Hockey East Puckbag: Three teams in the tourney? Don't doubt it yet

As of this week, a whopping four Hockey East satellites constitute a part of every relevant Top 10 leaderboard, from USCHO to USA Today to the PairWise system.

To be sure, there is nothing wrong with getting a little giddy over that if you are an East Coast zealot. After all, ever since the NCAA tournament upgraded to its current eight-team bracket in 2005, Hockey East has but twice sent more than one ambassador (Boston College in 2007 and 2009). Conversely, the overprivileged WCHA has all but distributed lifetime passports to its Big Three in Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, and Wisconsin.

But for whatever the PairWise Rankings are worth, at this rate there is quite a bit more to be done if any Hockey East fan is to dream realistically of sending more than two representatives to the Elite Eight –which frankly can only be made possible if one of the western giants takes a nasty dive or if enough eastern parties just obscure them in their respective stretch drives.

Based on all of the current rankings, New Hampshire would be a shoo-in (what else is new?) while either Connecticut or Northeastern might not even need to rely on the automatic bid if the Wildcats were to win their fifth consecutive pennant. But newly ranked Providence and even the Hub Huskies (currently No. 9 under the PairWise eyes) need to keep up their heat in order to tip the scale.

Regardless, merely having the potential to send multiple parties –and some who would be new to the dance at that- should be enough to instill excitement. After all, this is a league that has not so much as had one of its teams in the national championship game.

· Election Day must not be as momentous as people often dish it up to be. This past Tuesday night, while a special race to fill a void in the Massachusetts Senate was being decided, college hockey fans in the Commonwealth carried on with watching their midweek games, including a BC-BU women’s clash at Walter Brown Arena. When that game was originally scheduled, no one was even sure that an election was going to take place that night. Yet all nonpolitical business went on as planned.

· Up to this point, Northeastern has been involved in more one-goal decisions than any of their conference cohabitants, going 6-4 in such games.

· Providence and Boston College, raring to square off in a home-and-home set this weekend, had identical records both before (5-7-6) and after (5-7-7) their previous meeting back on December 11. Now look at them.

· Assuming she suits up, this Saturday’s visit to PC will make career game No. 125 for Eagles’ defender Shannon Webster.

· The Friars played before their largest home audience of the season (408) in last Sunday’s 3-2 victory over New Hampshire, yet Schneider Arena still holds the WHEA’s lowest average head count of spectators with 191. Even stranger, discounting UNH –which had that one game at a reasonably packed Fenway Park- Providence is the best road draw in the league with a median of 401 fans per game.

· How come nobody plays the Gear Daddies’ “Zamboni Song” during intermissions anymore?

· For that matter, why is it that whenever this author types the very word “Zamboni” in his Word document, it is marked as if spelled incorrectly? The darn thing has been a household hockey name for six decades. Must be general American negligence of the game.

· Two-way senior Jackie Thode, who for the longest time was Vermont’s only constituent with a positive plus/minus rating, recently dipped to an even rate, where she is thus tied for the team lead with sophomore forward Channing Ahbe.

· On the flipside to that, every single player on the Connecticut roster is either even or in the black under the plus/minus heading. Not even almighty New Hampshire or first-place Northeastern can boast such a claim at this time.

· With her four-point performance last weekend, enough to earn her a Player of the Week laurel, PC junior Jean O’Neill upped her season totals to 7-13-20, already making this a career year for her. Similarly, linemate Alyse Ruff is one goal or helper away from going beyond the 20-point mark for the first time in her career.

· All struggles aside, Vermont can claim it is the only team left in the league with a perfect record when leading after either the first (3-0-0) or second period (6-0-0). A few other teams have yet to lose in either scenario, but have occasionally been forced to settle for a tie.

· Who would have thought we’d ever see someone allow more opposing shots than Maine? Whereas the Black Bears have cut down a little on the goalies’ workload for a nightly median of 30.8 shots-against, BC just barely exceeds that with 31.2.

· Six out of the eight Hockey East teams have been at the top of their offensive touch in the middle of their games, scoring more cumulative goals in the second period than in the opening or closing frame.

· For all of the overtimes we have seen this season, UConn, UNH, and UVM all have yet to experience either side of sudden death. Everyone else has either had one OT win or one OT loss, not both.