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The 2014-15 Hockey East regular season is now in the books. Here are tonight's results:
New Hampshire 3, Merrimack 0
Notre Dame 3, Boston College 1
Providence 5, Maine 2
UMass Lowell 2, Vermont 2
Boston University 6, Northeastern 1
Following BC's 3-1 loss to Notre Dame, the Eagles men's ice hockey team went from starting the night still alive for a regular season title and a shot at the Hockey East Tournament #1 seed...all the way down to the tournament's #3 seed. Womp womp.
Providence's 5-2 victory over Maine drew the Friars even with BC with 27 points. Since BC and PC split the regular season series 1-1-0, and both clubs finished with identical 1-1-0 records against the first-place Boston University, the tiebreaker then moves to the record against the fourth place team, UMass Lowell. PC's 2-0-0 record over Lowell trumps BC's 0-1-1 record vs. the RiverHawks, giving the Friars the tournament #2 seed and BC the #3.
BC did get a bit of an assist from Vermont, which managed a 2-2 tie with UMass Lowell. Had the RiverHawks held on for the victory, the Eagles would have fallen all the way to the tournament #4 seed (BC would have finished third in a three-way tiebreaker with PC and Lowell).
The 2014-15 Hockey East Tournament field is now set. Boston College is off next weekend and now awaits the second-highest remaining seed that emerges from the best-of-three opening round, affectionately known around these parts as the #Octofinals.
Since the quarterfinal round is reseeded following the four opening round best-of-three series, as the tournament #3 seed, BC cannot play UMass, Merrimack or Notre Dame. That leaves BC's quarterfinal opponent possibilities as follows:
– 6 seed Northeastern (BC leads 1-0-1)
– 7 seed Vermont (Series tied 1-1-0)
– 8 seed New Hampshire (BC leads 1-0-1)
– 9 seed Connecticut (Series tied 1-1-0)
– 10 seed Maine (Series tied 1-1-0)
Here is the bracket:
Friday - Sunday, March 6-8: Best-of-Three Opening Round
Play on Campus
(12) Massachusetts at (5) Notre Dame (ND leads 2-0-0)
(11) Merrimack at (6) Northeastern (Series tied 1-1-0)
(10) Maine at (7) Vermont (UVM leads 2-0-0)
(9) Connecticut at (8) New Hampshire (UNH 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) Providence
Second-highest remaining seed at (3) Boston College
Highest remaining seed at (4) UMass Lowell
Friday, March 20: Semifinals Games
TD Garden
Saturday, March 21: Championship Final
TD Garden
Here are the possible quarterfinal pairings based on the results of the opening round:
| Opening Round | Quarterfinals | ||||||
| 5 ND vs. 12 UMA | 6 NU vs. 11 MC | 7 UVM vs. 10 ME | 8 UNH vs. 9 UC | 1 BU vs. | 2 PC vs. | 3 BC vs. | 4 UML vs. |
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