believes<\/em> is going to have success.<\/p>\n“I’m excited. We’ve taken care of two things that we wanted to coming into the season: getting in the playoffs and getting home ice.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got more goals on the table, and what we’ve done is give ourselves an opportunity to go after those goals.”<\/p>\n
Dennehy held Da Costa out of Saturday’s contest as a precautionary measure since the Warriors clinched home ice on Friday, but harbors no concerns that his leading scorer will be anything less than 100 percent. Da Costa scored a goal and added two assists on Friday, his only game played in the last seven.<\/p>\n
“Ask anybody that was at the game on Friday how he played,” Dennehy says. “It’s amazing to me how quickly he acclimated himself back to the game. He hadn’t played in three weeks and arguably was the best player on the ice again, which is usually the case.<\/p>\n
“I think it would have been irresponsible of me to come back with him on Saturday after not playing [for so long], but he’s ready to go.”<\/p>\n
Dennehy isn’t worried at all about the lopsided losses to Maine (without Da Costa) two weekends ago. He sees no psychological advantage for either team.<\/p>\n
“We also played them [a few] weeks before that and beat them here, 7-1,” he says. “For me it comes down to who can spin it the best, which coach.<\/p>\n
“All those games are irrelevant. They don’t play any part in what’s going to go on. What you’re going to have on Friday, Saturday and potentially Sunday are two very good teams that are playing for the right to get to the Boston Garden.”<\/p>\n
Same thing, Dennehy figures, for the playoff experience edge Maine can boast of, having taken BC to overtime last year in the championship game.<\/p>\n
“It’s what you can get your guys to believe,” he says. “My team, the majority of the season, has been very business-like in their approach to this.<\/p>\n
“If there’s been anything that has changed potentially is maybe we got away from business-as-usual the last couple of weeks, but that’s what this week is going to be about, getting back to business. It’s incumbent on me to make sure that’s how we approach this.”<\/p>\n
On the other side of the ice, Maine enters the postseason on all cylinders, having rebounded from a six-game winless stretch to finish 6-0-1 in the last seven.<\/p>\n
During the tough times, the Black Bears were giving up goals by the bushel, including 18 in one three-game stretch. However, goaltender Dan Sullivan returned from injury and posted three straight shutouts and allowed only a singleton in the fourth game, giving Maine fans reason to believe their team wouldn’t have to win a succession of shootouts in the playoffs. Of some concern, though, are the seven goals allowed to UMass last weekend.<\/p>\n
“It was important to get Dan back in the lineup and we’re pleased that we’ve improved defensively,” coach Tim Whitehead said. “We took a bit of a step back this past weekend so we need to sharpen up against a great opponent in Merrimack. But team defense has made the difference down the stretch for us.”<\/p>\n
Like Dennehy, Whitehead downplays the significance of the recent sweep over Merrimack.<\/p>\n
“It’s over,” he says. “This is a new season and I certainly don’t have any false illusions that the scores are going to be anything like that this weekend at their rink. We know it’s going to be a very difficult challenge for us. Merrimack is one of the top teams in the league.<\/p>\n
“We’re coming in as underdogs, and that’s where we deserve to be. We’re just going to have to ratchet it up and again play great team defense and get our share of goals against a great goalie. We know we’ve got our hands full. Those regular season games aren’t going to carry any weight at this point in time.”<\/p>\n
The experience gained last year in taking the eventual national champions to overtime in the Hockey East title game may prove useful, but the Black Bears may have to get to the Garden before that comes into play.<\/p>\n
“Certainly we’re going to draw on every bit of experience that we have,” Whitehead says. “We had a successful run in the playoffs last year, but we hosted that first round against Lowell.<\/p>\n
“We did play well at the Garden against BU and BC, so for sure we hope that that helps our team, but the things that are out of our control, we can’t worry about.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got a tough challenge here, but we also know that we’re playing pretty good hockey at this point in the year. But that can change quickly when you face a great opponent like Merrimack. We’re going to just focus on ourselves, our effort, our execution and prepare ourselves for the challenge.”<\/p>\n
Unlike Merrimack, Maine has to at least get to the Garden if not win out to secure an invitation to the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n
“We understand that,” Whitehead says. “That’s exactly where we were at last year in the season. We assumed we’d have to win the Hockey East tournament championship in order to get into the national tournament.<\/p>\n
“So we’ve been in that situation before. We understand that we need to win out to keep advancing and it’s going to be on the road from here on in. We understand that and are preparing for that challenge and looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n
My picks for the major awards<\/h4>\n Player of the year<\/strong>: Paul Thompson (UNH) and Cam Atkinson (BC), tie<\/p>\nI’m going to be a weenie here and pick a tie because there’s so little to pick between these two stars. In Hockey East games, Thompson (23-19–42) does have a few more points than Atkinson (24-14–38), but in my mind the BC junior closes that gap with his league-leading four short-handed goals to none for Thompson.<\/p>\n
Both players are deserving. It’s too close to call in my book.<\/p>\n
Rookie of the year<\/strong>: Michael Pereira, Massachusetts<\/p>\nBU’s Charlie Coyle might get the nod and he does have one more league point on a 6-15–21 scoring line than \nPereira (10-10–20), but nine of those points have come on the power play to only two for the UMass freshman. Similarly, Merrimack’s Mike Collins picked up 12 of his 19 points on the man advantage.<\/p>\n
I’ll go with the guy who’s gotten his points the hard way.<\/p>\n
Coach of the year<\/strong>: Mark Dennehy, Merrimack<\/p>\nThere is no runner up. As I wrote a few weeks back, it’s time for drug testing of Hockey East coaches if Dennehy isn’t a unanimous choice.<\/p>\n
My last column of the year<\/h4>\n There’s one more column this year before we switch to a different format previewing the NCAA tournament. Next week’s column is Jim Connelly’s.<\/p>\n
So I just want to thank all you readers for your attention. Thanks also to my superhuman wife Brenda for the transcribing and the patience.<\/p>\n
If you want to follow the progress of my book Cracking the Ice<\/em> and my other writing efforts, please bookmark my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The featured teams this week are Merrimack and Maine. The two will square off in what typically is the most gripping series of the quarterfinals. But to heighten the suspense — you can’t stand it, right? — we’ll go from top to bottom. No. 1 Boston College hosts No. 8 Massachusetts Could BC possibly be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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