www.HockeyEastOnline.com Pete Souris Director of Public Relations Hockey East Association MEN’S 591 North Ave – #2 Wakefield, MA 01880 WEEKLY Office: (781) 245-2122 Cell: (603) 512-1166 RELEASE [email protected] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010 WEEKLY RELEASE #22 UNH PICKS UP REGULAR-SEASON TITLE; UMASS SWEEPS AT MAINE ~BC, UML, Merrimack take three points; BU sweeps NU in final weekend~ Wakefield, Mass. - Boston University and Massachusetts swept their respective series in the final weekend of regular-season play in a wild finish to the last night of play. Boston College, RECENT RESULTS UMass and Merrimack all took three points to solidify their playoff positing, while New Hampshire Friday, March 5 earned its eighth regular-season title in school history on Friday pulling out a 3-3 tie at the Whit- No. 5 BC 3 at No. 10 UNH 3 * OT temore Center. at Boston University 5, Northeastern 4 * The Minutemen got huge performances from Athletic Republic Player of the Week Justin Merrimack 5 at Providence 0 * Braun (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) and Casey Wellman (Brentwood, Calif.) Braun registered five at UMass-Lowell 5, Vermont 2 * points (4g,1a) in the sweep of Maine at Alfond Arena to climb back into the playoffs. Wellman also Massachusetts 5 at Maine 2 * notched a five-point (1g,4a) series for the Minutemen. Merrimack earned its first playoff berth since 2004 with a three-point weekend against Saturday, March 6 Providence College, which started with a 5-0 shutout on Friday at Schneider Arena. Sophomore at No. 5 Boston College 3, No. 10 UNH 2 * netminder Joe Cannata (Wakefield, Mass.) tallied 34 saves for his second shutout of the season Boston University 4 at Northeastern 3 * for the Warriors. Providence 1 at Merrimack 1 OT * The Terriers secured the third seed in the tournament with a pair of victories on Friday (5-4) Vermont 1 at UMass-Lowell 1 OT * and Saturday (4-3) to knock the Huskies out of the tightest playoff race in league history. Sopho- Massachusetts 4 at Maine 3 * more Chris Connolly (Duluth, Minn.) had a four-point weekend (1g,4a) for the Terriers with a +4 plus/minus rating. UPCOMING GAMES Boston College took three points from the Wildcats, but they still finished one point shy. Friday, March 12 The ‘Cats battled back from a 3-0 deficit on Friday and the Eagles edged the win on Saturday at Hockey East Quarterfinals Game 1 Conte Forum. UNH enters the tournament as No. 1 seed for the third time in the last four sea- No. 8 Vermont at No. 1 UNH (B2) sons. Sophomore forward Paul Carey (Weymouth, Mass.) scored the game-winner 2:44 into the No. 7 Massachusetts at No. 2 BC (B2) final period in the series finale to give the Eagles their league-leading 16th victory of the season. No. 6 Merrimack at No. 3 Boston U. (7:30 NESN) Wildcat goalie Brian Foster (Pembroke, Mass.) posted 69 saves (.920 save%) on the weekend to No. 5 UMass-Lowell at No. 4 Maine (B2) keep the Eagles offense from breaking out, which included 39 in Saturday’s losing effort. The River Hawks also took three points from Vermont, as they opened the weekend with a Saturday, March 13 5-2 victory at the Tsongas Center and followed that up with a 1-1 tie on Saturday. Pure Hockey Hockey East Quarterfinals Game 2 Defensive Player of the Week Carter Hutton (Thunder Bay, Ont.) had another solid weekend stop- No. 8 Vermont at No. 1 UNH (B2) ping 42 of 45 (.933 save%) Catamounts shots. No. 7 Massachusetts at No. 2 BC (B2) No. 6 Merrimack at No. 3 Boston U. (B2) 2009-2010 HEA STANDINGS No. 5 UMass-Lowell at No. 4 Maine (B2) Saturday, March 13 Rk. Team GP W L T Pts Overall Conf. Off. Conf. Def. Hockey East Quarterfinals Game 3 1. New Hampshire *& 27 15 6 6 36 16-11-7 3.75 (98) 2.92 (77) (if neccessary) 2. Boston College * & 27 16 8 3 35 21-10-3 3.72 (99) 2.24 (61) No. 8 Vermont at No. 1 UNH (B2) 3. Boston University * & 27 13 12 2 28 16-15-3 3.36 (93) 3.36 (91) No. 7 Massachusetts at No. 2 BC (B2) Maine * & 27 13 12 2 28 16-15-3 3.54 (95) 3.33 (90) No. 6 Merrimack at No. 3 Boston U. (B2) UMass-Lowell * 27 12 11 4 28 18-14-4 3.08 (82) 2.79 (72) No. 5 UMass-Lowell at No. 4 Maine (B2) 6. Merrimack * 27 12 13 2 26 15-17-2 3.12 (82) 3.29 (85) Massachusetts * 27 13 14 0 26 18-16-0 2.52 (72) 3.24 (86) * denotes Hockey East Game 8. Vermont * 27 9 11 7 25 15-12-7 3.00 (78) 3.04 (82) All Games are EST 9. Northeastern 27 11 14 2 24 16-16-2 2.58 (70) 3.12 (87) 10. Providence 27 5 18 4 14 10-20-4 1.79 (46) 3.17 (84) * clinched playoff berth; & clinched quarterfinal playoff home ice ATHLETIC REPUBLIC PRO AMBITIONS PURE HOCKEY DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK ROOKIE OF THE WEEK PLAYER OF THE WEEK JUSTIN BRAUN ALEX CHIASSON CARTER HUTTON MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON UNIVERSITY UMASS-LOWELL Senior Defenseman; Vadnais Heights, Minn. Freshman Forward; St. Augustin, Que. Senior Goaltender; Thunder Bay, Ont. Braun netted four goals and an assist in a weekend sweep over Maine. He had two goals and an assist in Chaisson recorded a goal, two assists and a Hutton backstopped the River Hawks to a three- Friday’s 5-2 win and two goals in Saturday’s 4-3 win. He plus-3 rating in the home-and-home sweep of point weekend, stopping 42-of-45 (.933) shots also finished with a +5 rating while logging almost 40 Northeastern. vs. Vermont. minutes of ice time per game. BOSTON COLLEGE • BOSTON UNIVERSITY • UNIVERSITY of MAINE • UNIVERSITY of MASSACHUSETTS • UMASS-LOWELL MERRIMACK COLLEGE• UNIVERSITY of NEW HAMPSHIRE • NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY • PROVIDENCE COLLEGE • UNIVERSITY of VERMONT HOCKEY EAST WEEKLY TOP PERFORMERS Alex Beaudry, PC (So., Cumberland, Ont.) Made 37 saves in a 1-1 overtime tie against Merrimack on Saturday. Nick Bonino, BU (Jr., F, Unionville, Conn.) Registered a goal and two assists in BU’s two-win weekend against Northeastern. Scott Campbell, UML (Jr., F, Navan, Ont.) Scored three points (2g, 1a) in a win and tie with Vermont while recording a +2 rating. Netted the game-tying goal on Saturday. Joe Cannata, MC (So., G, Wakefield, Mass.) Stopped 34 shots for his second shutout of the season in a 5-0 win over Providence. Paul Carey, BC (So., F, Weymouth, Mass.) Scored the game-winning goal at 2:44 of the third period in BC’s 3-2 win over New Hampshire on Saturday. Zach Cohen, BU (Sr., F, Schaumburg, Ill.) Scored a goal in each of the Terriers’ win against Northeastern to take the team lead in tallies with 15. Chris Connolly, BU (So., F, Duluth, Minn.) Had a pair of two-point nights in the weekend sweep of NU, tallying a goal and three assists to go along with a +4 rating. Stephane Da Costa, MC (Fr., F, Paris, France) Tallied two assists and nine shots over the weekend in the series against Providence. Paul Dainton, UMass (Jr., G, Genelle, B.C.) Won both games in the weekend sweep over Maine making 59 saves while allowing five goals. He made 35 saves on Saturday. Phil DeSimone, UNH, (Jr. F, East Amherst, N.Y.) Tallied a team-best three points this weekend with helpers in two assists on Friday and one goal on Saturday night. Brian Dumoulin, BC (Fr., D, Biddeford, Maine) Tallied two points, including his first collegiate goal in Saturday’s 3-2 win over UNH and was on the ice for all six BC goals. Ryan Flanigan, MC (So., F, Rochester, NY..) Tallied a pair of first-period goals at Providence for his first career multi-goal game. Brian Foster, UNH, (Sr., G, Pembroke, N.H.) Stopped 69 shots over the weekend lifting the New Hampshire to a tie (30 saves) and its eighth regular season title on Friday. Kyle Kraemer, NU (Sr., F, St. Louis, Mo.) Was the second Husky to score two powerplay goals this year in his farewell to Matthews Arena on Saturday. Rob Madore, UVM (So., G, Pittsburgh, Pa.) Stopped 35 shots in Saturday’s 1-1 tie against UMass-Lowell. Jake Newton, NU (Fr., D, San Jacinto, Calif.) Turned in his first-career two-goal performance against BU on Friday and topped it off with a pair of assists on Saturday. Will O’Neill, Maine (So., D, Salem, Mass.) Scored a goal and added two assists for the Black Bears on the weekend vs. UMass. Ben Smith, BC (Sr., F, Avon, Conn.) Tallied three primary assists (on six BC goals) in BC’s 1-0-1 weekend against New Hampshire. Brett Watson (Sr., F, Media, Pa.) Scored the game-winning goal against Maine on Saturday giving UMass a sweep of the weekend and the 7th seed in the HEA playoffs. Casey Wellman (So., F, Brentwood, Calif.) Had a five point (1g,4a) weekend in the weekend sweep over Maine to put UMass in the Hockey East Playoffs. The 26th Annual HOCKEY EAST CAREER FIRSTS/MILESTONES/WHO’S HOT? Patch ALBER, BC (CLIFTON PARK, N.Y.) Tallied his first collegiate point, the primary assist on Paul Carey’s CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT game-winning goal in BC’s 3-2 win over New Hampshire March 19-20, 2010 CAM ATKINSON, BC (GREENWICH, CONN.) Tallied two assists in BC’s 3-2 win on Saturday, marking his 10th at the TD Garden, Boston, Mass.