Now that I have the bitter taste out of my mouth from the D3HKY MASCAC Semi-final game between Fitchburg State and UMass Darmouth, I can dive into a Massachusetts-centered college hockey conference that has standards and an understanding of how to market itself to both upcoming junior hockey players and hockey fans alike. As has been the case for most of the season, 1^st ranked Boston College and 2^nd ranked Boston University took care of business against lower-rung intraconference competition. Additionally, the other “Power 6” teams in the conference this season were in action, and all saw varying results over the weekend.

               1^st Ranked Boston College whacked Vermont in a pair of contests by scores of 7-1 and 4-2. Friday night’s 6-goal victory saw yet another 3-assist game from Will Smith, while Cutter Gauthier recorded 2 goals in the match. Saturday’s contest saw a pair of three-point outings from Ryan Leonard and Gauthier, as their line, with Will Smith, were the only Eagles to record points in the game. 2^nd ranked Boston University did similar clean-up duty in a pair of contests against UConn, by scores of 6-1 and 6-0 respectively. Macklin Celebrini recorded 4 points in Friday night’s rout. On Saturday, Jeremy Wilmer found a way to outdo Celebrini by scoring 5 points, while the team was backstopped by Mathieu Caron’s 23 save shutout. The last Hockey East team to finish their weekend unbeaten was 12^th ranked Providence College, who left Lowell with a tight 2-1 victory on Saturday over the Riverhawks. Graham Gamache was fantastic, scoring both goals, including the game winner just past the halfway point in the third period.

               After last weekend’s sweep at the hands of UNH, 9^th ranked Maine was looking to get back to their winning ways this weekend against Northeastern. On Friday night, they did just that, winning 5-1 on the merits of Bradly Nadeau and Josh Nadeau’s multi-point performances. Unfortunately for Maine, the Huskies bit back on Saturday with their own 4-0 victory. Alex Campbell was great with two goals in the contest, but his offensive output took second fiddle to Cameron Whitehead’s sensation 39 save shutout. 14^th ranked UMass and 16^th ranked UNH met in a pair of tight contests. Friday saw the Minutemen hold off the Wildcats for a 3-2 victory. Samuli Niinisaari scored two goals in the contest, including the game-winning empty-netter (you hate to see those if you’re on the losing side). The rematch was as tightly contested as the first game, this time with UNH picking up the overtime win courtesy of a Liam Devlin goal 73-seconds into the overtime period.

               The parity of the conference continues to be apparent in the eyes of both Hockey East observers and the National Tournament Committee. We are once again on watch with the Hockey East, that if the “Power 6” win the games that they should win next weekend, the only team that might find themselves on the outside looking in is New Hampshire. If the Wildcats can split, or take both games in their series with 1^st ranked Boston College, the pairwise will fall heavily in the conference’s favor of putting 6 teams into the national tournament in a little over a month.