The fifth weekend of Hockey East action is in the books, and as more intraconference play unfolds, the hierarchy of the conference becomes clearer. The teams at the top in Boston College, Providence, and Maine continued to establish themselves as legitimate national title contenders, where UMass Lowell, Merrimack, and Northeastern failed to do themselves a favor by picking up wins or ties against higher ranked opponents.

At the top of the mountain, Boston College picked up a pair of 3-2 victories against the UML Riverhawks this weekend. Ryan Leonard stood out in both matchups, having the opening goal on Friday, and then a multi-point game on Saturday, which also included the GWG. Maine succeeded in knocking off Merrimack College 2-1 and 5-4 in their respective matchups. Victor Ostman was phenomenal in the matchup on Friday night, but Bradly Nadeau stole the show over the weekend by putting up 4 points, including the game winner on Friday night. Providence and UNH had an entertaining home-and-home series that resulted in a 1-1 tie and a 2-0 Providence win. Credit to Morgan Winters for drawing UNH to the tie Friday at their home rink in Durham to pick up a point and saving face for the program in the pairwise rankings. More credit to the sensational Philip Svedeback for stopping 47 of 48 shots over the weekend and picking up the shutout on Saturday.

              UConn and Vermont would split their weekend by scores of 1-4 and 5-2 respectively. Gabriel Carriere was fantastic in goal for Vermont on Friday, and Ethan Haider the same for UConn on Saturday. The only remarkable offensive outburst in the series came in the form of Matthew Wood’s 2-goal outing for the Huskies on Saturday. Northeastern was defeated 2-1 in OT by UMass Amherst on Friday following a great goal by Kenny Connors (which was assisted by the ever-impressive duo of Jack Musa and Scott Morrow). This loss drops Northeastern to 0-3 in Hockey East play, which could be difficult to dig themselves out from. Moving to the only interconference games on the slate this weekend was the back-to-back series of 3^rd ranked North Dakota at 9^th ranked Boston University. In Friday’s game, Mathieu Caron shined for the Terriers in goal, stopping 30 of 32 enroute to a 3-2 upset victory. Lane Hutson, from the blueline, recorded a hat-trick in Saturday’s matchup, but that was not enough to propel the Terriers to victory, as they still suffered a 5-4 defeat in overtime. As much as I hate to do it, Caron only stopping 16 of 21 in that game was tough to watch, as Friday felt like he had turned the corner for the team, and it now appears that he’s still trying to find himself in their system.

Overall, as this weekend came to its conclusion, the Hockey East is starting to take shape. Next weekend we have several intriguing intraconference series. Boston College and Maine will be entertaining as Ostman has been great for the Black Bears, and their scoring depth has been on display for the last couple of weeks. They could be the first team since Denver to be able to matchup with the Eagles’ high-flying offense and steady defense. Boston University and UMass Lowell also looks to be the series where we find out who the Terriers really are. The River Hawks aren’t an offensive explosive team, but their tight defensive system, and the Terriers’ leaking backend so far this season could prove to be troublesome for the boys from Boston. Finally, in a less tantalizing matchup, UConn and Merrimack will play a series that could be a last-ditch effort to get their seasons back on track and build some confidence. Neither of these teams saw themselves as being sub-500 in their opening 10 games, but that’s where they are, and if either team can pick up the sweep here, it would go a long way in ascending the standings.