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Battle of Comm. Ave hits the BEANPOT! · This Week in Hockey East

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of This Week in Hockey East.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Eric and Bridget here with you once again.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have a loaded show for you.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're in the midst of Beanpot.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: These hockey standings are really getting interesting.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to dive into both sides.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: But let's start with our Friday night hockey east on Nesson game as we head up to New Hampshire as the number one ranked Boston College Eagles off of their Beanpot win Monday night over Northeastern.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: We'll take on New Hampshire, just one game for the weekend for BC as they go to New Hampshire.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with these Wildcats, Bridget, who on the one hand, it's been a little bit of a struggle recently.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: On the other hand, they are still right there in the national picture.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're still number 15 in the pairwise as of this recording.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So they're still top 15.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they've had a really difficult strength of schedule over the last uh few weeks.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you look at it, it the results don't look great.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: But when you think about who they've been playing, they had five games against top 10 teams in the pairwise.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: They had two against UConn, they had three against BU, and now they're going against the number one team in the country.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they're catching them in this weird week or this weird game in the week in between the first round and the second round of the bean pot, which sometimes teams can kind of get ahead of themselves and think about that championship game.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you never know if it's going to be a down game for a team.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: You might be able to catch them in kind of a weird situation where they're coming off this really extreme high energy, high-emotional win to go now play BU in the championship game.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it'll be interesting to see how they are when you catch them.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you look at the UNH power play, it's actually been doing pretty well uh solid over the last stretch.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Power play goals in six of their last seven games.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's still been clicking for them.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Robert Cronin, uh, he's been excellent since November 30th.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's had points in every game but three.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So he's he's somebody to keep an eye out on if you're looking at the UNH side of things.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at where BC and UNH are coming in, BC obviously solidified themselves over the last few weeks as that number one team in the country.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And UNH is trying to inch their way up closer inside that cut line, which should be around 13 for those pairwise ranked teams that'll make an out-large bid.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's gonna be interesting because BC is coming off that eight to two win, which is the most goals they've scored in a game this season.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see if they can continue to put up that kind of offense or if there's any kind of letdown against you in an end.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, off of that point, the best place to start with Boston College is, you know, I was having this conversation with a couple people in the press box Monday night.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, yeah, I think we all knew that BC's ranked number one in the country.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Northeastern has had their, you know, struggles at times this year.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so Boston College certainly a favorite in that final.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: But there were all these, you know, let's call them yeah buts, right?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, BC's better.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but Northeastern's so good in this tournament, right?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: But Northeastern has dominated BC at TD Garden.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know that BC hadn't beaten Northeastern at TD Garden since 2014 before last night.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a crazy stat.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the fact that BC hadn't been in a final since 2019, the fact they hadn't won since 2016.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So there are all those things floating around, even to the point of, you know, this game they play during Beanpot Week can kind of be a trap game, right?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: All of that, they're just thrown out the window, right?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: 42 seconds into that game, you were there, I was there, that Stiga goal goes in and it was over.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like, that's obviously me being a little bit um, you know, over-exaggerating, but it's been that kind of presence for them as the number one team, right?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: They've found such a way to just put these games away.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with Lowell.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you go back to that Lowell game last week.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: They've combined to win these last two games, 12-2.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: They were never really in doubt.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so now BC has an eight-game win streak, matches Providence for the longest this year.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I thought one of the interesting pieces, so we're win number 20 last night for Boston College.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're at this point, 25 games into the season.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: BC now is 24-1.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: They're ahead of last year's pace at this point.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Last year they didn't win their 20th game until game 26.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: They had the same record going into beanpot.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: But the crazy thing is, 25 games into the season last year, they had given up 59 goals, which certainly is not a lot, right?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty good number.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: This year through 25 games, they've given up 42 goals.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's remarkable how well this team has played defense.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then when you combine that with, they really showed their depth in a big way in that beanpot game, right?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Eight different goal scorers in the game.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: You had three different defensemen score.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: The fourth line had that really big goal that Connor Joyce ends up scoring his first goal of the year.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: 16 players had a point.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we know all the Ryan Leonard stuff.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: We'll get to the Ryan Leonard stuff.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: He scored again, by the way, on Monday.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So he's now the national leader in goals.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's also our service credit union scoring leader for this week with 23 goals, including 10 over this six-game goal scoring streak for him.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: So we know that's there.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when you combine that with the depth piece and you combine that with the fact of how much they're limiting their opposition, it's just really impressive how ever since the start of that Providence weekend, three weekends ago, they've really kind of put a lid on things, and they're basically like a 90% chance here to be the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament, still with this much time left.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: So uh that really stands out with this Eagles team.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Eric, you didn't even say Jacob Fowler yet.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know, right.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: That too.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jacob Fowler, who is one of the best goalies in the country, and he's been playing like that.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you go down by two goals to BC, you're probably not going to be able to come back because he does just doesn't give up goals.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you have even if BC even gets a small lead, you know Jacob Fowler is normally there to stop everything on the other side of the ice.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: So he's just been really good and certainly a big factor in them being number one.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: It is worth noting this is the first of three games between these two teams, BC and UNH, over the last, over the next month of the season, I should say, in February.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So again, we'll like UNH, like we've talked about with UMass, like we've talked about with some teams, there are opportunities because of how hard the schedule is for these teams to jump back in.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: The question is now, can they take care of business?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: And especially for UNH, because they need those hockey's points for where they are right now.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about the pairwise so much.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about the hockey standings a little later in the show, but they desperately need those hockey points.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: So should be a fun night at the WIT coming up on Friday, BC and UNH.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk a little bit more about BC as we get into a recap of what we saw Monday night at the Beanpot and look ahead to the championship between BC and BU for the first time since 2016.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's coming up here on This Week in Hockey East.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to This Week in Hockey East.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk a little beanpot.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about Boston College a little bit in our first segment, but of course, the Beanpot Monday night will feature a BU and BC final.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: The Terriers got a big win as well over Harvard 7-1.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: It ends up being the most lopsided semifinal round since the early 70s in this tournament.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll see our first BCBU final since 2016.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Bridget, what stood out to you about the Terriers performance?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, they're they had a huge win over Harvard, so they put up a touchdown kind of crazy to look at the numbers, but they started out trailing in this game.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: They gave up a power play goal early.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were down 1-0 to Harvard.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then once the second period started, they got things back on track.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Jay Pandolphul said that he wasn't really all that surprised that they had a slow start considering how young the team is and some of the youthful players that it was their first time playing in a venue like this at TD Garden.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, and that included eight freshmen with Mikey Goroff, the goaltender, being one of those.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So uh definitely a young team, shook it off in the second period, uh, and look, didn't look back.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: They had uh they outscored Harvard five to nothing in the second shots were 16 to 4.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And before we get any further, I know we're gonna show you a lot of the highlights from the bean pot.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you this one from Shane Lachance because this one just stood out for the whole day.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was incredible.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: It ended up being the number two best play on Sports Center's top 10 on Monday.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: He scores between the legs to make it two to one.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: That gave BU their first lead of the game, and the Terriers never looked back.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: They piled on seven goals in total en route to securing a spot to the Bean Pot Championship game.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just a stunning goal.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then when you look at the rest of the production, they were able to put up after that, they chased the Harvard goaltender uh in the start of the third period.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it was never really in doubt after that second period what was gonna happen that BU was gonna head for a rematch uh of this Battle of Com Av in the championship game.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So they've already played two times this season.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: BC has taken both of those matchups, but we're gonna get at least a third matchup between BC and BU.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we see a fourth in the playoffs.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: But Eric, tell us about a little bit more about BC.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about them a little bit in the first segment, but what did you take away from the game as a whole?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think that you know, we talked about it a little bit earlier.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think number one was the start, right?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: The fact that, you know, Northeastern's been so good in that tournament.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden Stega scores 42 seconds in, the Powell backbreaker really, it felt like at the end of the first period.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then Leonard makes that play to start the second to Gustafson, and that kind of ended up being it.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think that, you know, you know, Greg Brown mentioned it post-game, as we said, it had been a long time since BC had even been in a final.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we talked about it last week.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Some of those semifinal games were fairly brutal losses.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, a couple of them to BU, that won to Harvard two years ago where BC lost at the overtime buzzer on Merrick Duke's goal.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there was a real motivation to get back to the final, I think for sure.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, it's kind of fascinating here because it sets up basically the same conversation that we had last year because it's right after these two teams just played, right?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're less than three weeks when this game is played from when those two teams played.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, was BC the slightly better team in the regular season for the second year in a row?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Is it really, really hard to beat that good a BU team three times in the span of last year?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was like 14 days.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: This year it's uh whatever, 17, 18, 19 days.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's really hard to beat that team three times in that short a span.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so it creates this sort of vibe with the game.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's the Yagora factor who was really good again.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, Jay Pandolfo keeps saying, you know, he's not from here.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think he really has the, you know, he has the benefit of not knowing how big this is and just going and playing.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And for the second time, you get that really early goal allowed, both on the power play that the BC one obviously we talked a lot about and the one against Harvard on Monday, and then he just settled in.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that was kind of it.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that, you know, sorry, Eric, he made 26 to 27 too.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he still had a good game.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And and I wanted to bring up some other key contributors as well.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Cole Hudson had four points.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Devin Kaplan scored twice.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So these are some other guys that have contributed recently, and and Cole Hudson has done it the whole season.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So those are guys that are gonna probably have to step up to beat a BC team in the final.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess is the last point.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was the thing that Jay Pandolfa was saying coming out of that series against BC?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't score five on five.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: We have to score five on five.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: They've done that the last two weeks, right?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Against New Hampshire, not two weeks, two games, I should say, against New Hampshire and against Harvard.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't do that against BC in the regular season.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: So can they do that Monday night?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be the big question that we'll answer.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the third place game between Northeastern and Harvard, that will be at four o'clock.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: That game will be broadcast this year for the second time.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be on ESPN Plus.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then 7:30 for the championship game, BC and BU in the beanpot final for the first time since 2016.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: We have plenty more to talk about, including we'll head over to the women's side, uh, a big one down in stores on Saturday, right here on Ness, and we'll talk about that when we come back.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to this episode of This Week in Hockey East.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Bridget Prue with Eric Delante, and both of us are going to be broadcasting the Saturday night game on Ness, and it's Holy Cross at UConn Women's Hockey.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: 7:30 puck drop, so a little bit later than usual.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: But Eric, we want to start with looking at Yukon.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: They have a matchup tonight with BU, which is the number two, uh the number one and number two team in the Hockey East standing.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a really big game in terms of determining who gets that first place spot.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have Holy Cross against UConn on Saturday.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it should be really interesting.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, UConn's been going well.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: I know they lost to Northeastern in overtime last weekend, but they had been 8-0-2 prior to that Northeastern loss.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: So really strong second half.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: So they're right there with BU in the hockey standings.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that BU game will be really interesting to see.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then once we get past that, I think the one thing that jumped off the page to me is we kind of look at UConn, and you know, you and I having seen them about a month ago, was the scoring is definitely up a little bit.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they've had three goals in four of their last five games, five their last seven games going back to January 5th.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so they're getting a little bit more offense to go along with how good we know they are defensively.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's nice to see Jada Hobbish have a really nice week.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: She had three goals last weekend.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: She's our night shift all academic standout.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: She's so important to what UConn wants to do.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: She'd gone through her first semester where there were stretches where she was kind of held off the board, right?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: But she's really come to the forefront.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the last thing you got to talk about here is 18 games UConn has played that have been decided by one goal or less already.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's a crazy number.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's tied with Vermont for the most in Hockey East.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: But the bigger number is 10 wins in one goal games, which is by far the most in the league.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that really stands out.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Holy Cross has been in 13 of them, so um, that stands out as well.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: But it's really amazing just how many of these close games Yukon's played, but I've also kind of learned how to win to this point.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: And we're likely to see another one on Saturday.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because like you mentioned, Holy Cross is also a team that's been in a lot of close games this year.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yukon is basically just playing that stereotypical Yukon hockey.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: They're not giving up a lot.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're playing really defensively, frustrating other teams.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then you see Holy Cross, they have that one to nothing overtime win on Saturday where Holy Cross senior defenseman Carmen Elliott scored the game-winning goal.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was senior night a little bit early, and she did sing the Canadian national anthem before the game.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that was just an interesting night for her, getting the overtime game winner uh and also just having that moment before the game to take things in.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at Holy Cross, they they play so many low-scoring games.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it I wouldn't be surprised if that's what the matchup holds for us again on Saturday.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And because of that, they're in all of these games, right?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Even the two games they played against UConn earlier this season, 2-0 and 2-1 at overtime.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: UConn taking five or six points, but they're right there.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we've seen them been able to pick off a couple of these games.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: They've beaten BC twice, tie with Northeastern.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: So um, we'll see what they have on Saturday, and they have Providence uh later on Friday.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: So big weekend for both teams, and we'll see what happens Saturday right here on Nesson.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna take a look at the standings and where things are when we come back.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Let's continue around hockeys presented by Boston Children's Hospital.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Let's look at both standings where we are right now.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about the Paralys all the time, but we wanted to talk about the standings here.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Starting on the women's side, and the biggest jump, as we've talked about a little bit here, just look how far Providence has moved kind of into a clear top five in the women's standings.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's really been remarkable how this Providence team has gone on this run.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they've won nine of their last 10 games.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was the best month of January that they've had since the 90s uh in their program, and definitely the best since Matt Kelly has taken over as head coach.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a great month, and there's been certain players who have been scoring at a really high pace.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those players is Audrey Knapp.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: She almost had two hat-tricks this weekend.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: She had a hat-trick in the first game of the weekend against Maine, including scoring the game-winning goal in overtime.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then she had two goals in the Saturday game against UNH.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: She almost put in a third, a few different chances too.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we were just sitting around thinking, okay, she's gonna get another hat-trick here.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so five goals on the weekend for her, including both the game winners, uh, which helped Providence secure five of the six possible points in the weekend matchups.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So she's been helping them gain that ground in the standings.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and now with those five goals this weekend, she moved herself into the number one goal scorer in hockey east.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: She now has 16 goals on this on the year.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So she's been doing great.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and she's helped them get to that five spot and feel a little bit more comfortable because if you're in the top six teams, that's where the cutoff is for the bye for the first round.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: So they're starting to feel pretty safe there.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the question is, can they get the home ice advantage in the first round, which would mean they have to move up one more spot?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: She didn't get the two hat tricks, but she does get our jersey mics as sub-above player of the week.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the that's the trade-off for her.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it yeah, you so you now you look at, you know, who's get that home game in the quarterfinals?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Is it BC or is it Providence?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that becomes an interesting conversation.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: UConn and BU at the top.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see that uh three times over the next few weeks.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of interesting stuff there.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the Mets standings as well.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really crazy here how some teams are in better position in the pair wise than they are in the hockey standings.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's been that kind of year, right?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And there's kind of mixed match games this week, but there's a couple that stand out in terms of where you're looking at the standings right now.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Number one is Maine and Providence, two games down at Schneider Arena.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Maine, as you can see, has a game in hand with Boston College.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: They're three points back, but that game gets made up this weekend at Providence.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see where they are at the end of this weekend.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: But if they win both and the Eagles win them, they'll be tied for first with a month left.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Providence, on the other side, is looking, you know, outside that first round bye right now.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: So only the top five teams get it.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: So they're now in that position of trying to get into the bye.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: They have played one fewer game than some of the teams ahead of them, so that stands out as well.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then the other big one is Lowell and UConn on Saturday at the XL Center.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Just one game for that series.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: UConn will also play UMass on Friday.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but those are the current four or five seeds.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: So they split a series in November.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: This could be a potential tiebreaker for who gets the home game in that four or five matchup if it stays that way.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's an important thing to look at as well.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then finally, some of the teams sort of near the bottom who have played really well are still kind of close to the tournament picture, UMass and UNH, can they get points in league play uh coming up and to try to get into a home game in that opening round?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: So some of the stuff that stands out as we take a look at the standings picture.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: We'll take some short shifts on the other side of this break when we come back and wrap up our show here on This Week in Hockey East.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's time to take some short shifts presented by the Shift Group, helping former athletes and veterans become elite business professionals.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Bridget, you were at a really entertaining series between Providence and UConn last weekend.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start there.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so my short shift has to do with just the attendance numbers at these games between UConn and PC.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: These are teams in the top 10, and the pair wise UConn had really jumped up.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they end up splitting a season series.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: They start out the Friday game, it goes tied and then into an eight-round shootout.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was one of the most wide open hockey games I've seen, just back and forth action.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Super fun to be on the call for that.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then I always like bonus hockey, so eight-round shootout doesn't bother me at all.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then it ends up being one by UConn.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So they win their game at Providence.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then they head back home to the XL Center where they sold over 11,000 tickets.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a huge turnout uh in Hartford.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then PC got the revenge.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: They took a 6-3 win at Yukon to get back and split that season series or split the weekend series with UConn in front of two really great crowds and some really entertaining hockey.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, largest crowd ever for Yukon men's hockey.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's nice to see the support back up how well that team's played, especially the last month.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And kind of transitioning off of that, we sort of were projecting for you hey, look at this stretch for UConn coming up.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: If they can do something, they're gonna jump up.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: They did that.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: The next team that we're starting to project a little bit, that we're now at that point, is UMass.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: They had the game against Maine on Sunday.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: They lose that game, but they actually moved up in the pairwise to 16th just by playing that game.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And here is where their schedule gets pretty crazy, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Their next three games, they'll be at UConn on Friday night this week, and then a home and home with Boston College.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: They still have two games at the end of the season against Maine, still a home and home with UNH, still games against Lowell.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the schedule has everybody who is ahead of them in the pairwise, is what's left on their schedule.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: If they can find a way to take advantage, pick off one or two of these games, they have a chance to jump into the tournament.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna have to win them because of just the way the pairwise lines up, but the opportunity is there.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk more, UMass, next week when they play that home and home with Boston College.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: But that's sort of the next team to look at.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Can they take that jump into the tournament picture?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: We will find out.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Great episode this week.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of great hockey on the horizon.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: We can't wait to talk about it, including right now from the Whittime Center, as BC goes in to take on New Hampshire.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for joining us for Bridget Prew.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Eric Galante, and that's this week in Hockey East.