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Trophy season is officially UNDERWAY in Hockey East! · This Week in Hockey East

• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome inside this episode of This Week in Hockey East.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Bridget Prue here with Eric Galante, and we're going to start by talking about our Friday night matchup coming up directly after this show.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's UConn at Providence.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be on that call with Cooper Boardman.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: But first we want to talk about Yukon on this side of the matchup.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Eric, they haven't lost since December 29th.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's really amazing.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the Yukon Huskies enter this week as the fourth-ranked team in the pairwise.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they've jumped basically 14 spots in the last month.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: They've gone from about, I think we were talking right after that loss to Wisconsin, they had about a 26% chance of making the NCAA tournament for playoffstatus.com.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now they're over 90% less than a month later.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's amazing what they've done on this run.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: And remember that loss to Wisconsin, they only had their third string goalie.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: So otherwise, you know, they've won even going farther back than that.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's important to talk, though, about this Connecticut Ice tournament that Yukon won last week.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a couple different things.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, number one, I think we have to talk about this Yukon defense and how well they've played defensively in this stretch of games where they've swept New Hampshire, a win and a tie against Maine, and now a sweep of CT Ice.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: They've only allowed eight goals in their last three weekends of the season.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So their last six games.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: The goalies have just been dynamite.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Time Music's comeback.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: He's our night shift all academic standout this week.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Just four goals allowed in his last four games over this stretch, 111 saves.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: He played both games last weekend.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: He had 35 saves and just the goal allowed against Quinnipiac, and then a 23 save shutout on the, remember, that's on the road against Sacred Heart.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then Callum Tung, who wasn't available last weekend, he had a 941%, has a 941 save percentage over his seven starts this year.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: So they really have something in goal.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's all these different guys who are just exceeding their career totals by so much.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we can take Ryan Tattle, who scored that unbelievable goal to beat Quinnipiac right as time expired in regulation.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he had four career goals his first two years with Yukon.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's got 12 this year.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: He's got six of them on this seven-game unbeaten streak.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's part one and how well they're playing.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then you talk about the other part and just about where Yukon is right now.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about the pairwise piece a little bit later in the show about how this Yukon team is number four in the country, because I think a lot of people have texted me, like, how are they here?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: What is happening?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we'll explain that a little bit.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I just think the confidence of winning that tournament is huge.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just getting a trophy that's the big deal, which that matters.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we've talked to, you know, Lowell winning at Arondak and the tournament out in California and some other teams that have won holiday tournaments.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's just important to win a trophy.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: But this is a Yukon team that's hasn't really done much in this Connecticut Ice tournament, the flagship school of the state.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's rotated around.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm this tournament, I think, has a lot of potential, but I'm still not sure we've seen the identity of it.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it was important for Yukon just from a mental standpoint, to get over the hump in this tournament, to feel like, you know, they've done all these good things.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: The pairwise is telling us where they are, but then to actually go and win it and prove themselves and especially beating Quinnipiac to do it.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a really important thing for the program.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe even more so than it might seem on paper.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so this team's just got a lot of confidence from a couple of different sides as they go into this game against Providence.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at the PC side of things, they're coming in on a four-game losing streak.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: They had a tough weekend against Boston College, the number one team in the country two weeks ago.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then last week, U Maslow came in and took a shootout win and then a regulation win, which was a heartbreaker.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I did that game, and the goal came with just about 10 seconds left in that Saturday game.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been a shutout for both sides.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody scored until the last 10 seconds of that Saturday game.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what Nate Lehman did was on Friday, he had Speedback in net.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was a three to three tie then plus Lowell winning in the shootout.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then Saturday went to Borgil as a short turnaround.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was a 7 p.m.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: game and then a 3.30 game.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: We could see that again this week because it's the same thing.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a 7 p.m.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: on Friday and then a 3.30 on Saturday.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe we see both Spedback and Borg Eal in net again.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: But heartbreaking losses when you lose two really close games, the shootout loss and the loss where goal goes in with 10 seconds left.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's tough.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that they want to try to do better this week is get the power play going.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have talked to Nate Lehman.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said in the last two weeks he's had some power plays at important times, but they're not cashing in.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there was been power plays in the third period that would have been important to score on and in overtime.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what he wants to see get going.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at special teams, where would they stand?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's the thing, right?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh for five against Lowell, one for nine the last four games.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it just sort of speaks to the bigger idea of, you know, this team.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen at times in the past, sometimes they get all these shots and they just struggle to finish a little bit.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: And is that creeping back in?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: There's too much towel on the ice, you would think, for them to go really on a streak.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: The one thing to note, though, in terms of Provenance's offense, is Trevor Connolly had to leave the weekend series.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: He did not play on Saturday.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's going to miss a little bit of time here.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: So uh that factors into what Providence has offensively.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, huge game.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And even though Providence has dropped these games, they really have not dropped in the pairwise at all, but they have started a drop in the hockey standing.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really important for them to get going.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: UConn's red hot right now.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: This should be a really good weekend series, Providence and Connecticut.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have plenty to talk about this week.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, coming up on the horizon is the beanpot, right on the heels of BCBU last week.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: We'll kind of do a recap/slash beanpot preview when we come back.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to this week in Hockey East.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, this is our final show before the men's beanpot, which starts on Monday at TD Garden, BU in Harvard, BC and Northeastern.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: BC and BU just played last week.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: BC gets the weekend sweep, 6'2 on Friday, 2-0 win on Saturday.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: As crazy as it sounds, we'll talk a lot about BC in a second, but I think we actually have to start with the BU side of it because number one, I thought they played pretty well on Saturday.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And number two, they may have found someone here that might change the course of this season because Mikhail Yagorov was excellent in his first career start against BC on Saturday.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start there, Bridget, with these Terriers.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Eric, I watched that game the entire time.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yagorov, he's so big, and he, but yet he still moves so well in net, which is something that I was really impressed by.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And for someone playing their first career game in the NCAA, I thought it was spectacular for him.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of was thinking, oh, wow, BU just had this second half guy come in, maybe a little wild card in the second half for them to pull to now have a goalie tandem where they've been riding Machu Caran for so long.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now they have these two options in net.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he was perfect for most of the game.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: The only goal he allowed was in the first 20 seconds.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I was so impressed.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I mean, you and I watch so much college hockey.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: We see what the goalies look like at this level.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like he was right there immediately, which is not something that's easy to do coming in from a different league.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, real vote of confidence to come in against the number one team in the country for your first ever career game.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I thought that that was telling of the way that Jay Pandolfo and the staff for BU feel about him.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's no doubt.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Second round pick of the Devils, he's gonna be really, really good.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned it.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: He's six foot five.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So even though he doesn't have a ton of weight on him yet.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, he really fills out the net in a big way.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, I thought he was really impressive.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do in goal.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: The other side of it, though, that I think is worth noting, and Jay Pandolfo did make mention of this in this post-game press conference.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I know this wasn't the big topic of conversation out of that game, but BU did not score a five-on-five goal in either game against Boston College.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that's been a theme for Boston College, but BU's gone three games without scoring at five on five.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Even the New Hampshire win last Saturday is a power play goal and then a three-on-three overtime goal to win.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, as Jay Pandolfo said, they got to find a way to score five on five here.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a little while.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the only two goals of the weekend come on the power play within 38 seconds of a BC major penalty on Friday, then they did not score the final 108 minutes plus of the weekend.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that's part one.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: They'll host New Hampshire on Friday before going into their beanpot game against Harvard.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: But on the Boston College side of it, you know, there's so many guys that it's worth talking about offense with this team, but we have to talk about how well they're playing defensively.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Over this six-game win streak now, some of these numbers are crazy.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: After the first period, they've outscored their opponents 18 to 2.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that includes they have not allowed a third period goal in five games, including two against top 10 Providence team, two against a top 10 BU team.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: They haven't allowed a goal at home, period, in the last eight periods they've played.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And again, that includes Providence and BU.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: They have not allowed a five-on-five goal over this win streak.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: You go, they've played nearly 370 minutes of game time since the last five-on-five goal they've allowed.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: And as we've talked about, the power play has now come to life along with it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So when you combined all of that great defense with a power play now, which is now five for its last 17, you really have something there.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then you get some of these individual performances, right?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan Leonard, who's our service credit union scoring leader, he had four goals against BU last weekend.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know three of them were empty netters, but nevertheless it counts as four in the box score.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, he has seven goals on this win streak.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: He now leads the country in goals per game as of this recording.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: I know Michigan State plays Thursday night, so that may change.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jacob Fowler, who was the best player in the BU series by a lot.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: 6-0, 969 save percentage over this six-game win streak.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: He has two shutouts.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: He now is the national leader in shutouts with six of them this year.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a BC team that's playing really well.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then the interesting wrinkle about Beanpot, Bridget, is this is a Boston College team that has, it's kind of shocking how much they've struggled in the Beanpot the last stretch of time.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they have the longest drought of any of the four schools since they've won.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: They have not won since 2016.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: They've lost four consecutive games in the semifinals.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: They haven't been in a final since 2019.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: And of those four, three of them were pretty brutal losses.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, last year, BU has a 4-1 lead.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: BC comes storming back.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think most people who were there thought, you know, that game's five minutes longer.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a different result.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Two years ago, they lose at the horn in overtime against Harvard.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Going back to 2020, they lose that double overtime game to BU.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: That was crazy.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So they just have not been in a final in a while, let alone win this tournament.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this is going to be a very, very motivated Boston College team uh after their game against Lowell on Friday, going into that Monday game against Northeastern.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: This may be an unpopular opinion, but I miss the old format where you can go to two overtimes, three overtimes.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: I like the like the playoff feel of the beanpot that they had back then.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they do three on three overtime now, and they it's not the same.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's not uh I personally will watch hockey until the sun comes up the next day.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe it's just me that feels like that.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I did want to add one last uh thought on BC before we head into talking about their matchup with Northeastern and the Bean Pot, which is that BC is just the real deal this year.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: They've been number one in the country uh at different points in the season.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: They've they've stuck up there recently.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that they look even better than they did last year at this time, which is saying a lot because they were also number one, number two in the country for a good chunk of last season as well.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: But they're just playing like a team and they are getting an amazing performance the whole season out of Jacob Balor, who is probably the best goalie I've seen this year uh play in what he's been able to do, especially against the better teams that as you watch them play against hockey east teams that are really good and normally score a lot more than they can against him.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But looking at the Northeastern side of things, they've won the last two bean pots and they've also won five of the last six.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this on the women's and the men's side, Northeastern just seems to have this ability to win in the bean pot.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It means a lot to them.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: They want to bring the trophy back to their campus and they want to eat ice cream and cereal out of it or whatever they want to put in there.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it means a lot to them.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So uh even though it in January, you know, this the streaks have been different, it's it's always a tough matchup to draw Northeastern in the first round, which Boston College might have to just watch out a little bit.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're riding an extreme high right now.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the bean pot for some reason seems to always be different.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: They have won five of seven.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know it's not quite the same January that it's been for them the last couple of years, but they have won five of seven.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And even the game they lost to Merrimack last week, they had 46 shots.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So there are some signs they've played a little bit better here recently.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's I know this is we talk about this all the time, but you know, Northeastern's 23 in the pairwise right now.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: They get a non-conference game against number one BC.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: If they were to win, or you know, if it matches up, they could potentially get another top 10 non-conference pairwise game against BU.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: They have a chance to shoot up here if they take care of business here.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you have Harvard BU in game one, Northeastern and BC in game number two in the bean pot on Monday night.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Coming up, plenty more to talk about, including some brand new digs for the BU Terriers women's team.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that when we come back.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's time to go around hockey's presented by the Boston Harbor Hotel.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Visit hockeyastonline.com for your chance to win championship tickets and a two-night stay at the Boston Harbor Hotel.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the BU Terriers women's team with a couple of nice wins last weekend.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: They have some big games this week.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: BC is involved, Northeastern is involved.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, let's talk about BU a little bit.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and what we want to spotlight here in particular is where they're gonna be playing this upcoming weekend.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're coming off of a weekend sweep of Holy Cross, which included their first game back at Walter Brown.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: They got a win with the new renovation finally complete, and they're gonna play their home games of the second half back in Walter Brown after this really nice renovations.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Take a look at these pictures of what some of the new facility looks like.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: It includes a new player's lounge, hot tubs, cold tubs, rest and recovery equipment, an office suite, and redone locker rooms.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And head coach Tara Watchhorn said they now have a space to be around each other, which really helps with team building.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's now their new home away from home.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So nice for them to have that.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to get to our Jersey Mike's, a sub-above women's player of the week.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Who is B use Mari Peterson in net for both of those shoutouts?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Two to nothing and three to nothing wins over Holy Cross.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: She has a 4-2-0 record in her six starts this season.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: So she hasn't got as much playing time, but when she does come in, she's been good and she had a great weekend against Holy Cross.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they'll play BC on Friday after these two teams split earlier this season.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Boston College really had to work hard last week uh to beat PC in that second game.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: They needed overtime to do it.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Julia Pelletron scored 30 seconds in.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: PC pretty heavily outshot BC in both of those games.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be interesting to see how Boston College bounces back.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um but as you know, we talked about a little bit earlier, all these games against the teams up top in the standings are really going to be important and could decide some tiebreakers, especially for this one.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: As this, you know, as we said, these two teams are tied.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: BU has more games left with top teams than anyone, right?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: They still have three games against UConn, a game against BC, a game against Northeastern on Tuesday.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: And let's even throw in a game against Providence because they've played that well.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think they deserve to be in that conversation.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: So six of BU's last nine games are against the top five in the hockey standing.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be really interesting to see how they play.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they've been very, very good recently, and we'll see what they do this week at their brand new Walter Brown Arena.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to this week in Hockey East.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: This segment of Around Hockey East is brought to you by Boston Children's Hospital.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Eric, we want to take a look into the women's standings as well as their upcoming schedules right now because they're reaching the final stretch.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Every team on the women's side has under 10 regular season games left to go, which means we're almost at the woman's side of Hockey East playoffs.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: We got past the bean pot.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're heading into trophy season full force, uh, going towards the Hockey East tournament.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why this last stretch is so important.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, BC and BU tonight, Northeastern plays UConn tomorrow, BC and BU again uh play in February, and then PC has gained ground towards that top four that we've been talking about in the Hockey East standings because they have won a majority of their games in the second half.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: They won seven of eight, and they still get a point in that game against uh BC last weekend.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: So no regulation losses since before the start of the second half.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they're just trying to gain ground because top four teams get to host in the quarterfinal round, top six teams on the women's side get a bye.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have to play in that uh opening round matchup.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's important to finish before six, but you really want to finish up one through four to get to guarantee yourself home ice in the quarterfinal round.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think even just that top six getting buys is important.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you see Maine win a couple of games against New Hampshire last week.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: That could be really crucial going forward for them.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be interesting to see how this shakes out.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: But as you said, we're getting right into the thick of it here down the stretch.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: I also wanted to mention, you know, on the men's side, a couple of not home and homes, but you know, a couple of big weekends here.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: UMass has Merrimack on Friday, and then they have to go up to Maine for a one-off on Sunday.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: So a long trip just for the one game.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: Merrimack on the other side, after they play UMass, they'll play at UMass Lowell on Saturday.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Both of these teams feel like they're still kind of right there.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: UMass at 18, Merrimack at 22 as of this recording in the pairwise.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Can either one of them sneak their way up onto the bubble?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Especially UMass, after this weekend, it's basically all tournament teams or teams ahead of them in the pairwise the rest of the way.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's a crazy schedule.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: So if they could find a way to, you know, get some points here, especially on the road at Maine, could go a long way to seeing.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like there's still a push here for UMass to get into the conversation in terms of the national picture and for both these teams to try to move up the hockey standing.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: So something to watch this weekend.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: When we come back, we'll take some short shifts.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk a little bit more about the Yukon Huskies, number four in the country.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: How did they get there?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that when we come back.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's time for short shifts presented by the Shift Group, helping former athletes and veterans become elite business professionals.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And Eric, we talked about how the men's side has so many hockey east teams in the top 15 of the pairwise.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: But what's interesting is the order has changed quite a bit in the last two weeks.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, UConn has really jumped up quite a bit.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think, you know, we've been saying so much that the strength of Hockey East is helping all these teams.