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The Border Battle Comes to NESN! · This Week in Hockey East

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this episode of This Week in Hockey East.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Bridget Crew here with Eric Galanti, wishing everybody a happy Valentine's Day.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And Eric, by the way, there's nothing more romantic and nothing more key to getting to a girl's heart than chocolate, ice cream, and hockey tickets.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're if you're looking for a gift to get your girlfriend, uh bring her to a hockey game this weekend.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about a lot of matchups that are coming up that are really great that you're not gonna want to miss.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: But first, we're gonna go into a recap of what happened on Monday, which was another incredible bean pot championship for Boston University.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they had some some of their uh alumni back to watch this game.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Eric, you were there as well.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about BC BU and the championship for the Terriers.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a really impressive performance by BU.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think the resiliency of the Terriers really stood out because, you know, as Jane Pandolfo said, that first period was not it, right?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, BC kind of dominated that first period, and Jay Pandolfo said he felt like his team was kind of, I don't know if the word is nervous, or it just like they weren't in the flow of the game, right?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you and I were even talking about it.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a few people about it there.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: It felt like this classic, you better be up more than one-nothing after the period that BC put together, but they only found the one past Yagorov.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then when BU found their game, and not that it was a blowout kind of until the, you know, empty net or at the end of the third period, but when BU found their game, they really played well.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that, you know, that second period, you know, a couple goals in a really short span.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: But after the first, it really felt like as good as Jagorov was, and we'll talk about him in a second, there weren't as many great A's for Boston College the last two periods.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a credit to BU.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's a credit to their defense.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that we talked a lot about last year when BU was going right was how many shots they blocked.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: That was back on display yesterday.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: They had 26, or Monday, I should say, excuse me, they had 26 block shots in the game.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I really think more than anything, I was just really impressed with their defense and the confidence they played with in front of Mike Yagorov.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, some of that's about the goalie, but I think it's about the full defensive effort as well for BU and how they bounced back and overcame what was a 1-0 deficit, eventually to a two-to-one and then a three-to-one lead.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and in the first period, they only had one shot in the first 10 minutes.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Pandolffel, the word that he used was scared.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: We looked scared in the first.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: He also said that he didn't like the start in the first round of the beanpot.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said we have some young players that factors in and people were nervous.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Shane Lachance, one of the captains, talked about it after the game as well.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Cole Hudson acknowledging that it wasn't his best first period.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: But then once they started to really settle in after that first 10 minutes, they started to look really good.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And Yagorov was one of those guys who helped them settle down because they knew they were playing out in front of a guy, though, even though he's so young, he's just a freshman, only played a few games in this league.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he was he was back there to lock it down and did a great job.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up with a career high, 43 saves in the win.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he ends up winning the goalie of the tournament, obviously.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: When usually that goes to the winning team's goalie, and he was once again outstanding.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he was just happy to be there.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: He made 69 of 72 saves uh in the bean pot as a whole.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought he looked really comfortable and didn't look like a rookie out there at all.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So uh congratulations to him on what was uh, you know, his first real big taste of the big show, his first tournament win, you know, the first trophy of trophy season, if you will.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: This kid is a real deal, and he's going to make a big difference in the second half for BU.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you think about it, what was the storyline we talked about all season with BU?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is that they can score, they can put goals in the back of the net, but they were having trouble on the other end.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were giving up a lot as well.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like when you have him back there, you don't have to worry about that as much.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's been really uh keeping other teams off the board, only allowing one in the beam pot championship game.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: There's a reason he was a second round pick, right?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, he has had that prospect, he is thought of that highly, and we've certainly seen that.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, the thing that's kind of amazing to me is the way he settled into these games.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's five starts now.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's allowed a first period goal in each of those five starts, and a few of them have been really pretty early on in those games.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: But after the first period, he is only allowed two goals in these five starts.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, one of those was an overtime goal to Merrimax.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So even if you take that out for a second, that being three on three, he has a 989 save percentage in the second and third periods of his five games in college.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that kind of says it all, right?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you're gonna get him and if you're gonna get BU right now, you got to get to them early because he really kind of settles into the flow of the game, and that certainly stands out.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think another, you know, last point that's worth talking about and a little more on the Boston College side of it, is that, you know, these two teams are so good.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's any surprise that we're gonna, you know, see both of these teams down the way in the playoff runs once again, is how hard it is for the second year in a row.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Boston College wins the two games in the regular season and loses the game in the bean pot last year in the semifinal, this year in the final.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, maybe BC outplayed him those first two games.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that, you know, the second game was really pretty even.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: BC probably played better the first night at the Gannis this year, but with these two levels of teams, it's so hard to win three times in a row in a span of what 15 days.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's just so difficult against the team that's the level of a Boston University.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And BC will continue their beanpot drought.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's been since 2016.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: BU is now a beanpot champion once again for the first time since 2022.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh, J Pandoffel becomes one of those coaches who was wanted as a player, wanted as a coach, and and he was really excited celebrating that uh yesterday or Monday, I should say.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at who they had in attendance, they had Macklin Celebrini, they had Lane Hudson, because it's the Four Nations break.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody that's not playing in that gets two weeks off.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so they decided to come back to Boston.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they read out the lineups before the game, they were on the bench celebrating during the banner raising and the trophy raising.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it was nice for them to be a part of that where they did not get to celebrate that last year.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Macklin didn't get to hoist the trophy at the bean pot last year.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so just to be around and shows some support for some of the guys.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Lane Hudson has two brothers on the team, but Macklin's still friends with a lot of people as well.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So just an all-around good moment for BU uh players, fans, and alumni.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And just as a final point, I know we're going long on this segment, but it's impressive at the end of this tournament every year.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: You still see how much it means, even 72 editions of this tournament later.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: It still means so much in this Boston market.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And congratulations to BU.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see how both of these teams kind of go from here and what we'll see down the rest of the year.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have a couple of big games, though, this weekend to look towards.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll start on Saturday up in Maine.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's coming up here on This Week in Hockey East.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to This Week in Hockey East.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have a great game on Saturday.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to be up at Alphon Arena for my first time there.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Jim Connolly and I will be there as Maine takes on their rivals, New Hampshire, in this border battle.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Two games this weekend, Friday, Saturday.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: We will be there at 7 o'clock Saturday night for Nesson.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with this Maine team who comes off a tough, but they did a good job in that series, I thought, against Providence to come out with four of six points.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And now they enter this weekend just two points behind Boston College for first place.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, those were important points for them to get against another top 10 team in the pairwise.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Providence wasn't able to handle some of the pushes that Maine made.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: They were getting outshot heavily in that first game.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um by the way, both of these were on the road at Providence.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So they're getting outshot.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was the first game of the season that they were outshot by a team, but they still ended up finding a way to win.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so they go, they they take that first game on Friday.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a scoreless game on Saturday into overtime, and that's what we're gonna get to next.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Taylor McCar show was really just in effect this weekend.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: He had two goals in the first meeting.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: He had the short-handed breakaway goal and the game time goal late in the third that ended up with Maine ending in a shootout win.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then Saturday, the overtime game winner.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a one-to-nothing overtime win for Maine against PC.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Taylor McCarr, he's an abs draft pick, just like his brother Kale.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he's now on a five-game goal streak heading into the series against UNH, who's just been on fire recently.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And some other notes about the Black Bears.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they've been doing pretty well so far in 2025 through their 10 games, they're 6-2-2.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they got, they're just two points, like you mentioned, behind Boston College for that first place in Hockey East, still hanging out in the top of the parwise.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So things have been going pretty well for them here in the second half as well.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they really have.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think one of the things that stands out is just how good they are at home, right?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so you have this challenge for New Hampshire to go in and try to take on this main team, but they've been able to take care of business at home, but they're starting to pick points up on the road as well, right?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: You just talked about it with their weekend at Providence.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: The thing that's impressed me about this main team all season, and Ben Barr was talking about this early in the year, is that the strength of their group is their depth, right?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: We can pick out players to talk about that's worth mentioning, right?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you certainly do that with Scott and you do that with Freel and all his power play goals.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: And Albin Boya has been just absolutely incredible.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, it's really the full depth of their team, I think.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it kind of stands out how little we've talked about uh Josh Nadeau because he doesn't have to be that main guy that he had to be certain times, no pun intended, last year.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they're just so deep as a team, which makes them so difficult to beat.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And to take a look at the goalie matchup, we got Albin Boya as our night shift all academic player of the week.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is gonna be an interesting matchup because him and Whale, they've both had different stretches of the season where they've looked really strong.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Eric, you saw New Hampshire's goaltending last week.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I gotta tell you, I thought Jared Whale was really good on uh in the game against Boston College on Friday.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, they end up losing that game four to two.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: One of them's an odd bounce.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you got a little bit of the depth scoring from BC, but I thought Whale did a really good job to keep that game where it was.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: The thing that's fascinating about New Hampshire, and you know, it's been a tough stretch.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: We we we've talked about it a lot.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: We know what their record is recently.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the analytics, the underlying numbers, love this New Hampshire team and the amount that they create.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that kind of matches with the eye test.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need to go seven rounds on, you know, I could talk about unblocked shot goals 4%.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: It just, but it the point is it matches up with I think what we're seeing, which is a team that works really hard, which creates opportunities, and maybe just isn't having the luck that we've seen from other teams across Hockey East, especially on their power play.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: UNH just generates more high danger chances than any team in the country on their power play, looking at a couple of different metrics.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: They just, you know, they've scored at times, but they just haven't been able to score enough to put it together.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the good news for UNH, Ryan Con me's starting to come on, Liam Devlin's starting to come on, Siliclare's starting to come on.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: They all had points against BC.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Their points kind of dried up a little bit at the beginning of this second half of the season.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: So if those guys can come on, if Whale can play well, like Sousa talked to us last week, he said, we need our best players to be our best players.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it felt like in more moments than there had been the last couple of weeks, those guys were their best players.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be interesting to see now how they do it going up into a packed environment.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: And as we always say in games like this, you throw the records out when you have a rivalry game.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: And once again with New Hampshire, if they can get one or two of these on the road, they're right back in it.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the stakes as we get to Alphon Arena this weekend.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we'll be there Saturday night for you, 7 o'clock on Nesson.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: More to come as we go around Hockey East on the other side of this break.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back inside this episode of This Week in Hockey East.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to go around the women's side, brought to you by Boston Harbor Hotel.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: First, we want to get to some clinching news because we're getting towards the end of the season and two teams have already clinched Home Ice advantage in the first round or in the quarterfinal rounds.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's UConn and Boston University with their wins on Saturday.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: They both guaranteed themselves a spot on Home Ice for the quarterfinal round.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that also means that they're certainly avoiding that opening round series.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So for UConn, they had a six-point weekend with a win over BU and Holy Cross.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And BU has won six of their last seven games to help them along to that uh clinch that they were able to get.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to start with our UConn matchup this week because they don't have an easy schedule to finish out the regular season.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: They have a home and home series against PC this week, and then they go back for a head-to-head series against BU in the final weekend that could determine who finishes first in the hockey east standings this year.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's almost like the schedule makers knew what they were doing, setting up a really great finish.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: She has a couple of big series this weekend, big series next weekend.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, UConn, as I think, really stood out last weekend to go get that win on the road and put themselves back in the conversation, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: If they drop that game, all of a sudden they're kind of four or five points back with just two weekends left, which already becomes tough to overcome.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: But now it's just a one-point difference going into these last two weekends.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: So UConn's playing really well.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: The question I want to see is can they score enough, right?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: They did it against BU on Friday.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: They needed just one goal on Saturday to beat Holy Cross.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: But of these five teams that we're talking about in the mix, Providence has probably been the one that scored the most here recently.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um I only I know they only scored one against BU on Saturday, but they've had their three, four, five goal games in this stretch where they've gotten back in the top five.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, is it a Yukon style game?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Is it a Providence style game?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I think you look for in that series this weekend.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have BC and Northeastern playing a Friday-Sunday series.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Both of these teams have had some big moments this year, maybe struggled a little bit here recently at times, um, picking up, you know, kind of six-point weekends.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: But between BC, Northeastern, and Providence, theoretically, only two of those teams can get a home game in the quarterfinals.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's basically three for two spots, and then you have BU and UConn competing at the top.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be really interesting to see how this weekend shakes out, and then we'll be able to look at what is on the line when BU takes on Yukon next weekend to decide the Hockey East regular season title.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot to still sort out, even just with two weeks to go in the regular season.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: We'll go around Hockey East on the men's side when we come back.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to this week in Hockey East.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: We continue around Hockey East, presented by Boston Children's Hospital.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think we got to spend some time on UMass here.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: They'll play a home and home series with Boston College this weekend.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: We teased this a little bit if you were with us last week.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: So of all the bubble teams that have kind of been floating around, UMass is the one now that's in position to jump into the field.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: As we record this right now, they're all the way up to 14th in the pairwise.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: But remember, that's still outside looking in because of the three potential one-bid leagues where we stand right now.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, putting that piece of it aside, UMass has really done what they've needed to.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about this stretch, right?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: They're in a stretch where they have 10 games in a row to finish the season against top 18 teams.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Eight of those 10 are in the NCAA tournament right now.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, they played the game at Maine.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't win, but they actually moved up in the pairwise.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: They got the win over UConn, though, most importantly, last Friday.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: They were down three to one in that game.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: They scored a bunch of unanswered goals to end up winning five to four.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Jack Musa ends up with a hat trick on Friday because of it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: He's our service credit union scoring leader for the weekend.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: He's got a six-game point streak right now.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: He's one of a couple of guys on this UMass team with six-game point streaks, five goals, five assists, ten points in those six games.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Greg Carvel adjusted his lines a little bit, going back to that Merrimack weekend.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: He's put Jack Musa with Lucas Mercury and Cole O'Hara, who's been in the national scoring leaders all season long.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that line has been exceptional since they've been put together.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Over the last seven games, they've combined for 34 points and a plus 25 rating between those three guys.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that really stands out for UMass.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Their offense has been trending in a good way.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, the power play, which has stood out so much.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Earlier in the season, it was all about their forwards, which is different for UMass, right?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because in the past we've always been talking about Ufko and Moro and Makar on the back end.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: But now they've done a really good job of kind of tinkering a little bit with the power play, but it's been working.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's nearly at 30% this year, almost 28% officially.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: So power play is good.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: They have a chance to take advantage of that.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And if they can find a way on Friday, just to show how close they are right now in the picture.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: If they beat Boston College on the road on Friday, obviously you can't just do it in a vacuum.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Other things have to happen, but they're in.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: They're in the NCAA tournament.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: So as we've talked about a lot, the opportunity the next couple of weeks is there for UMass.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it starts this weekend with BC.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're talking about the national picture for them, but to just hone it into the Hockey East picture as well.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: If they keep this trend going, they might be able to gain some ground on that really tightly packed middle group.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's four teams that are not separated by a lot of points.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's Lull, Merrimack, PC, and UMass just trying to jump up a few spots and get a better seating position for the Hockey East tournament.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it should be really exciting.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot still in the mix, and we'll talk a lot about it over the next few weeks.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: When we come back, we'll finish up with some short shifts and get you set for the weekend here on This Week in Hockey East.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to our show.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's time to take some short shifts presented by the Shift Group, helping former athletes and veterans become elite business professionals.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: Bridget, I know you were looking at the monthly awards on the women's side.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's some really impressive performances that we saw.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we always end up talking about the men's side of things.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's really nothing different this month.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan Leonard, the player of the month again, Teddy Stega, rookie of the month.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So uh those are some names we've talked about quite a lot this season.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to get to the women's side, which Julia Pellerin was named the Hockey East player of the month of January.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: 12 points for her, seven goals, five assists.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of those came early on against Maine.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: She had a five-point game.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so she's been having an awesome second half.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: But then there were also players contesting for that.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: There was Audrey Knapp and Reichen Kirchmeyer from Providence College, who each had six goals of their own in the month of January.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they were going to be in contention for that award as well, but Julia Pellerin with the most points, so it makes sense.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Then we look at Lisa Jensen, the rookie of the month.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: She was 7-2-0 in January.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: She was the MVP for Northeastern in their beanpot championship game.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: She had a shutout, four to nothing, made 30 stops.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: She's had uh a great rookie season as a whole.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So uh good to see her get some recognition with the monthly awards as well.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then Tori Mariano, also on Northeastern, named Defender of the Month.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then Hope Walinski from Providence College is our goalie of the month.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: She helped PC to an 8-1-0 record in January.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's the most wins they've had in January.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: In over 25 years, you'd have to go back to 1999.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we're also going to call her our Jersey Mike's sub-above player to watch this week because again, as they take on UConn, we know how many games UConn is one, one goal games, low-scoring games.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So as much as we talk about Providence can maybe score a little bit as they have recently, if it's one of those one-nothing games, you have to rely on your goaltenders.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see how she does this weekend in a really crucial series.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, couple of things I wanted to point out before we go.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, we talked to you about earlier in the season when we revealed the Nesson and Hockey schedule.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: There were some flex dates at the end of the year.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: So we could make sure we're bringing you the best games.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna focus around the race for the number one seed on the men's side and the women's side.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: So our flex dates just released the other day.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Coming up next Friday on Friday Night Hockey East on Nesson, we're gonna go to Yukon because the main Black Bears, they enter the weekend, as we said, just two points behind Boston College.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: They will be there to take on Yukon.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Crucial series for both first place and a potential quarterfinal home game after a bye for UConn.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: So Maine at UConn.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: The very next day on Saturday will bring you the finale of the regular season with first place could potentially be on the line on the women's side when UConn and BU meet at Walter Brown Arena.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then our final flex date, the last Friday in February, Boston College, number one in Hockey East right now on the men's side.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: They'll host New Hampshire.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Will the Eagles be in a position to potentially clinch?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Will Maine be right on their heels?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: So those are our flex dates the next couple of weeks that we'll be talking about right here on this week in Hockey East.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then finally, before we go, how about this for a cool story?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: How about Hockey East women's linesman Eva Erickson has been selected to be on Survivor 48 next season?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: What a cool thing that is for her.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we'll see if she can use any of her skills that she's learned being in these hockey East games as she goes and competes on Survivor.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, congratulations and best of luck to Eva as she embarks on that really special journey.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: We can't wait to watch.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what's going on here this week in Hockey East.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for joining us as always.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll talk to you next week.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're hitting the stretch run here.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Fun times in college hockey.