Beyond the Dashers News: Hockey East report: Week of January 25

Backcheck
While Northeastern slept –or, more accurately, took care of business in an interleague sweep of Niagara- the peerlessly buoyant Providence Friars pole-vaulted into first place in Hockey East upon lashing the luckless Boston College Eagles, 6-3, at Conte Forum Sunday afternoon.

Make no mistake, with a mere six points separating the top seed from the sixth and no reliable clairvoyants specializing in the outcomes of athletic contests, this can still be the Great Year of Parity everyone promised for the month that remains in the playoff race. But based on the PC-BC series, along with other specimens from recent league action, the hot and the cold are becoming increasingly distinct in this league.

In Part I of this weekend’s set, BC’s protracted winless slump and PC’s nearly two-month-old unbeaten thrill ride were about as close as they have been to termination. The Eagles garnered a rare overtime power play with a 1-1 draw at hand and 2:39 to spare in the bite-sized bonus round.

But upon getting through their eighth penalty kill of the day unscathed, the Friars dexterously flipped the poisoned arrow. And within eight seconds of teammate Abby Gauthier’s jailbreak, junior A-captain Jean O’Neill snapped home the game-winner with 30.2 seconds left, salvaging the win streak at the age of six games.

The Eagles, who on Saturday had failed to spark their ignition on 17 first period shots, did not threaten again until they trailed, 3-0, after 40 minutes in Sunday’s rematch. Riding another wave of carbonated desperation, they owned the third period shooting gallery, 18-7, and lured the ordinarily disciplined Friars into seven penalties, capitalizing on three of their ensuing power plays.

Problem was, Providence was too apt to respond whenever their lead was infringed upon. Freshman Jessie Vella made it a 4-1 differential within five minutes of Blake Bolden’s icebreaker for the Eagles. Then, less than four minutes after Allie Thunstrom tuned the mesh, Ashley Cottrell and Alyse Ruff each connected 18 seconds apart to sculpt a commanding 6-2 edge with a mere 3:29 left.

And so, when the ice chips settled on yet another fierce, penalty-stocked showdown, the Friars were still on a distinctive seven-game winning streak and 8-0-2 in their last 10 ventures. Conversely, the Eagles have now lost four straight and are 0-6-3 since their last victory, way back on December 4.

***
In a simple lab study, one need only pronounce the Connecticut-Maine storyline a variation on the Providence-Boston College saga. In wake of a 4-1 decision Friday and a 2-1 final Saturday, Heather Linstad pupils remain one of only five Division I teams in the nation still undefeated in the year 2010. And, save for a not-so-shabby 2-1 loss to mighty Harvard in early December, they are 10-1-2 since Thanksgiving.

The Black Bears? They’ve been running on a dollar-a-day offense ever since they resumed regular season play, scoring merely one goal in each of their last three games. Not even a seamlessly celestial second period via goaltender Brittany Ott on Saturday could transfer effective inspiration.

Deadlocked at 1-1 through the first period, the Huskies would run up a 17-6 shooting edge within the middle frame, and that was after Maine had taken five of the period’s first six stabs.

Translation: in a matter of 11 minutes, Ott had to deal with 16 UConn pelts, eight of which came within one measly power play. And that wasn’t a major or a double-minor or even a five-on-three the Mainers were killing in that segment.

Yet Ott managed to keep the 1-1 score unchanged for another Zamboni tour. But much like the innocent wife/mother whose household labor is too often taken for granted, she would get diddlysquat in return. Casey Knajdek ultimately inserted the decider in favor of Connecticut with 6:53 gone in the third and Huskies’ stopper Alex Garcia only had to repel three sparsely distributed attempts to renew the knot.

***
Boston University has but once managed to concoct a pair of consecutive victories this season, and unluckily for them, the Vermont Catamounts made it plain on Friday that they have enough problems of their own. Thus, the Terriers’ endeavor to build on their midweek 3-1 clipping of rival Boston College was warped in overtime when Peggy Wakeham let a low rider slither from the slot, through a forest of bodies, and behind goaltender Melissa Haber, giving Vermont a direly-needed 2-1 win.

Granted, BU bit back on Saturday in the form of a 3-2 triumph. But even there, the last-place Catamounts submitted another one of their scoresheets that wasn’t so tough on the eyes of a sensitive fan. They took as many shots as they allowed (19-19), killed all seven of their penalties, and twice sawed into a two-goal deficit, including a strike by Emily Walsh at 12:20 of the third period, merely nine ticks after Laurel Koller had pedaled her Terriers’ ahead, 3-1.

On the flipside, the Terriers can pride themselves on their own PK performance. Though still the worst in the league in that category, BU confined the Catamounts to a cumulative five shots on seven power plays and founded their initial 2-0 lead on a pair of shorthanded goals in the first period.

When needed, though, freshman goalie Alissa Fromkin made the important saves en route to her first collegiate win.

***
Try and digest this through your mind: out of three tries thus far, the New Hampshire Wildcats have yet to win a game in 2010 with a roof over their heads.

And in fact, albeit in a sparsely distributed fashion dating back to November 7, the team that was once revered for its invincibility against conference cohabitants has whiffed on its last four shots at a Hockey East home win. They have dropped two age-old streak-snapping decisions in regulation to Providence and lost a pair of shootouts to Boston University and now, as of last Wednesday, Northeastern.

No better time, therefore, for a rare respite. The Cats happened to be idle over the weekend and will resume play this Friday when they pay a two-night visit to Maine.

“We’re having a January blah and we didn’t have a lot of jump the first two periods and just made a couple of really reckless mistakes,” said head coach Brian McCloskey on his program’s YouTube channel in the aftermath of Wednesday’s falter, where he acclaimed his offense for twice beating Swiss Save-ior Florence Schelling, but cited his defense for failing to preserve the lead.

“(But) we’ve got 10 days off,” he continued. “We just need to regroup and find a way to get back on track.

“You can always find excuses. I think the bottom line is, mentally, we just aren’t coming ready to play right out of the gate, and we just need to refocus.”

Let that be a fair warning to the rest of the league. Their struggles aside, UNH still has three league games in hand on both first-place Providence and second-place Northeastern, each of whom they trail by no more than six points. If they can refreeze the caulk in their borders and reignite their scoring touch, the Wildcats can still get back to picking on everybody at the most crucial time possible.

Forecheck
The only two unopened season series will finally see action this week when Boston University drops in on Northeastern this Tuesday and Providence reels in Vermont for a Friday night tilt.

As has been stressed to no limit, the playoff picture is anything but a finished product. But from a Catamounts’ standpoint, two things are already certain. First place is already mathematically out of the question. One more loss and second place will be, too. But three more losses will formally rule them out from the postseason altogether.

The pressure doesn’t get any more lenient when one remembers that Vermont is tuning up this week for a Southern New England road trip, where they will confront the league’s hottest two teams –PC and UConn- on back-to-back nights in hostile buildings.

Meanwhile, seventh-place Maine isn’t quite as desperate just yet. But they have a two-game home series versus a retooling New Hampshire team on tap. The hockey gods only know what sort of tempest could result if the perennially plebeian Black Bears can make like the Romans and inflict another scar on the suddenly less almighty Wildcats –who if uninhibited hereafter could still cruise to another regular season crown.

Weekly Scoreboard
Tuesday, January 19
Boston University 3, Boston College 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_bu_1.j19
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/011910aaa.html

Wednesday, January 20
Northeastern 3, New Hampshire 2 (SO)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wnoeunh1.j20
http://gonu.com/whockey/2010/wh10-22.shtml

Friday, January 22
Connecticut 4, Maine 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wconmne1.j22
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012210aaa.html
http://goblackbears.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012210aaa.html

Vermont 2, Boston University 1 (OT)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbu_ver1.j22
http://www.goterriers.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012210aaa.html
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15851

Saturday, January 23
Providence 2, Boston College 1 (OT)
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_prv1.j23
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012310aaa.html
http://www.friars.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012310aaa.html

Boston University 3, Vermont 2
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbu_ver1.j23
http://www.goterriers.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012310aab.html
http://www.uvm.edu/~sportspr/womens_hockey/?Page=News&storyID=15859

Connecticut 2, Maine 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wconmne1.j23
http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012310aaa.html
http://goblackbears.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012310aaa.html

Northeastern 2, Niagara 1
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wnianoe1.j23
http://gonu.com/whockey/2010/wh10-23.shtml

Sunday, January 24
Northeastern 6, Niagara 2
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wnianoe1.j24
http://gonu.com/whockey/2010/wh10-24.shtml

Providence 6, Boston College 3
http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0910/boxes/wbc_prv1.j24
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012410aaa.html
http://www.friars.com/sports/w-hockey/recaps/012410aaa.html

Upcoming schedule
Tuesday, January 26
Boston University at Northeastern, 7:00 pm

Wednesday, January 27
Boston College at Dartmouth, 7:00 pm