With one of the wildest finishes of the Hockey East regular season, the tournament field is finally set.
With tonight's 3-2 win over New Hampshire, BC finished with 36 points (1 point behind league champ New Hampshire). UNH wins their eighth regular season Hockey East title, their third in the last four seasons.
So much for my pipe dream of Boston University falling out of the Hockey East playoff picture. BU swept Northeastern this weekend to force a 3-way tie with Maine and UMass Lowell for the 3 seed. That's bad news for Lowell, who lost the three-way tiebreaker with BU and Maine and loses out on home ice next weekend. BU captures the #3 seed, Maine takes the #4 seed and the final home ice spot, and Lowell the #5.
Here are the pairing for the Hockey East quarterfinals (regular season series results in parenthesis).
#1 New Hampshire vs. #8 Vermont (UNH 2-0-1)
#2 Boston College vs. #7 Massachusetts (BC 3-0-0)
#3 Boston University vs. #6 Merrimack (BU 2-1-0)
#4 Maine vs. #5 UMass Lowell (Maine 2-1-0)
The Hockey East Tournament quarterfinals begin on Friday, March 12. BC's first two games will be played at Conte Forum on Friday and Saturday night (both games starting at 7:00 PM ET). If necessary, the third and final quarterfinal game will be played on Sunday night, 7 PM at Conte Forum.
Go Eagles!