A couple weeks ago, I looked back on the weekend’s games by grouping teams into Winners and Losers with a few intermediate levels in between. This time, let’s see if ranking the performances gives any better clarity.<\/p>\n
1. Massachusetts<\/strong><\/p>\n The Minutemen got a much-needed first win last Tuesday over Vermont and continued with a second against Quinnipiac. You can’t beat two-for-two. More on UMass in Wednesday’s column. (A shameless plug, true.)<\/p>\n 2. Providence<\/strong><\/p>\n The Friars only played one game and that was a nonconference tilt against Holy Cross, but they took care of business and that’s all you can ask. They’re now one game over .500 overall.<\/p>\n 3. Merrimack<\/strong><\/p>\n The Warriors defeated Boston College to take the season series before losing, 2-1, to New Hampshire. They’re now in fourth place with a 2-2-2 record against the BC\/BU\/UNH three-headed monster. Anyone want to claim now that they don’t belong in the national rankings? If so, step forward and collect your dunce cap.<\/p>\n 4. New Hampshire<\/strong><\/p>\n While the Wildcats did play some pretty atrocious team defense against Brown, resulting in the need for a miraculous two goals in the final two minutes to pull out a tie, they rebounded with a nice 2-1 win over Merrimack. A win in Hockey East and a tie outside of the conference isn’t too shabby.<\/p>\n 5. Northeastern<\/strong><\/p>\n The Huskies tied Vermont, giving them a win and two ties in their last three games. After a really tough start, that’s some major-league progress.<\/p>\n 6. Maine<\/strong><\/p>\n Sometimes it’s better not to play at all.<\/p>\n 7. Boston University<\/strong><\/p>\n Like the Wildcats, BU had to settle for a nonconference tie against Brown. A bit disappointing for the nation’s number two team but no reason to hide the sharp objects.<\/p>\n 8. Boston College <\/strong><\/p>\n More hot-and-cold games from the Eagles. A loss at Merrimack followed by a win over Vermont. You just know better times are ahead, but then again, that’s what you were telling yourself weeks ago.<\/p>\n 9. Vermont<\/strong><\/p>\n The Catamounts lost to UMass (last Tuesday), tied Northeastern, and lost to BC. One out of six points isn’t going to get it done.<\/p>\n 10. Massachusetts-Lowell<\/strong> <\/p>\n The River Hawks lost twice at Minnesota-State, extending their losing streak to five games and dropping to 2-10-2 overall. Hey, it’s a young, rebuilding team and we knew there’d be times like this. Fortunately, the two wins are within Hockey East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A couple weeks ago, I looked back on the weekend’s games by grouping teams into Winners and Losers with a few intermediate levels in between. This time, let’s see if ranking the performances gives any better clarity. 1. Massachusetts The Minutemen got a much-needed first win last Tuesday over Vermont and continued with a second […]<\/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":[1425],"tags":[1236,1490],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n