Five more games are in the books. Here's where we stand heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
Seed | Program | GP | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA | Remaining |
1 | Boston University | 20 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 29 | 77 | 48 | NU, @ NU |
2 | Boston College | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | 57 | 47 | @ ND x2 |
3 | UMass Lowell | 20 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 23 | 64 | 49 | UVM x2 |
Notre Dame | 20 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 23 | 61 | 51 | BC x2 | |
Providence | 20 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 23 | 51 | 33 | ME x2 | |
6 | Northeastern | 20 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 22 | 63 | 48 | @ BU, BU |
Vermont | 20 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 22 | 59 | 47 | @ UML x2 | |
8 | Maine | 20 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 18 | 60 | 64 | @ PC x2 |
9 | New Hampshire | 20 | 8 | 11 | 1 | 17 | 59 | 67 | MC x2 |
10 | Connecticut | 21 | 6 | 11 | 4 | 16 | 38 | 74 | UMA |
11 | Merrimack | 20 | 5 | 12 | 3 | 13 | 37 | 49 | @ UNH x2 |
12 | Massachusetts | 21 | 5 | 15 | 1 | 11 | 59 | 98 | @ UC |
NOTES:
– Boston University left the door open ever so slightly for BC to win the Hockey East regular season title with a 3-2 loss to the Irish on Saturday night. BU's magic number for an outright regular season title remains at 1 point. Any combination of a single point for BU vs. Northeastern next weekend, or a point for Notre Dame vs. BC, would give the Terriers the outright conference title.
– The only scenario where BC can earn the Hockey East Tournament 1 seed is if BC sweeps the weekend series vs. Notre Dame and Northeastern sweeps BU. It would then come down to which club finishes in third, as the BC-BU head-to-head would be knotted at 1-1, as would the number of conference wins at 13. The next tiebreaker goes to "best record against the first-place team(s), then the second place team(s), then the third place team(s), and so on." In this scenario, if:
a) Northeastern finishes third, BC would earn the 1 seed finishing 1-0-1 vs. the Huskies (BU would finish 0-2-0).
b) UMass Lowell finishes third, BU would earn the 1 seed finishing 2-0-0 vs. the River Hawks (BC would finish 0-1-1).
c) Providence finishes third, the tiebreaker would go to the fourth seed as both BC and BU split the regular season series 1-1-0 with the Friars.
– Lowell, Notre Dame and Providence are all tied for the third seed with 23 points. If the season ended today, Providence would earn the 3 seed with a 3-1-0 record against the tied teams. Lowell and Notre Dame would finish with identical 1-2-1 records against the tied teams, but Lowell wins the head-to-head over the Irish 1-0-1 and would get the 4 seed. Notre Dame would be the 5.
– Northeastern and Vermont are all tied up at 22 points. The regular season series is tied at 1-1-0. If Northeastern manages a point against BU this weekend and the Terriers go on to win the regular season, the Huskies would win the tiebreaker over Vermont (UVM went 0-2-0 vs. BU). If both NU and UVM finish 0-2-0 vs. BU, the tiebreaker would move to the second place team (likely BC). Should BC take the #1 seed, or the tiebreaker move to the #2 seed, Vermont would win the tiebreaker with a 1-1-0 record vs. BC (NU went 0-1-1 vs. BC).
And here's how the Hockey East Tournament would look if the season ended today:
Friday - Sunday, March 6-8: Best-of-Three Opening Round
Play on Campus
(12) Massachusetts vs. (5) Notre Dame (ND leads 2-0-0)
(11) Merrimack at (6) Vermont / Northeastern (UVM leads 1-0-1, NU & MC tied 1-1-0)
(10) Connecticut at (7) Vermont / Northeastern (UC & UVM tied 1-1-0, NU leads 2-0-0)
(9) New Hampshire at (8) Maine (ME leads 2-0-0)
Friday - Sunday, March 13-15: Best-of-Three Quarterfinal Round
Play on Campus
Lowest remaining seed at (1) Boston University
Second-lowest remaining seed at (2) Boston College
Second-highest remaining seed at (3) Providence
Highest remaining seed at (4) UMass Lowell
Friday, March 20: Semifinals Games
TD Garden
Saturday, March 21: Championship Final
TD Garden
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The top four seeds remain unchanged, with BC needing 3 points vs. Notre Dame to lock up the 2 seed. Either way, should be a crazy finish to the regular season with three teams tied at 23, and two teams just one point behind them heading into the final weekend.