’re a solid team where everybody contributes."

When these two teams faced each other a month ago, the Friars saw first-hand the vaunted Maine power play. The Black Bears went 4-for-5 on the man advantage.

"If we continue to take poor penalties, we’re going to be in trouble," said Pooley. "It’ll be over; there’s no question. We’ve got to get that out of our system, because we’re taking foolish penalties. They’re a very, very explosive hockey club on the power play."

Pooley also doubts that any particular penalty-killing strategy is the kryptonite for Maine’s man-advantage Supermen.

"I don’t think it matters who they play against," said Pooley. "Obviously, at 39 percent, they’ve probably [had success against] teams like Merrimack that don’t pressure and teams like BU that pressure like crazy. They’ve got the capabilities to handle anything.

"They’ve got the personnel that has the ability to score on the power play because they’re smart, they move the puck, they get to the net, they’ve got shooters, passers and guys in front. They’re very dangerous."

PICKS: Maine has put together back-to-back wins only twice this season, but look for the Black Bears to make it three: 5-3, 3-2.

Man, I thought, I can’t wait for tonight’s game. Minutes later, I was padding over to the computer.

Although the UNH-Merrimack rematch that night proved to be a dud, this still is an exceptional year to be a Hockey East fan. The league is posting an unprecedented 25-7-1 record against non-league foes, four teams are in the top ten and additional dark horse candidates could legitimately cloud the postseason picture. Every team has at least one top-notch player to get its fans on their feet.

Heading the Hockey East list of players to be thankful of while wolfing down stuffing, mashed potatoes and a slab of turkey is UNH’s Jason Krog, the league’s KOHO Player of the Week. The multi-faceted forward, who led Hockey East in overall scoring last year, earned number one star honors in both games against Merrimack.

On Friday night, his game-winner, a real game-winner (unlike so many others that render that statistic meaningless), unknotted a 6-6 game with less than three minutes left. The clutch goal completed his first collegiate hat trick and cut off a string of three unanswered Merrimack goals.

On Saturday, he assisted on three first-period goals that took the Warriors out of the game early.

Northeastern’s Graig Mischler takes the Rookie of the Week award for his goal and assist leading to a 3-3 tie with UMass-Lowell.

This week, with the exception of a lone Northeastern at UMass-Amherst tilt and the Governors’ Cup, all other action involves games against the ECAC. The two leagues will face off against each other 10 times over the weekend.

To date, Hockey East has posted a 12-4-0 record against the ECAC, 4-1-0 against the CCHA, 5-1-1 against the WCHA and 4-1-0 against Independents. As such, this weekend gives the ECAC a shot at redemption while potentially giving Hockey East partisans more fuel for their "My conference is the best" bonfire.

No doubt, the interconference picks will see Dave "Homer" Hendrickson and Jayson "Homer" Moy each believing more in his league than the other guy. By late Saturday night, we’ll see who is muttering, "Duh-oh!" .

Last week’s record in picks: 10-3 Season’s record in picks: 52-19

Governors’ Cup No. 10 Maine (6-4-1, 4-3-0 HEA) vs. Vermont (2-6-2, 0-3-2 ECAC)

UMass-Lowell (6-3-1, 4-2-1 HEA) vs. No. 5 New Hampshire (8-3-0, 4-3-0 HEA)

All games at Whittemore Center, Durham, NH Friday, 5 & 8 p.m., Maine-Vermont & UMass-Lowell-New Hampshire Saturday, 4 & 7 p.m., Consolation & Championship games

After New Hampshire won a wide-open, up-and-down showcase of two of the league’s best offenses, 7-6 over Merrimack, the Wildcats came back to dominate the rematch 6-1.

"We played a solid hockey game tonight," said UNH coach Dick Umile on Saturday. "We played much better defensively away from the puck. We beat a good team."

Judging from the reactions of Umile and his players after the 7-6 shootout, they knew that a win was still a win, but that playing such a style would not be conducive to their long-term success. The 6-1 victory, although not as riveting from a fan’s perspective, was a significant step forward.

"It’s important [to play well defensively] just for feeling good about yourself as a team," said Umile. "It’s the kind of hockey you have to play in the playoffs. That’s a long way away, but that’s what we’re striving for."

Although the Wildcats seem tailor-made offensively for their Olympic-sized home ice, Umile dismissed any talk that his team faces a disadvantage when it has to adjust to smaller ice surfaces.

"We play better in smaller rinks," he said. "We’re a quick team, so smaller rinks are conducive to the way we play. We can transition quicker and it can be to our advantage, too. It’s not a disadvantage."

While scoring 13 goals on the weekend, UNH got offensive contributions from unexpected sources. In the 6-1 win, defensemen Christian Bragnalo, Eric Lind and Jayme Filipowicz all scored on shots from the point. The three goals marked UNH’s first from blueliners on the season, perhaps a fitting tribute to last year’s co-captain, Tim (Goose Egg) Murray, who scored not a single goal but totaled 37 assists on the way to an All-Hockey East berth.

"I don’t count on defensemen scoring," said Umile. "If they score, it’s a bonus. We’ve got guys who can score. I want our defensemen to play defense and stop the attack."

Also providing unexpected offense was senior Dylan Dellezay. Dellezay scored only three goals in his first three years, but scored twice on Friday to total five since Umile inserted the erstwhile role-player on a line with Mark Mowers and Tom Nolan.

"We knew this year it would be important for someone to step up where Eric Nickulas left off," said Umile. "Dylan is a very talented player. He hasn’t put up numbers [before], but he played very well for us last year. We were hoping that he’d take it to another level, and in fact he has.

"We knew what he did in practice every single day. Now he’s playing relaxed and isn’t worried about me being on his ass," said Umile, grinning. "Maybe that’s the secret. Don’t coach ’em; just let ’em play."

Jason Krog’s hat trick and three-assist games, of course, were no surprise, nor was his selection as the league’s Player of the Week. With Dellezay teamed with Mowers and Nolan, Krog has anchored a line with Derek Bekar, last week’s Player of the Week, and either Mike Souza or Rob Gagnon.

"All the guys I play with are talented," said Krog. "It doesn’t really make a difference whether I’m playing with Nolan and Mowers or Bekar and Souza. They all have as much talent as anybody.

"I’ve always been like that. I think I’ve been able to play with different kinds of players, small players, big players, fast and slow."

UNH now enters the Governors’ Cup as one favorite along with No. 10 Maine.

The Black Bears split two home games with Boston College, getting rocked 6-1 in the opener and then coming back to rock the Eagles back, 12-5.

"We showed the extremes of our inconsistency," said coach Shawn Walsh. "That’s typical of a young team. The second night we played with a lot more emotion. The first night, they had all the puck luck and the second night we had all the puck luck. So the reality of it is that both teams are pretty equal.

"I actually thought the first night we played much better than the score, especially five-on-five. Their specialty teams just killed us."

In that first game, BC built a 3-0 edge going into the third solely on power-play goals, while Maine’s rebound in the second game included five power-play goals in nine chances. The Black Bears still lead the league in man-advantage efficiency, scoring on 39.5 percent of their chances in league games and 38.6 overall.

"It certainly won the game for them the first night and probably won the game for us the second night," said Walsh. "That can happen in college hockey. If your power play is clicking, you’re going to win most of your games."

The series marked the second straight weekend in which Maine lost the first game, but, with its back to the wall, came back to get a split. Going back yet another week, however, it also was the third straight weekend in which the team dropped its first game.

"We’ve rebounded well, but I’m more looking at why we’re not getting anything done the first night," said Walsh. "Counting the BU game, which was really the only night but was the first night, it’s almost like we’re wasting five days of preparation the way we’ve played the first night.

"We have to find a way to play better this Friday night, because once we play a game, it seems like we make the necessary adjustments that it takes. So I have to look at my angle of coaching, the team’s ability of retention and just our overall execution the first nights."

This week’s tournament begins an extended road stretch for the Black Bears, who won’t return to Alfond Arena for game action until January 16. Although they are off for almost a month — not playing games from Dec. 13 to Jan. 9 — the stretch still includes eight straight road games.

"I’m looking forward to it," said Walsh. "Our team has always played well on the road. If not the [second] BC game, our best [performance] was the opening game at Minnesota. Over the years, we’ve been as good, if not better, a road team than a home team. I think it brings our team together. It’s going to be challenging, but it’s also going to help us out."

After weeks of juggling the lineup because of injury, Walsh now has some lines that, based on the second BC game at least, are healthy and clicking. Unlike past combinations which strove to spread the top scorers across several lines, Walsh has put Steve Kariya, Shawn Wansborough and Scott Parmentier together on an intimidating top line.

Freshman Anders Lundback centers Bobby Stewart and Cory Larose on the second line; two more freshman, Dan Kerluke and Mattias Trattnig, join sophomore power forward Ben Guite on the third.

"We’ve finally found some lines," said Walsh. "It’s taken us 11 games through big-time injuries to three of our best four forwards. Now, for two games in a row, we finally had the opportunity to have the same players in the lineup.

"We found something. Lundback had a breakthrough game on Saturday night. He won 80 percent of his faceoffs and just was dominant out there. And the line of Kerluke, Trattnig and Guite played the way they played against Minnesota.

"The only way that can work is if the freshmen step out. And they did. They played great. So maybe we can now use that to move forward."

UMass-Lowell currently stands second in Hockey East standings with a 4-2-1 mark. The River Hawks have been winning ugly, but it’s the W part there that counts.

This past weekend, they jumped out to a 3-0 lead over Northeastern and held on for a 3-2 win. They then had to come back to gain a 3-3 tie at Matthews Arena.

"The first time we played Northeastern [a few weeks ago], it was an honest win, [7-2]," said coach Tim Whitehead. "This time was ugly; it could have gone either way. We got a win in the first game and a tie in the second, but it could have bounced the other way very easily.

"But, hey, we’ll take them. Not all the weekends are going to be pretty."

Whitehead had emphasized reducing penalties as the season unfolded, but that came apart over the weekend. After being assessed 11 penalties for 23 minutes in the first game, Lowell then got slapped with 17 more for 46 minutes on Saturday. Although Northeastern had only one fewer trip to the penalty box, Whitehead still was unhappy about the development that now has his team first in the league with 22 penalty minutes a game.

"We were chipping away pretty well and had gotten into the middle of the pack," said Whitehead. "But this one weekend was a pretty hard-fought weekend, and unfortunately the penalty minutes for both teams skyrocketed. It’ll take a long time before the average will come down.

"No question, that something we want to improve. We had been pleased with the progress that we had been making, but we took a nosedive. The guys know that and we’ve addressed it."

On the plus side, statistically speaking, the River Hawks now rank third in Hockey East team defense, allowing 3.20 goals a game.

"There’s definitely room for improvement," said Whitehead, "but at the same time those numbers have come down quite a bit. We’re pleased with our progress. I don’t know where we’ll end up, but we’re definitely better than we were last year. We’re just trying to get better on it every weekend."

The River Hawks now face their second top ten team of the year, having lost 6-2 to Maine several weeks ago. Along with Maine, UNH ranks as a significantly tougher offensive team to corral than Lowell’s foes to date. How the River Hawks fare against the Wildcats will say a lot about where this team stands right now.

"People might look just at their forwards because that’s where the focus seems to go," said Whitehead, "but they’re a real well-balanced team.

"You have to be aware of the rink, you have to be aware of what their strengths are, and put together a solid game plan. Hopefully, it’ll give us every opportunity to win the game and if it comes down to the third period and the game is up for grabs, hopefully we can steal one from them."

Vermont, which had been 1-6-2, got a boost on Tuesday when it came back to defeat UMass-Amherst 3-2 in overtime.

The Catamounts still aren’t scoring much, however. They are led by freshman defenseman Andreas Moborg (6 points) and junior alternate captain Stephane Piche (5 points).

Goaltender Andrew Allen has played the lion’s share of the games, posting a 3.24 GAA and .891 save percentage.

(For a more detailed look at Vermont from an ECAC perspective, check out this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICKS: UNH and Maine advance to the championship game, UNH 5-3 over UMass-Lowell and Maine 5-1 over Vermont. UMass-Lowell will then beat Vermont 4-2 in the consolation game and UNH takes the tournament with a 5-4 victory.

(If there are any deviations in the first round, whichever of UNH and Maine makes the title game will win it, while the other takes the consolation.)

Clarkson (4-3-2, 2-2-1 ECAC) and St. Lawrence (3-5-1, 2-2-1 ECAC) at No. 2 Boston University (7-1-0, 3-1-0 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA WABU-TV68 Saturday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA WABU-TV68

St. Lawrence (3-5-1, 2-2-1 ECAC) and Clarkson (4-3-2, 2-2-1 ECAC)

at No. 8 Boston College (9-3-0, 5-3-0 HEA)

Friday, 7 p.m., Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA Saturday, 7 p.m., Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

BC and BU act as travel partners this weekend, hosting Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

Clarkson encountered more of its historic early-season doldrums when earlier it could muster only a single point out of a four-game, two-weekend spell against Ohio State (two games), Princeton and Yale. The Golden Knights, however, showed signs of snapping out of the funk with a 4-3 win over St. Lawrence; a 3-3 tie to Union in which the Dutchmen had to score not one, but two, extra skater goals to steal a point; and a 11-0 humiliation of Rensselaer.

St. Lawrence made it two hot North Country teams with back-to-back shutouts over Rensselaer (1-0) and Union (7-0). Eric Heffler totaled 64 saves in the two wins, while forward Paul DiFrancesco upped his scoring to 6-8–14 in nine games, including two shorthanded goals.

(For a more detailed look at Clarkson and St. Lawrence from an ECAC perspective, check out this week’s ECAC Preview.)

Boston University is heeding the words of coach Jack Parker to "get after it in the non-league games as well as the league games and make sure we’re ready to play." The Terriers jumped all over Brown en route to an 8-1 win and then outplayed Harvard by a large margin, taking a 5-3 victory.

The win over the Crimson was yet another one sparked by the top line of Chris Drury, Mike Sylvia and Tommi Degerman. The trio scored four of the five BU goals. Early in the season, especially during the several weeks that Chris Heron was sidelined, there was concern that perhaps the Terriers had placed all their eggs in one basket. Other than Heron, Albie O’Connell was the only other significant returning scorer up front.

"The philosophy of putting your three best players together isn’t a bad philosophy," said coach Jack Parker. "We wouldn’t be able to do it if I didn’t have so much confidence in our freshmen."

Although those freshmen haven’t yet shown the kind of flashes of greatness that Drury, Shawn Bates, Jay Pandolfo, Mike Pomichter, Tony Amonte and Shawn McEachern did in their rookie campaigns (not to mention blueliner Tom Poti last year), the freshmen forwards have still filled their secondary roles quite well. Last year, Heron didn’t begin to really show what he could do until the latter stages of the season.

"I remember my first home game," recalled Drury after the home opener earlier this year. "I couldn’t do anything. I felt like my legs were in mud.

"All the upperclassmen were talking on the bench after the game tonight, [saying,] ‘They look like players, not just freshmen.’ I thought they all looked great."

There may or may not be a future Drury or Amonte in the bunch, but, for now, continued solid contributions are the only expectations.

Although the Terriers only rank sixth in league standings, they hold at least three games in hand against everyone ahead of them, rendering that placement meaningless. A chance to use those extra games to begin leapfrogging teams, however, won’t begin for another week.

After Boston College Jekyll-and-Hyde-ed its way to a 6-1 win and a 12-5 loss at Maine last weekend, the Eagles returned home and on Tuesday night used four third-period goals to top Brown 6-3.

Perhaps Maine coach Shawn Walsh said it best, after facing the Eagles twice.

"I was terrifically impressed with BC," he said. "[Blake] Bellefeuille and [Brian] Gionta are just two guys who are tremendous players. They are already great college hockey players. And BC’s defense is mobile.

"They’re going to be around all year. They look to me like they’re going to be an NCAA tournament team."

This writer agrees, although it’s tough to make sense out of the weekend’s disparate results.

"The scores probably were not indicative [of how either team played]," said BC coach Jerry York. "I don’t think we were 6-1 better than Maine on Friday night, and I certainly don’t think they were 12-5 better than us on Saturday night.

"We had some great jump in our legs on Friday and won a lot of battles for loose pucks. Maine had the jump in their legs on Saturday and won those loose-puck battles.

"That’s a pretty hostile environment for a young team like ours. Give Maine credit. They bounced back and played very well."

Had BC completed the sweep over then-ninth ranked Maine, the Eagles likely would have vaulted even higher than their current No. 8 spot in the polls. Even so, York still saw a silver lining in the loss.

"I think our team matured a lot," he said. "We learned an awful lot over the weekend. Saturday night, we took way too many penalties and lost our composure late in the second. It was 4-2 with about eight minutes left [at that time], so it will be a good learning experience for us."

The Eagles stay atop Hockey East with a 5-3-0 league mark, although every team but Northeastern has at least one game in hand on them. They’ll stay there this week unless the Huskies bypass them with a win over UMass-Amherst in the only league action of the week.

"We look forward to [playing] two of the hottest teams in the ECAC, Clarkson coming off an 11-0 win over RPI and St. Lawrence with back-to-back shutouts," said York "Hopefully, we can carry the Hockey East banner in our ECAC week."

Like almost every successful team, the Eagles are receiving significant contributions not just from their stars, but from their role players.

"We feel pretty good about the play of a lot of different people on our team," said York. "Matt Mulhern and Nick Pierandri are doing an outstanding job for us and both are playing with a broken navicular bone in their wrist. They have a cast on and are fighting through that. That’s an interesting injury to play with."

PICKS: Both ECAC teams struggled earlier in the season, but have spanked their most recent opponents. If BU and BC weren’t playing so well themselves, it would be the classic case of "wrong place, wrong time."

Instead, BC bests St. Lawrence 3-1 and Clarkson 4-3. Similarly, BU beats Clarkson 3-2 and St. Lawrence 4-1.

Princeton (5-2-2, 2-2-2 ECAC) at Merrimack (5-6-0, 2-5-0 HEA)

Merrimack (5-6-0, 2-5-0 HEA) at Yale (6-1-0, 5-1-0 ECAC)

Friday, 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA Saturday, 7 p.m., Ingalls Rink, New Haven, Conn.

enigma (ah nig ma), n. 1. a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation (e.g., 1997-98 Merrimack hockey)

Will the real Merrimack hockey team please stand up?

Is it the one that has beaten Boston College and Maine, and put on a virtuoso offensive display in a 7-6 loss to UNH?

Or is it the team that got smoked by UNH on two Saturdays, 14 days apart, 11-4 and 6-1?

Survey says… "We’re confused."

In victory, UNH coach Dick Umile voted for the "good Warriors."

"We beat a good team," he said after completed the sweep. "You can take Porter, Kesselring, Cohen and Stringer and they can play with anybody…. I’m thrilled we got our three and we’re outta here."

In Friday night’s 7-6 thriller, the Warriors got big dividends from doing the little things well. Specifically, their performance on faceoffs, particularly on offensive zone draws taken by Rejean Stringer, proved a significant factor. Twice, Stringer won the drop cleanly and got the puck to super-sniper Kris Porter, who rifled shots past UNH netminder Sean Matile.

"If you can win faceoffs, you can do a lot of things," said Merrimack coach Ron Anderson. "We just happened to win a couple faceoffs in our [offensive] zone. A lot of times you get people in position, but you can’t get the puck to them…. We won a few faceoffs in a row there so we stayed with it."

Although ultimately Merrimack fell one goal short, the performance seemed like one more brick in the foundation, one more reason to see the Warriors as a potential player in the league. Not as a second-tier team, but one of the big boys.

Then came the Saturday night disaster.

"They played like the nationally ranked team they are," said Anderson. "We were tired and didn’t have much left."

Anderson had juggled his lineup heading into the rematch, moving Chris Halecki onto the second line with Martin Laroche and Casey Kesselring. Sandy Cohen dropped to the third line with Vince Clevenger and another new arrival on the line, Jayson Philbin. Ron Mongeau dropped to the fourth line and Mike Rodriques replaced Chris Silvestro on defense.

"We were trying to get a little more balance and become a little more defensive," said Anderson after the loss. "Obviously, we didn’t do a very good job at that again tonight. We’ve been giving up a lot of goals, so we’re trying to get some fresh legs in and trying to get some people in that we feel will be a little more defense-conscious for us as well."

Although Merrimack’s masochistic opening league schedule — UNH three times, Maine twice, BU once, Northeastern once, and BU still on the horizon — is bound to skew statistics to some extent, the stark reality is that the Warriors are giving up an average of 6.29 goals a game in the league and 5.27 overall, both more than a goal a game worse than the next-to-last Minutemen of UMass-Amherst.

Cris Classen, who was pulled after one period and three goals on Saturday, did not look particularly strong one night after playing very well, recording 39 saves. The defensive problems, however, go beyond the goalie and beyond the defensemen, according to Anderson.

"It’s not the defense, it’s team defense," he said. "We’re not a very physical team right now and we’re not playing very honest defensively. We sort of look to get the puck and go as opposed to making sure we’re in position to tie people up and cover people if we don’t get it. We’ve been cheating a little bit and hoping to get the thing, and when we don’t get it, it causes a lot of problems."

Anderson will be looking to turn that situation around against two strong defensive teams from the ECAC, Princeton and Yale.

"We’re playing a couple good non-league teams next week," said Anderson. "They’re doing pretty well, so we’ll be prepared as if they are any other team."

Merrimack will have to face Princeton, however, without Cohen, whose boneheaded spearing disqualification sends him to the stands.

If, in fact, Merrimack is as strong as it has looked at times this year, these non-league games won’t count in the standings, but could be a factor in a dark horse bid for an NCAA tournament berth.

"You address that at the beginning of the year," said Anderson, "and you address it every time you play [a non-league game], that every game is significant. It’s not something we overlook, but it’s not something we want to spend a lot of time dwelling on either."

Princeton comes in with a 5-2-2 record. The Tigers entered last weekend one of two undefeated teams in the country, but dropped games to Cornell and Colgate, 2-1 and 8-4, respectively. The loss to Colgate marked only the second time the Tigers have given up more than three goals. They did get back on the winning track, however, with a Tuesday night win over Army, 9-3.

Jeff Halpern (9 points) and Brian Horst (7 points) are the only Tigers to crack the ECAC top thirty scorers. Steven Shirreffs and Michael Acosta are two blue line standbys who have each added 5 points. Erasmo Saltarelli has posted a 2.99 GAA and a .905 save percentage.

Yale has stunned observers by jumping out to a 5-1-0 league record and 6-1-0 overall. This year, the Bulldogs have continued their recent trend of limited scoring, despite the presence of sophomore Jeff Hamilton (10 points). Their success has been fueled primarily by great goaltending and team defense.

Netminder Alex Westlund is standing on his head so far, boasting numbers of a 1.13 GAA and a .961 save percentage.

Protecting him on the blue line is Ray Giroux, one of the ECAC’s finest, and Daryl Jones. The two form an exceptional tandem.

Yale coach Tim Taylor is faced with an unexpected quandary. He has been playing only one freshmen, Ben Stafford, on a regular basis, but had expected to get some of his other rookies some experience in nonconference games such as this one. Additionally, Westlund’s backup graduated last year, so this game would also prove an ideal testing ground for other goaltenders.

But with a 6-1-0 start, NCAA tournament considerations arise. Teams with losing records can experiment in nonconference play, but teams that are part of the national scene cannot.

"It’s something I’m tossing around in my mind right now," said Taylor. "It is unique to find ourselves here with some serious concern about the RPI, and who to play….

"At the beginning of the year, I looked at these nonconference games as opportunities to [experiment]. Now, they’ve got added significance in terms of a national ranking. We have to be worried about that, so I can’t tell you how I’m going to deal with that."

(For a more detailed look at Princeton and Yale from an ECAC perspective, check out this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICKS: Merrimack sweeps, 5-3 over Princeton and 3-2 over Yale.

Yale (6-1-0, 5-1-0 ECAC) at

Providence College (7-3-0, 3-3-0 HEA)

Providence College (7-3-0, 3-3-0 HEA) at Princeton (5-2-2, 2-2-0 ECAC)

Friday, 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI Sunday, 5 p.m., Hobey Baker Memorial Rink, Princeton, New Jersey

Providence took two 5-3 games from UMass-Amherst on the weekend to extend its winning streak to six games. The Friars then, however, entered Thanksgiving with a 3-2 Tuesday night loss to Northeastern.

"It was great to win two," said coach Paul Pooley before the Tuesday downer. "At times we played very well; at times they outplayed us. Goaltending was big for us. Boyd [Ballard] played very well. Our specialty teams were also good. They were very close, competitive games that could have gone either way."

Mike Omicioli leads the Friar scoring with 11 points in the league and 17 overall.

"I knew coming in that it was his time to step to the forefront," said Pooley. "He worked very, very hard over the summer and was in the best shape of his life. He now realizes what he can do and how his game is based upon work ethic and being consistent. He’s done that for us so far and has obviously been our best player."

The 5-5 playmaker is one of just a couple players under six feet on a Providence roster dominated by redwoods.

"The thing is that he does not play small," said Pooley. "We have some guys who are six feet or above who don’t play as big as Michael. He’s strong, he gets in the corners, he’s good in traffic. When he’s playing his best hockey, he knows he’s six-two."

The Friars now prepare for Princeton and Yale.

"They are obviously very good teams with tremendous records," said Pooley. "I don’t know much about either one yet, but both play defensive hockey from what I understand. It’s going to be a very tough weekend for us."

(Yale and Princeton are profiled above and in greater detail in this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICKS: Providence 4-3 over Princeton and 2-1 over Yale.

Northeastern (5-5-1, 4-3-1 HEA) at UMass-Amherst (2-8-0, 0-6-0 HEA)

Saturday, 7 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

Northeastern battled Lowell last week, dropping a 3-2 Friday night affair before getting a point with a 3-3 tie on Saturday.

"It was ugly," said coach Bruce Crowder. "We were very inconsistent. I don’t think we executed well. I thought Friday night was probably, all in all, our better game. We just fell asleep out of the gate, [falling behind 3-0,] and just couldn’t make up the ground."

Graig Mischler earned Hockey East Rookie of the Week honors for his goal and assist to secure the tie.

"We didn’t expect a lot out of him," said Crowder. "I think the reason that he’s coming hard out of the gate is because he’s a kid who wasn’t heavily recruited. He wants to show some people that Graig Mischler can play hockey at the Division I level.

"He’s a kid who maybe because he didn’t have high expectations from us, got overlooked at times. But he just keeps battling. He shows us that he deserves to play."

The Huskies headed into Thanksgiving with a Tuesday night 3-2 victory over Providence to even its overall record at 5-5-1. With a 4-3-1 league mark, they now are tied with UMass-Lowell for second place. They could even vault into first with a win on Saturday.

All of which could lead a young team into overconfidence against UMass-Amherst, currently in last place and winless in the league. Northeastern plays the Minutemen the next three games.

"If we were a team that had a lot more than eight wins last year, I think we could do that," said Crowder. "But I think we know that we’re going into a hornet’s nest.

"They’re looking for numero uno. It’s not going to be easy. We’ve got three games in a row [with them]. We can actually make it very, very tough on UMass-Amherst, or we can give them hope.

"All that I know, is that we’ve got to have our guys ready, whether it’s Amherst or BU."

UMass-Amherst dropped two 5-3 games to Providence on the weekend, and then suffered a 3-2 overtime loss at home to Vermont. The loss to Vermont was perhaps the toughest of the season since the Minutemen carried a 2-1 lead into the final two minutes. A Catamount goal with 1:41 remaining, however, put the game into overtime and another strike 1:29 into the extra session gave Vermont the win.

"I honestly think we aren’t playing that bad," said coach Joe Mallen. "We’ve just got to find a way to win those games instead of losing them. The last goal was a long shot, about a 65- or 70-foot shot that cost us the game. I thought that up to that point, even up to the last couple minutes, that we had played a solid game overall. It was just one of those things."

Considering that Tim Lovell’s arrival had heightened expectations in Amherst, a sense of discouragement could begin to creep in over the team’s tough start. At this point, however, Mallen doesn’t see that problem arising.

"I think the guys in the locker room feel that we can win any game on any given night," he said. "Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of bad breaks early in the season. Hopefully, those will come back to us later in the season.

"The ideal thing now is just to keep our guys focused, so that night in and night out we’re ready to play because the way the league is right now, and even the way the non-league games are, we feel we can beat anybody on any given night. We just have to prove that."

This weekend opens the first of three games against Northeastern, the one team projected to finish lower than the Minutemen in the preseason coaches’ poll.

"Where they were predicted and where they are now are two different stories," said Mallen. "They’re more towards the middle of the pack right now. I just see the league as being extremely strong. I think that we have a good team and we know where we stand in the league right now.

"I see Northeastern as being a real good opponent. We’re in a situation where a win or a couple wins right now would turn us in the right direction. That’s what we have to look for on Saturday night."

PICK: The Huskies, as long as they don’t read their newspaper clippings too much, will prevail 4-3.

Okay, maybe only dinosaurs from the sixties can remember that phrase while wearing day-glow bellbottoms and saying, "Groovy!" But it sure fit last week’s action in Hockey East. Until the irresistible force met the immovable object last Sunday — in the form of Providence and UMass-Lowell facing each other after both teams won on Friday — not a single team avoided a split. Not BU taking on UNH. Not Maine hosting Merrimack. And not Boston College playing Northeastern.

Even on the national scene, the same trend held. The only top-ten team that won twice was new number one Michigan State, which swept Mankato State.

Maybe it’s that El Nino thing that CCHA Correspondent Paula Weston was writing about a couple weeks ago.

The Karhu Player of the Week was New Hampshire’s Derek Bekar, who returned from a hip pointer injury to score three goals and add an assist in the Wildcats’ series with BU.

Providence College’s Boyd Ballard repeats as the league’s Rookie of the Week, after winning both games and recording 38 saves against UMass-Lowell.

Last week’s record in picks: 8-4 New season’s record in picks: 42-16

No. 8 Boston College (7-2-0, 4-2-0 HE) at No. 9 Maine (5-3-1, 3-2-0 HE)

Friday, 7 p.m., Alfond Arena, Orono, ME Saturday, 7 p.m., Alfond Arena, Orono, ME No. 8 Boston College (7-2-0, 4-2-0 HE) at Brown (1-3-0, 1-3-0 ECAC)

Tuesday, 7 p.m., Meehan Auditorium, Providence, RI

Boston College almost kicked off an eight-games-in-16-days stretch with three wins. The operative word, of course, is almost. Sandwiched by a Friday night 5-2 win over Northeastern and a 4-3 comeback overtime victory over Harvard was the one that got away. On Saturday night, in the home half of a series with the Huskies, the Eagles outshot Northeastern 14-3, 13-3, 9-7 only to lose 5-4 on the only shot in overtime.

For BC goaltender Scott Clemmensen, surrendering five goals on 14 shots amounted to any netminder’s worst nightmare.

"The most difficult game for a goaltender to play in is one where you don’t face a lot of shots," said coach Jerry York. "It was a difficult game for Scott. The puck-luck was against him. There were some tips and some funny goals, but he’ll rebound and learn from that."

Of course, goaltending wasn’t the only factor in the loss.

"When you analyze the game, we made some critical mistakes, starting at about the middle mark of the third period when we took back-to-back penalties which enabled Northeastern to go on a five-on-three. That took what looked like an insurmountable 4-2 lead for us — based on the way the game was going — and put them right back in it at 4-3. Then we just had some puck-luck go against us.

"Northeastern hung tough and [their goaltender Marc] Robitaille kept them in the hockey game. It was very disappointing that we couldn’t secure a win in front of a very boisterous crowd here. But, all in all, I thought we played well in over 115 minutes of the series. So now we move on."

BC crowds, although irrelevant for this week, given two games in Orono and another in Providence, deserve mention. In recent years, Conte Forum has felt empty, with typically 2,000 to 3,000 in attendance (except for games against BU), leaving more empty seats than full. Not so anymore, it seems. Over 5,000 passed through the turnstiles on Saturday night.

"The crowds are reflecting the improvement in our team," said York. "We’re working awfully hard as a team and we have a lot of enthusiasm. We play a fun style to watch; we’re quick and we go end-to-end. I think as the winter goes on, we’re going to see significant improvement in the crowds."

The Eagles now stand atop Hockey East with eight points on a 4-2-0 league record, but three of the four teams at six points hold a game in hand. The fourth, BU, has two games in hand. Still, after the last few rebuilding years, "the first-place Boston College Eagles" is music to the ears of their fans.

"It’s certainly nice to be in the mix of teams," said York. "It’s very early in the year, but that’s our goal, to get in the mix of those top teams nationally. I think we’re well on our way to being there. We haven’t been there the last several years."

BC now travels to Orono for what used to be the toughest road trip in the league. With the Black Bears losing two of their last three home games, however, one has to wonder about the tarnished intimidation factor of Alfond Arena.

"Maine has certainly been a difficult team for us to match up with in past years," said York. "This particular year, I think going into it we feel we have a real good chance to do some things that we’ve never done against Maine before. It’s a tough test for any team to go up there and play, but we look forward to it more this year than we have in the past."

Maine lost the opener to Merrimack 5-4, before gaining the split 6-4.

After a poor performance by top goalie Alfie Michaud against BU one week earlier, coach Shawn Walsh started backup netminder Bryan Masotta on Friday, during which Masotta got a taste of Clemmensen’s medicine.

"In the second and third periods, we held [Merrimack] to 10 shots," said Walsh. "They got five goals and I couldn’t blame the goalie. They were just opportunistic."

Michaud, on the other hand, rebounded from his subpar performance one week earlier.

"Alfie played well on Saturday, especially when the game was close," said Walsh. "They were actually ahead 2-1 midway through the game, and we got three [goals] in a minute and seven seconds to break it open. But when it was 2-1, he made about three real good saves. If we’d gotten down by two, it might have gotten real difficult."

The goaltending picture for this weekend and beyond is unclear. "We’ll go on a week-to-week basis," said Walsh. "I’m not setting up a pattern yet."

After the Friday night loss, Walsh made some lineup changes and some of the new faces played well.

"We got a real lift from our fourth line [of Aaron Boone, Jim Leger and A.J. Begg]," said Walsh. "They’ll definitely be back in the lineup and Nate Ponitz played solidly on defense, which was something we needed."

Walsh hopes to get some of the walking wounded back this week, especially Cory Larose, who missed both Merrimack games. Regardless of who is in the lineup, however, Walsh is looking for stronger play.

"We have to play well defensively and really focus on our own game," he said. "We’ve just been uncharacteristically loose in our own zone. I would think it’s because of our inexperience, especially on defense, but both on defense and up front. It’s an area that we’ve just got to keep working on."

That defensive presence becomes even more important with BC’s Marty Reasoner invading Alfond Arena. Walsh doesn’t match lines, but will be aware of when Reasoner is on the ice.

"I’ll certainly have our best defensemen on the ice against him," said Walsh. "He’s a great player. What makes him a great player is not just his overall ability. It’s that he can finish himself. A lot of real good players aren’t natural finishers, but he seems to be."

After the big tilt in Orono, BC then travels down Route 95 for a midweek game against Brown, a team that has won just one of its first four contests, all one-goal games. The Bears could be a tougher opponent than their record would indicate, though, since all four teams they’ve faced have been among the ECAC’s hottest teams out of the chute.

Up front, they are led by Damian Prescott, Brown’s first 20-goal scorer since 1977. Prescott, however, has gotten off to a lukewarm start with only a goal and two assists. John DiRenzo (eight points) and Paul Giblin (five) have picked up the slack, while Jimmy Andersson and D.J. Harding are the top guns on the blue line.

Jeff Holowaty has played all four games in goal, posting a 4.17 goals-against average and a .877 save percentage.

(For a more detailed look at Brown from an ECAC perspective, check out this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICK: Either team could sweep, or there could be a split. How’s that for going out on a limb?

Hey, if meteorologists can predict a 50 percent chance of clear skies and a 50 percent chance of a foot of snow in your driveway, what’s wrong with a little college hockey equivocating?

In a choice that has been typed in, deleted and changed twice already, BC sweeps Maine, 5-4, 4-3. The Eagles then dominate Brown, 5-2.

Merrimack (5-4-0, 2-3-0 HE) vs. No. 5 New Hampshire (6-3-0, 2-3-0 HE) Friday, 7 p.m., Whittemore Center, Durham, NH

Saturday, 7 p.m., Volpe Complex, North Andover, MA

New Hampshire split its big series with BU, dominating at home 5-0 before Chris Drury proved the deciding factor in a 4-2 Terriers win.

"I figured they’d be ready to go after getting shut out last night," said Mark Mowers after the loss. "Playing down here is always tough. I think it’s the toughest rink in the league."

Fortunately for the Wildcats, they gave themselves the cushion of a win at the friendly confines of the Whittemore Center before entering BU’s lions’ den. A jubilant UNH crowd reveled in their team’s first shutout of the Terriers since 1934. If there’s a better advertisement in Hockey East for the exciting atmosphere of college hockey, this writer hasn’t seen it.

At BU’s Walter Brown Arena, tough rink that it is, the Wildcats played well, but simply couldn’t stop Drury, who scored on an end-to-end rush in which no one could even lay a hand him, and then added another great individual goal-scoring play.

"They’re a good team; we’re a good team," said coach Dick Umile. "We competed hard. We had an opportunity to get a jump on them of two games. Now it will come down to Dec. 12 [when the teams meet for the last time in the regular season].

"I’m just disappointed that we didn’t have a chance to win it…. but Drury won it with the big play. But I liked the way we competed."

Still, given UNH’s position going into the weekend, a split wasn’t exactly the worst thing in the world. They entered the weekend with a 1-2 league record and faced an undefeated team that had just smoked Maine 6-0 in Orono.

Now, the Wildcats take on Merrimack, a team they humiliated 11-4 one week earlier.

"We had the worst possible combination when we played them," said Merrimack coach Ron Anderson. "We played poorly and they played great. They’re a tough team to play even when you play at the top of your game. But we’ve regrouped and made a couple adjustments in game plan and strategy."

Those changes led to a Warrior split of their two-game set in Orono, winning 5-4 before dropping a 6-4 finale. Reflecting the thoughts of teams and fans throughout the region who fought through the snow and atrocious traffic to get to Friday night’s games, Anderson quipped, "It’s too early to have this much snow in the season."

Turning serious, he said, "I was happy to see us bounce back from a tough weekend. I thought we played pretty steady and I thought both games could have gone either way."

Among the changes made since the 11-4 debacle, Anderson shifted sophomore Chris Halecki from left wing on a line with Rejean Stringer and Kris Porter to center the third line with rookies Vince Clevenger and Ron Mongeau. Freshman Fred Nelson moved up to the Stringer line.

"We were trying to get a third line going," said Anderson. "Our third unit with Clevenger, Mongeau and another guy wasn’t working, so we wanted to try somebody else out there. I didn’t want to put Freddie there because I didn’t want three freshmen on a line.

"Chris played center and left wing for us last year, so the obvious move was to move Chris to center that line, moving Clevenger to right wing, which I wanted to take a look at anyways. He’s been playing center. So we put Chris in the middle and put Nelson with Porter and Stringer.

"There were three question marks. Could Clevenger play right wing? Would the line be effective with Halecki on it at center? And what would happen to our other line with Nelson on the left? So far, all three things have taken a turn for the positive."

The third line got going with a Clevenger goal while the Stringer line continued to flourish on the weekend: Nelson (one goal, two assists), Stringer (one goal, three assists) and Porter (three goals, one assist).

Stringer (12 points) and Porter (11 points) now lead Hockey East in league scoring, while their 17 points trails only Maine’s Steve Kariya (21 points) in overall scoring. Porter, perhaps the best-kept secret in Division I, leads the country in goals with 13.

Two names known to few outside the confines of the Merrimack campus — defensemen Chris Silvestro and Andrew Fox — combined to allow only one goal on the weekend.

"That’s another area that we were apprehensive about, in that we graduated two starters last year and didn’t bring anybody in," said Anderson. "But we also felt that we had ten in our program last year, which left us with eight, and we felt that of the eight there were certainly six that could play. It would just be a matter of which six would step to the plate.

"Chris and Andrew have been paired together all year and have played well for us. We’re reasonably satisfied with their performance and that held true again this weekend. They played pretty steady for us all weekend long."

Maine coach Shawn Walsh, for one, was very impressed with the Merrimack squad after the split with his ninth-ranked Black Bears. Having administered some of the worst beatings inflicted on the Warriors in past years, he offered this perspective on Merrimack’s apparent coming of age as a significant Division I program.

"I thought Merrimack was a very, very good team," said Walsh. "They are the most dangerous Merrimack team, and the best Merrimack team, I have seen in the league.

"They are extremely good up front. Oh boy, they are good. And they’re experienced. Any one of those six guys [on the top two lines] can score at any time. They showed it in the second and third periods the first night, when we held them to 10 shots and they got five goals, and I couldn’t blame the goalie. They were just opportunistic and they were good at it."

With wins over nationally-ranked Boston College and Maine, Merrimack has taken major strides toward becoming a legitimate factor in the Hockey East race.

"I thought we took a step forward last year about halfway through the year," said Anderson. "It took a lot longer than any of the coaches had thought it would take, but very seldom do you see any program take that step forward very quickly. It took us five or six years, but we think we’re getting there.

"It also is cyclical. All you have to do is look around the different leagues and see teams that have been at the top and aren’t there anymore. So you have to constantly be looking for today and tomorrow at the same time.

"But we’d like to think — we have our fingers crossed — that we’ve bridged that gap now and made ourselves a legitimate Division I program. Obviously, it’s up to us to keep it there now."

To keep the momentum rolling, the Warriors now need to pick up some points from the same UNH team that steamrollered them two weeks earlier.

"We’re hoping to have some real solid efforts this weekend," said Anderson. "It’s going to take a near-perfect performance by us to make a game of it because they are so powerful. But that’s the objective, to try to get perfect performances every night out."

PICK: This has all the looks of a split to it. Beating a team 11-4 acts as an open invitation to overconfidence. And Merrimack has proven it can take on the big boys and win.

However, some Merrimack fans have pointed out that the Warriors have performed best when this column has picked them to lose, while most of their disappointments have been in games they’ve been picked to win.

As a result, a generous donation to the Dave Hendrickson Slush Fund has prompted the following prediction: UNH sweeps, 11-4, 11-4.

I can’t be bought, but I can be rented.

P.S. Forget the money-back guarantee.

Brown (1-3-0, 1-3-0 ECAC) and Harvard (1-3-1, 1-2-1 ECAC) vs. No. 2 Boston University (5-1-0, 3-1-0 HE)

Friday, 7 p.m., Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA

Tuesday, 7 p.m., Bright Hockey Center, Cambridge, MA

Boston University picked up its first loss of the season with a 5-0 stinker against UNH, but came back with a 4-2 win back at home, fueled by two outstanding Chris Drury goals.

"We were so out of sync [on Friday] that we didn’t change the lines and we didn’t want to blame anybody," said coach Jack Parker. "I don’t mean to take anything away from UNH. They played great. If we played real well, we would have lost 4-2 or 5-2. They played terrific, but we didn’t play, especially after our demise on the power play when they scored two shorthanded goals. We just didn’t seem to have our legs.

"We made one mistake. Unfortunately, we made it over and over again. We simply refused to hit anyone."

Parker had a simple message for his troops.

"Boys," he told them, "Put this one behind you. You had a lousy night. Don’t think it was somebody else’s fault. Look in the mirror. You didn’t play well."

The Terriers, as a whole, rebounded and Drury came to the rescue.

"When you see him game in and game out," said Parker, "you realize that this kid is really special because of skill coupled with unbelievable work ethic and competitive spirit.

"If you could watch him in practice, he pisses everybody off in practice because he works so hard…. If you woke him up at three o’clock in the morning and said, ‘We’re going over to the skating club for a pickup game,’ he’d beat you to the loose puck there. And if he didn’t, he’d bounce you and then he’d take it away. That’s just the way he is."

Drury also drew plaudits for his work in his own zone.

"Chris played fabulous defensively," said Parker. "He got two goals tonight, but his best plays were defensive plays."

Parker also singled out Drury’s left wing for strong play on Saturday.

"Tommi Degerman had an unbelievable night," he said. "He played great defensively and played great killing penalties. He was snakebitten when [UNH goaltender Sean] Matile made some great saves off him, but he made a couple fabulous passes as well."

Another Chris, Chris Heron, returns from a shoulder separation suffered in the Ice Breaker Invitational. With Heron an integral part of the up front depth, his injury worried many BU fans who wondered if the Drury line alone could carry the team, with a goal or two tossed in by the kids. Although BU’s resulting 5-1-0 record is none too shabby, his addition to the lineup is a welcome one.

"Even though he’s still the youngest guy on the team — younger than all our freshmen — he gives us a year’s experience, he gives us a lot of skating ability and he’s a lot stronger this year," said Parker. "He’s an important player and we’ll get some ice for him. He’ll kill some penalties, he’ll play some power play and we’ll play him on a regular line."

BU now takes on nonconference foes Brown and Harvard.

"This time last year," said Parker, "we really fell on our face with a tie at Yale and losses at Clarkson and St. Lawrence. We’re trying to impress upon the guys to get after it in the non-league games as well as the league games and make sure we’re ready to play. That will be the theme for this week’s practices as we get four straight against the ECAC."

Brown is profiled briefly above.

Harvard is coming off a tough 4-3 overtime loss to BC on Tuesday. The Crimson held a 3-1 lead going into the third, but gave up two power-play goals to knot the score. BC won it with 29 seconds left in overtime.

Trevor Allman, Henry Higdon and defenseman Ben Storey lead the Crimson offense, but freshman left wing Chris Bala is the hot hand with two goals against BC.

Senior captain and defenseman Jeremiah McCarthy has missed several games with an injury.

Goaltender J.R Prestifilippo’s stats are off from last year’s stellar numbers that earned him ECAC Rookie of the Year honors. He is now posting a 3.69 goals-against average and an .871 save percentage.

(For a more detailed look at Brown and Harvard from an ECAC perspective, check out this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICKS: No letdown here. BU 5-2 over Brown and 4-2 over Harvard.

Northeastern (4-4-0, 3-2-0 HE) vs. UMass-Lowell (5-3-0, 3-2-0 HE)

Friday, 7 p.m., Tully Forum, Lowell, MA

Saturday, 7 p.m., Matthews Arena, Boston, MA

UMass-Lowell traveled to Amherst, but didn’t arrive until after game time due to the inclement weather and driving conditions. Unfazed, the River Hawks jumped out to a 4-1 lead after the delayed start. The Minutemen came back to tie it in the third, but a Mike Nicholishen goal with 33 seconds left in overtime squeaked out the win.

The win gave the school its first Alumni Cup, bestowed on the winner of the season’s series between the two sister schools. UMass-Amherst won the Cup the first two years.

Lowell continued to get big contributions from rookies Jeffrey Boulanger, who scored twice, and Brad Rooney and Nick Carso, who both assisted on two goals.

"We came into the season knowing that we were going to have a lot of freshmen and sophomores," said Nicholishen. "We wanted them to feel like part of the team right away. There were no class differences and now a lot of our freshmen are contributing."

Boulanger, in particular, is hot, having scored five goals in the last two weeks.

"He’s doing real well," said coach Tim Whitehead. "I’m really pleased with how he’s coming along. Anyone who had any questions about his skating [could see how he did on] the Olympic-sized sheet. We’re very happy with the way he’s come around."

The River Hawks then faced off against Providence in a Sunday afternoon battle. Last year, PC swept the regular season series only to fall to Lowell in the Hockey East quarterfinals.

"There’s a little bit of a rivalry between us and Providence," said Nicholishen. "Year in and year out, one team seems to dominate the other. Last year, they had our number, but we came back pretty well in the playoffs.

"I think they remembered. You don’t forget things like that.

"It’s never a pretty game between Providence and us. Both teams play the same style. We have to be defensive-minded at all times and that slows it down."

Special teams pushed this contest in the Providence win column, as the Friars jumped out to a 5-0 lead and coasted to a 5-3 win. The Friars scored on three of their five power play chances, while Lowell only scored twice in 12 chances.

"The difference in the game is that they capitalized on their power play and we didn’t," said Whitehead. "It doesn’t take much to figure that one out. We had a ton of opportunities. They took quite a few penalties…. We moved the puck reasonably well, but just couldn’t seem to get it past the goal line."

The River Hawks next play a home-and-home series with Northeastern, but will have to play the first game without reigning Rookie of the Year and top scorer Greg Koehler, who received a dubious major disqualification in the loss to Providence.

The Northeastern Huskies have mastered the fine art of winning games in which they are outshot by a large margin. They did it two weeks ago against Merrimack (outshot 48-27) and they did it again to Boston College last week (outshot 36-14). As a result, the Rope-a-Dope experts have fashioned a 4-4-0 record after being predicted to finish in the cellar.

"[That win] gave us an idea of what we’re all about," said coach Bruce Crowder. "It was a great learning experience, a great growing-up experience. It was one of those games that, to win in overtime no matter how ugly it was from the video standpoint, it was still a win. That’s great for our kids.

"For forty minutes, they totally outplayed us and it was basically [goaltender Marc] Robitaille keeping us in the game. Things were a little more even in the third period and we did make the most of our opportunities."

Chief among those made opportunities was scoring three power-play goals in six chances. Prior to the game, the Huskies had scored in only five of 39 man advantage chances, and even with the three goals, rank at only a 17.8 overall percentage, next to last in the league. Is the power-play unit coming around?

"It’s too early to tell," said Crowder, "but at the same time, it’s nice to see a little success in what we’re working on. It’s an area that still needs drastic improvement."

Northeastern’s top three freshman defensemen, John Peterman, Mike Jozefowicz and Arik Engbrecht, are making significant contributions in both ends. Peterman and Jozefowicz each scored a goal and added an assist in the win over BC.

"We knew they had some offensive skill when we brought them in here," said Crowder. "As I’ve said before, all in all, we’re not going to be successful scoring two goals a game.

"It was nice to see us explode a little in the third period against BC and we also did that against Merrimack a week ago. So three out of our four wins we were able to pull out in the third period. We didn’t do that at all over 36 games last year."

The Huskies now have an opportunity for revenge against a Lowell club that used five third-period goals to dismantle them two weeks ago, 7-2.

"The biggest thing is that we went in there and got embarrassed," said Crowder. "So the key factor is having a little pride and showing better than we did the last time we were in there."

PICKS: Both teams win at home, 5-3 at Lowell and 5-4 at Northeastern.

Providence College (5-2-0, 1-2-0 HE) vs. UMass-Amherst (2-5-0, 0-4-0 HE)

Friday, 7 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

Saturday, 7 p.m., Schneider Arena, Providence, RI

Providence was the only Hockey East team to win two games in the Splitsville weekend. After opening the season with losses in two of the first three Friar games, they have rebounded with four straight wins. Until Sunday’s game against Lowell, however, none of the wins came in Hockey East contests.

"This was a huge game for us, because we were 0-2 in Hockey East," said Mike Omicioli, whose four assists earned him number-one star. "To pull this one off was a real confidence-builder. We’re 5-2 now, we’re looking strong, and we just have a lot of confidence. We’re a young team, and that’s what we need."

The Friars remembered that Lowell had put them out of playoffs last year, a time of the year when they had grown accustomed to success.

"You always think about that because that hurt last year," said Omicioli. "We know they’re a team just like us. Not a powerhouse, but a good team. A steady team. We knew that if we came out flat, we’d be in trouble."

Freshman Boyd Ballard, who earned his second straight Rookie of the Week billing, made 38 saves, holding Lowell off the board until the third period when PC had a 5-0 lead. For Ballard, who also tended the nets in a 5-4 win over Army, it has been a relatively smooth introduction into Division I college play.

"It’s a little faster," he said, making a comparison to his days in junior hockey, "but most of all it’s the traffic. Against UMass-Lowell, it seemed like their forwards were huge and they were always in front of the net. It seems like you’re fighting to see every point shot out there."

Pooley had originally intended to play incumbent Mark Kane in goal against Army, and hasn’t conceded the job to Ballard yet.

"I have a lot of confidence in Mark Kane and I have a lot of confidence in Ballard," he said. "We’ll take it week-to-week, but Boyd certainly has elevated himself into being a goalie that can win the games. He hasn’t lost yet this year and he seems to find a way to win hockey games."

The Friars’ next face UMass-Amherst in a home-and-home series, during which they’ll miss freshman defenseman Jay Leach for the opener because of a borderline disqualification in the game against Lowell.

The Minutemen suffered a frustrating loss at home to UMass-Lowell, falling behind 4-1 only to rally back to send the game into overtime. With 33 seconds left in the extra session, however, Lowell got the game-winner.

"We didn’t come out very strong in the first period," said coach Joe Mallen, "but we played a heckuva game after that. We came back from being down three goals and tied it up and had a great chance to win it late in the game, but it didn’t happen."

The Minutemen rebounded with a non-league 4-1 win over Union.

"I thought we did a nice job coming back the next night and being ready to play," said Mallen. "It was a good win to bounce back with."

In both weekend games, Mallen played seven rookies who gave solid contributions, as did Dean Campanale, who scored twice against Union.

"We infused some freshmen into the lineup," said Mallen. "They played with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of energy. That helped to open up some other opportunities and Dean Campanale, who scored a fair number of goals his sophomore year and kind of was snakebitten his junior year, came out with two goals and just looked like a different player."

In facing Providence, UMass-Amherst takes on a team it beat two out of three times last year.

"They’re always a good team and a good program," said Mallen. "They’re well-coached. I’m sure it’s going to be a grudge match. They’re getting scoring from a variety of people and with the scores being the way they are in Hockey East right now, every game is a 50-50 battle, no matter who’s playing. This weekend should be about the same."

PICKS: Watching Omicioli and Tim Lovell do battle on the Olympic sheet at the Mullins Center should be a treat. Providence ekes out a 5-4 win on the road and completes the sweep at home, 4-2, for its sixth straight win.

Providence College (5-2-0, 1-2-0 HE) at

Northeastern (4-4-0, 3-2-0 HE)

Tuesday, 7 p.m., Matthews Arena, Boston, MA

(Both teams are profiled above.)

PICK: The two hard-nosed teams go toe-to-toe. Robitaille steals another one for the Huskies, 3-2.

Vermont (0-3-1, 1-6-1 ECAC) at UMass-Amherst (2-5-0, 0-4-0 HE)

Tuesday, 7 p.m., Mullins Center, Amherst, MA

Vermont took it on the chin last week, losing 7-0 to Colgate before stopping the bleeding with a surprising 1-1 tie against No. 6 Cornell.

Goaltender Andrew Allen, who had a brutal game before getting yanked against Colgate, stopped 22 of 23 Cornell shots.

Freshman defenseman Andreas Moborg, Stephane Piche and Eric Lundin lead the scoring for the rebuilding Catamounts.

(For a more detailed look at Vermont from an ECAC perspective, check out this week’s ECAC Preview.)

PICK: The Minutemen all the way, 4-1.