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Who advances to TD Garden? - This Week in Hockey East · This Week in Hockey East

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Quarterfinal Friday and Saturday is here, and we welcome you to another episode of This Week in Hockey East, along with Bridget Prue.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Eric Galante.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much to talk about.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much to break down.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Everything went chalk on Wednesday night.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a bunch of really impressive, exciting games.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: All four of these matchups in the quarterfinals, the two teams split the regular season series.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: So there's nothing exactly that we think we know for sure, and a lot to break down.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think the game that I'm most intrigued by as we get started here, Bridget, is BU, who takes down Vermont, and now they get UConn on Saturday.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it feels like all of a sudden, BU might have some confidence and momentum going into this quarterfinal.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, BU, the sixth seed, beat Vermont, the 11th seed.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they really did it by getting contributions from their big guys, right?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Cole Eiserman scored twice.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Cole Hudson scored as well.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And let's focus on Cole Eiserman for a second.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: He's our service credit union scoring leader.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Eiserman now has goals in five straight games and seven of the last eight.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's had a bunch of multi-point games recently as well, four of his last five.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we really never had uh reason to doubt that he could get back to this.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: He had such a great freshman year, so not completely surprising that he's come back to that level.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And also BU's power play finally coming to life as well.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Two power play goals in the win, first time since October 25th, with multiple power play goals in a game, ironically, against Yukon, who they're about to play.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But BU had been under 8% since the start of November on the power play.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And special alumni was in the stands for the game.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Macklin Celebrini, fresh off winning silver in Milan, was at the game because the Sharks are in town to play the Bruins.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: So he came to support his former team where he won the Hobie Baker two seasons ago and also support his older brother, Aiden.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was certainly good vibes going on there.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think that, you know, it's kind of odd to say, right, because Bue did lose to Lowell the last game of the regular season, but it does feel like there's some momentum coming off that bye week, coming off the weekend against Boston College, coming off this game with their power play, maybe with Iserman a little bit, but then they'll take on Yukon now.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of an odd time for UConn, right?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's their highest hockey finish ever.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: They're the third seed.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Mike Kavanaugh's pretty happy with the efforts he's gotten recently, but they just haven't gotten results lately.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're just 1-4-1 in their last three weekends.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: They've only scored 12 goals over their last six games.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: But specifically, the last four games, it is not for lack of chances.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: They're averaging over 41 shots a game in their last four.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: They're plus 51 in shots, Bridget, in just these four games.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Mike Kavanaugh said they really spent a lot of time in practice this week on finishing drills.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: As much as you can come up with drills about trying to score greasy goals, working on screens, all those kind of finishing things that he feels like is going to be really crucial.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as we talked about a little bit, their power play has been better.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see what happens with this Yukon team as they take on BU.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and as we've talked about, Yukon's best path is still to win the Hockey East tournament, but that's not necessarily their only path.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: They still have a chance at an at-large bid, but that means it is a must-win for them this weekend.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So they have to move on from that game, beat BU in order to have a chance.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, if they don't, they have a 1% chance to make the tournament uh with a loss on Saturday.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a true knockout game for them.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and these two teams usually play high-scoring games.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, UConn beat BU in the semifinals last year.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: They split in the regular season.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: These are usually high-scoring games, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: What probably won't be a high-scoring game is UMass and Northeastern.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: That'll come up at 4 o'clock on Saturday.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the 4 p.m.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: game, the two-seed UMass, seven seed Northeastern.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: No one's playing better right now in net than Michael Roble, by the way.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's coming into the tournament, a 9.58 save percentage since the start of January, 12-3-1 record in the second half.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely could take UMass through this tournament.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this matchup features two goalies who have been named semifinalists to the Mike Richter Award this season.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So taking a look at some things that have made UMass successful in that time as well, is they've been getting contributions offensively from their defensemen.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, as defenseman Larry Keenan scored Saturday against UNH when UMass is scoring from their D, their offense getting going, they've really been able to build confidence in the second half.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And in the tournament, UMass has won at least a round in all but one hockey east tournament since 2018.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And they're basically in the same spot as UConn, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's a very small chance if they lose this weekend, they could still get in, but they basically have to win this game this weekend.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not an easy task because Northeastern off a 7-3 win Wednesday against UNH.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: Is this happening again with Northeastern?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the thing that really stands out is their offense recently.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: They scored four against BC on Saturday.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: I know there were two empty netters on Wednesday, but they scored seven goals against UNH.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're averaging three and a half goals over their last eight games.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: They're getting so much from this highly touted freshman class.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Nine of their 13 goals in the last three games have come from freshmen.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Martino, Maju, Hajibi have all been really good.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: We know how good Northeastern can be this time of year.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And now it feels like they've built a little bit of momentum here into the second half.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's gonna be fascinating what happens though, Bridget, because these two teams played really close games all year long.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's the fifth time that these two teams are playing.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: All four of the games before this were one goal or one goal plus an empty net.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: But Northeastern really heavily outshot UMass in these games.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: They were plus 47 in shots in those four games.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it might be okay because Michael Horable's there, but we shall see.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Should be really interesting stuff.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: So again, at one o'clock, UConn BU, and then at four o'clock, UMass against Northeastern.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Then finally on Saturday, it'll be Providence and Merrimack.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Providence, the regular season champs, led by Roger McQueen, who sits down with Bridget on the other side here on This Week in Convince.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to This Week in Confident East.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: This interview brought to you by Boston Harbor Hotel.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Plan your getaway today at BostonHarborHotel.com and experience Boston's best waterfront views.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Want to welcome in uh PC Freshman Center Roger McQueen.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you've had such an interesting last year.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get into your draft day, we're gonna get into your your growth at Providence, uh Providence clinching first place, being the top team in hockey east, and what all of that means to you.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But uh Roger, just thanks for thanks for joining us.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate it, yeah.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Happy to be here.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with draft day because we'll go chronologically here.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: You get picked 10th overall by the Anaheim Ducks.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so you're in California for the draft, and uh when we were all watching it uh as an NHL reporter, we got to watch you go on this wild ride, get go right from being drafted onto a helicopter to Disney World.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Can you take us through the just how fun that experience was, what they set up for you, and and how your draft day was?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, obviously draft day is like a pretty nerve-wracking day.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: I remember just kind of waking up for that day being like, holy shit, this is uh this is it, and then kind of going to uh going to the draft and not really knowing.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: You never really know, I guess you have like the feeling of what you think, but you you never ultimately know.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: And then obviously Anaheim picks me in LA, which is pretty cool, because it's I mean a 45 minute drive to Anaheim, so there was they had fans there, which was which was pretty sweet, and then usually it's like a bunch of media like right after, but like five minutes later they had like told me I was going on a on a helicopter ride to Disneyland, and it was like alright, and then got on that with my dad, went off the top of the building there.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I was pretty cool, and then we landed, and uh, I think they brought all my family there, so I had like the whole park to myself after uh after um taking like pictures and stuff.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: So they they gave us the whole park to ourselves after, kind of hung out there, and then went back.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: My agent had like a a thing for us, so we went there, and then the next day um I had like this yacht tour kind of thing on like this rented out boat through uh through Newport, which was insane.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: So then I had that to do, and then the next day I was throwing the the pitch at uh the opening pitch at the Angels game.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that was pretty cool too, and it was just kind of like a whirlwind of stuff, so it was pretty sweet.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize you had the whole park to yourself.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's pretty cool.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think a lot of people can say that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think a lot of people have been in a helicopter.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're not afraid of heights, right?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh depends where I am, but not normally now.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: First helicopter ride though, so it was pretty interesting.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, congratulations on that.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm sure it it played out maybe even better than you expected.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: But um, take us through the rest of your summer as well, because obviously that's a whirlwind and it's a lot of fun stuff.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get back to work, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: You you go to Anaheim Development Camp, um, you make your decision to come to Providence College.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I believe did you did you skate with them in the summer as well to um like the the summer school uh group that went, or did you come in in the fall?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, I never skated in the summer.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: I just came straight into the fall after development camp.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: I had gone uh to train in Florida and then uh flew back home for like a couple days and then came straight here.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So take us through through that summer then.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what was development camp like?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: What did they um ask you to work on and what went into PC becoming the landing spot for you this year?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, development camp was awesome.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was nice to go somewhere hot.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm from Saskatoon, so it's uh it's a different change for sure.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Being in California there, so that was pretty cool.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then yeah, the camp was awesome.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: It was, I think, four days long.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it was a bit of testing, and then obviously skating every day, and it was it was good.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: The guys were great.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I had a buddy there, actually a couple buddies, guy off Brandon, the team that I got drafted from, um the uh Brady Turko.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: He's one of my buddies, and then I had Terren Smith there from the WHL too.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I had some familiar faces there.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah, it was a ton of fun.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, a lot of things like to work on, I'd heard like it was obviously getting stronger and kind of filling out, which will come with time.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that's mostly just kind of getting in the gym and uh getting some more muscle on me.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then obviously like speed and quickness, being being a tall guy, there's always you can always work on that.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: So it was just a lot about power and kind of speed and getting stronger through my legs and stuff.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd heard that stuff, and that's what I had planned to do the summer.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: So then I went to Florida to work with Mike Barwis, and he was awesome there.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I went there for about a month and a half and then back home with Kelly Real, my trainer there.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then yeah, I just landed in in Providence.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think it had a lot to do with uh talking to all the coaches, and I had talked to Nate quite a bit, and I'd uh I kind of built a trust and a good bond with him, and I thought he was uh really genuine and kind of laid it out front for me, which I appreciated.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um, yeah, I mean I had uh my captain from the Brandon Weekings was already here transferred, and um Hudson Malinowski, my best buddy from back home in Saskatoon, is here, so it made it an easier spot to definitely come to and feel comfortable.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Easier to land where you already have uh people that you know.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was talking to Nate Lehman this past week about his CHL guys.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're one of those guys, you're on a line with two other guys, Julius Sumpf and Jonathan Fauchan, that all came um, all freshmen that that came out of the CHL.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: How has that been for you?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And um obviously a lot's been made this year of guys now able to come in and make that transition.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: What was what was the jump like?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: And how nice has it been to have other guys kind of on the same path as you?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean the jump's been pretty hard.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think jumping from any league that's a little bit better, is always tough.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's kind of a lot goes into it.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: There's obviously the new team and systems, but ultimately like the the pace of the game and uh just having like half a second uh less to make a play.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, playing against guys that are 26, 25, and a bit heavier, it's just uh it's just a more physical and heavier league.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it obviously took uh a bunch of games to get used to, and I think I'm still getting used to it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think uh there's still learning to do here, but uh definitely think our guys, especially the CHL guys, have uh have got used to it and have been doing really well lately, and especially having 10 freshmen and almost all of them are coming from the CHL.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's nice to be able to kind of sit down with them after a game and ask them how they're feeling.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it's nice to be able to be close with uh a lot of the guys just because you've played against a lot of them.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it's nice to be able to talk to them about it.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, for sure having all those guys to be able to go through through it with you is is nice as well.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he paid you guys a compliment as well.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: He said every time every one of the guys my assistants brought us, I was like, oh my gosh, this guy's such a such a great guy, and and they're gonna fit really well.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys do have a young team.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: You have you have a group of a lot of freshmen, and there's been teams around Hockey East and around the NCAA in general who've had young teams that haven't had as much success as you guys have, obviously finishing first place.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the things that you guys have been able to do to kind of mesh together to lead you to having a young team that's also a successful team?
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would say, I mean, a lot goes into it.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, there's great staff here and and everything around that.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, I think the biggest thing is the team is just uh, I mean, everyone buys into the same thing.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like everyone kind of knows their role and uh is totally fine with uh what coach asks them to do or what the team's asking for.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: And uh yeah, I think everyone just uh is uh trusts each other.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when you can look around the room and look to your right and left and you can trust every guy that's gonna go out there and work for you, it it just works on the ice and uh it usually uh all folds together.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: And we've been doing that really well in the second half, and I think uh just after the first half, it was a it was it was not bad first half, but it was definitely uh a tougher one and a learning curve for a ton of people.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I think just taking that and uh taking uh information, what you can get from it, learning from that, and and bringing that into the second half, I think we did a really good job of uh just being able to get through that and then uh yeah, just show what we can do.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we know what we can do and we know the group of guys we have in here, so it's just about trusting one another.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, congratulations on your season and the season your team has had, finishing first place, uh getting underway in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: So good luck uh with the playoffs.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, exciting time of year for you guys.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we're gonna talk about the women's hockey east championship game and the two teams from the women's side that made the NCAA tournament.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, we preview the men's quarterfinal matchups this weekend, coming up next on This Week in Hockey East.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to more This Week in Hockey East.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Let's continue talking about the Hockey East quarterfinals.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: We just heard a bit about Providence.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go there next.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: The Friars hosting eight-seed Merrimack.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Nice win for Merrimack against Lowell, and they have some good momentum going into this round.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: They're unbeaten in their last four games, going back even farther, as we've talked about a lot, since December 12th, they're 13-5-2 overall.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: They've been really good on the power play all year, Bridget, but that's especially showing up recently.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Over just the last four games, they're six for twelve on their power play.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Nick Pierre scored one on Wednesday.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: He also had a couple of assists.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about these newcomers, these freshmen, these sophomores from Merrimack, right?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: Justin Gill, Parker Lalon, both named to the Hockey East All rookie team.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Hoskin, we've talked a lot about.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: He came over from Niagara.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: He scored two goals on Wednesday, and now that's another 30-point season for him.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the freshmen and the sophomores this season make up a lot of Merrimack's production this year.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: The entire top six forward group is made up of underclassmen, and the four centers down the middle for Merrimack are all freshmen, uh, though they are older freshmen, right?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about guys who have come in after playing in the CHL.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're all 22, 23 years old, but they it is their first season in the NCAA.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the Warriors also get a few players back from injury last weekend.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Tied to No and Hunter Mayo missed a chunk of time in December and January.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: They came back.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: They were playing in the opening round on Wednesday.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately for the Friars, they've gone a little bit in the opposite direction.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to start with their injury notes here.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Two players going down in the final game of the regular season against Yukon.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: One was Andrew Centrella, who crashed into the boards feet first, didn't return to the game.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nate Lehman announced after the game, he might be done for the year, depending on how far the Friars make it.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it sounds like maybe the NCAA tournament, he could be available at some point, but it doesn't sound like we'll see him in the rest of the Hockey East tournament.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's a big part of PC's back end as well.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's on their top D pair, and he's one of the more veteran guys back there.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Logan Sawyer was the other player injured in the last game of the regular seasons.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: He crashed into the boards as well, but he went arm first.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Nate Lehman said he's listed as day-to-day.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he did score before that the a very key goal against Yukon to win that final game of the regular season.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about PC's goaltending in youth.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the other story here.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Friars have three freshmen who are named to the Hockey East all-rookie team.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you see a couple of them there, right?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Parsons, Mantai, and Roger McQueen, obviously.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Parsons, the only unanimous selection to that team.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's certainly well deserved, right?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: 12 and 2 in his 14 starts since he took over for Phillips Fed back.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I think that it's a great example of how college hockey may just be a little bit different now than it's been in years past.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you may not be the team on October 1st that you are.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's just gonna take a while for some of these teams with a lot of newcomers to get themselves to their right place that they want to be.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: But to Providence's credit, they certainly have done that in the second half of the season.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Even here, though, this is a season series that was split.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now it was way back in November.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Providence heavily outshot Merrimack in both games, even the game that Merrimack won, shots were 42-25 in favor of Providence.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: The Warriors had a 3-0 lead in that game before Providence scored too late in the third, but still fell by one.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the seven o'clock game Saturday, and we'll see who goes to the Hockey East semifinals.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then finally the 4-5 game, the four-seed BC hosting the five-seed Maine on Friday night.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe just a little bit of a weird matchup where these two teams are in their seasons.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: You look at BC first, uh, they've it's it's been four straight losses, and obviously that's the wrong time of year to be having that kind of a stretch.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: But then you look at Main, who felt like they maybe found something with four straight wins, but then losing the last game of the regular season.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So both teams coming in, maybe not the way that they wanted to exactly.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think with this BC thing, it's interesting because you look at these games, and outside of the first period against BU on Friday, the 27th, I don't get the sense that BC feels like they've played that badly.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: It just has been the results haven't been there.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the analytics really would back that up.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you take the second BU game and the UMass game, BC's like plus four and a half in expected goals in those two games.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like they haven't gotten grade A chances either.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: They certainly have.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: They just haven't really been able to take advantage of two on ones and some breakaways, but they've only scored five times over the last four games.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: So can they unlock some of that scoring, especially five on five?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right, since the start of February, BC has more power play goals than they have five on five goals.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Can they get secondary scoring beyond Higgins and Laterno?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Those two have combined for 16 of BC's last 34 goals.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: So can they get those other pieces, that other scoring to come with them in Friday's game?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and for Maine, things had been trending for them well before that loss to Vermont.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: 23 goals over the last six games, at least three in all six.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they're paced by Josh Nadeau, who's been doing it while Maine has been down, also without Justin Poirier.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: So Nadeau has a five-game point streak going on with seven goals in the last and 13 points uh in the last timeout.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Brandon Holt, another guy to look at, he's got 10 points over the last six games.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's not the offense, right?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's been the offense has been pretty good.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's about what Maine gets in goal, right?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Will we see Russo again?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: He had started the last five games, won four, but then struggled a little bit against Vermont.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do they go back to Boya, who obviously won them this tournament last year?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be really interesting to see.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: If they get good goaltending, they can win, right?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: We saw them do that against BC in November when Russo had a shutout.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: But when they don't have their goaltending, you sometimes see a 7-3 game like BC won the first game of the series in November.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it should be really interesting.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: True knockout game here.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: The winner goes on, the loser goes home.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: We also had a really awesome Hockey East women's championship last weekend.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look back at that when we come back.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to this week in Hockey East.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, this past Saturday was the Women's Hockey East championship game between Northeastern and Yukon.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look back at that, brought to you by Boston Children's Hospital, the official children's hospital of Hockey East, Boston Children's where the world comes for answers.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yukon was the two seed.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: They were hosting the one seed at Toscano Family Ice Forum against Northeastern, and it was a tight game.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Two great goaltending performances as expected.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, we went to double overtime and Kyla Josephobic with a game-winning goal to lift Yukon to the two-to-one win.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: She's our Jersey Mike's sub-above player of the week.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Her goal came 95 minutes into the game, which made it the longest title game in the history of the women's Hockey East Tournament.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And with the win, Yukon brought home its second Britannia trophy in program history, winning a Hockey East title in two of the last three seasons.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: And as you see there, Tia Chan, much deserved MVP award of the tournament.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: She broke the saves record in a Hockey East Championship game with 57.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's worth noting she was named to the top 10 finalist list for the Patty Kasmeyer Award as best player in the country.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: She was the only goalie on that list and was with a couple of U.S.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Olympic gold medalists on that list as well.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Not like Lisa Junson was bad on the other side, right?
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: She made 54 saves in the game for Northeastern.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Both of these teams make the NCAA tournament.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: First time Hockey East has had multiple bids in a full-length regular year since 2018-2019.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: But it was the exact game we predicted it was going to be, right close.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was going to be all about the goaltending.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: It ends up going double overtime, and Yukon comes away with the win.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it wrapped up a really special season on the women's side across Hockey East and really just a perfect fitting way to end the season.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're in playoff mode now on the men's side as well.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And again, the quarterfinal schedule will have BC in Maine coming up at 7 o'clock on Friday on Nesson, and then our triple header Saturday, Yukon BU at one, UMass and Northeastern at four, and then Merrimack at Providence at 7 o'clock.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the four winners will reseed at TD Garden a week from Friday.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll be back next week to preview those semifinal games and take you through the Hockey East Championship.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's the best time of year.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Can't wait for it.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Should be so exciting this weekend.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for joining us for another edition of This Week in Hockey East.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the quarterfinals.