College Hockey Update! The Beanpot and Conference Races!

Kris VogtFebruary 16, 2012

0 6 minutes read

Facts About The Beanpot!

Boston College defeated Boston University 3-2 in overtime on Feb 13^th. It was the 12^th Beanpot final to be decided in overtime and the 6^th since 2004.
BU has been in the final 49 times out of the 60 tournaments and BC has played in 32 of the championship games. This year marked the 22^nd time these two schools have played each other for the title.
Harvard University and Northeastern have never played each other in the finals of the Beanpot. Harvard has 25 finals appearances however, while Northeastern has 14.
BU leads the Beanpot with 29 titles, BC in second with 17, Harvard third with 10 titles, and Northeastern far behind with just 4 titles.
In February of 2009, BU and Northeastern played in the only Beanpot Final that involved the top two ranked teams in the college hockey polls. BU won 5-2 scoring 3 shorthanded goals against the Huskies.
BU has the longest title streak at 6 in a row from 1995 to 2000 where they outscored opponents in the finals of those years by a margin of 30 goals scored to 11 allowed.
Every time BU has won the national title (5 in total) they won the Beanpot during that season. The same can be said about BC (4 titles in total but, only 3 titles occurred during the existence of the Beanpot). Harvard has 1 national title in 1989 and Harvard also won the Beanpot that season.

The Beanpot tradition is one of the greatest in all of college hockey. The fight for Boston is over, Boston College is king!

Major Weekend for Conference Races!

The CCHA

Conference Record	Gp	W	L	T	SO	Pts	GF/GA
1. Ferris State	24	14	6	4	1	47	70/56
2. Western Michigan	24	12	9	3	3	42	63/56
3. Michigan	24	12	8	4	1	41	72/53
4. Ohio State	26	11	10	5	1	39	73/71
5. Michigan State	24	11	10	3	2	38	70/62
5. Lake Superior St.	24	10	10	4	4	38	62/63
7. Miami	24	11	11	2	1	36	59/53
7. Notre Dame	24	11	10	3	0	36	60/62
7. Northern Michigan	24	9	9	6	3	36	62/67
10.Alaska	26	8	14	4	2	30	61/70
11. Bowling Green	24	4	16	4	3	19	34/73

The key matchups for this weekend

No 1. Nationally ranked Ferris State Vs Bowling Green. Ferris St needs to take advantage of playing BG because in the final weekend they will face 2^nd place Western Michigan in the regular seasons last weekend.

Another matchup would be 2^nd place Western Michigan playing on the road at t-5^th Lake Superior St. With only a 3 point difference between the teams this series will have major playoff position implications.

It should be a fascinating weekend for the top teams of the CCHA and as well as all the other teams playing for playoff home ice with only 6 points separating 8 teams.

The CCHA is putting together some of the toughest competition in College Hockey.

The WCHA

Conference Record	Gp	W	L	T	PTS	GF/GA
1. Minnesota	22	15	7	0	30	72/47
2. Minnesota Duluth	22	13	6	3	29	82/57
3. Denver	22	12	6	4	28	77/65
4. Colorado College	22	12	9	1	25	76/67
4. Nebraska Omaha	22	10	7	5	25	69/66
6. North Dakota	22	12	10	0	24	63/60
7. Michigan Tech	22	10	9	3	23	75/68
8. Bemidji State	22	9	10	3	21	60/69
8. Saint Cloud State	22	9	10	3	21	64/59
10. Minnesota State	24	8	15	1	17	65/87
11. Wisconsin	22	7	13	2	16	58/71
12. Alaska Anchorage	24	4	19	1	9	49/94

The Major Weekend Matchups

Nebraska Omaha AT Colorado College. This battle between the two 4^th place teams will have a major factor as the race for home ice heats up. With 6^th place North Dakota and 7^th place Michigan tech within a point or two, if NO or CC were swept in this weekend series it could knock them out of home ice.

Home Ice is the major factor for this league again as 6^th place North Dakota faces off against 7^th place Michigan Tech. These two matchups are going to be HUGE for getting Home ice in the first round.

The WCHA as always puts up a battle as one of the toughest to play in.

HEA

Conference Record	Gp	W	L	T	PTS	GF/GA
1. Umass Lowell	21	14	7	0	28	69/49
2. Boston College	21	13	7	1	27	71/56
2. Boston University	21	13	7	1	27	75/53
4. Merrimack	21	11	6	4	26	54/47
4. Maine	22	12	8	2	26	73/68
6. Providence	21	10	10	1	21	62/67
7. New Hampshire	22	9	11	2	20	56/61
8. Umass Amherst	21	6	11	4	16	61/72
8. Northeastern	21	7	12	2	16	58/61
10. Vermont	21	2	18	1	5	46/91

Weekend Matchups

Probably the most exciting matchup’s of the weekend are taking place in Hockey East. Hockey East has 4 teams ranked in the top 10 in the national polls. With 5 teams all within 2 points of League leader Umass Lowell, every single game matters and a bad weekend can drop any of these teams out of home ice in the 1^st round of the playoffs.

Home and Home series between No. 2 Boston University vs No. 6 Umass Lowell

A sweep of either team could spell doom for home ice or winning the regular season title in itself. And with Providence and New Hampshire picking up the pace and streaking right now, dropping in the standings could pose a challenge.

Home and Home series between No. 3 Boston College vs No. 9 Merrimack

With Boston College coming off a Beanpot Title and Merrimack struggling to find the back of the net look for a gritty series where these teams fight for Hockey East supremacy as well.

Hockey East has the closet standings going into this weekend’s games and after the weekend we might know who the better teams in the league are, or we might know just how good all these teams are if we see multiple splits.

ECAC

Conference Record	Gp	W	L	T	PTS	GF/GA
1. Union	18	11	3	4	26	61/30
2. Cornell	18	10	3	5	25	57/38
3. Colgate	18	11	6	1	23	64/53
4. Harvard	18	6	4	8	20	50/46
5. Clarkson	18	8	7	3	19	48/49
6. Quinnipiac	18	7	7	4	18	49/48
7. St. Lawrence	18	8	9	1	17	41/57
8. Dartmouth	18	6	9	3	15	49/61
8. Yale	18	7	10	1	15	55/53
10. Princeton	18	5	10	3	13	48/60
10. Rensselaer	18	5	10	3	13	34/49
12. Brown	18	5	11	2	12	51/63

Matchups This Weekend

Cornell faces Clarkson on Friday Feb 17^th. This might be the most impacting game on Friday where Clarkson can make up some ground on the 2^nd place team Cornell. Cornell is only 1 point out of 1^st place so there could be a new leader in the conference come Saturday morning.

For Saturday Colgate visits Clarkson for another top 5 matchup in ECAC. With two wins this weekend Clarkson can be competing for the top spots in the league. We will see what the conference shakes up to look like come the end of this weekend.

Atlantic Hockey

Conference Record	Gp	W	L	T	PTS	GF/GA
1. Air Force	23	13	4	6	32	72/48
2. RIT	23	14	6	3	31	65/42
3. Mercyhurst	23	13	6	4	30	71/57
3. Niagra	24	12	6	6	30	70/48
5. Bentley	23	11	6	6	28	67/49
6. Holy Cross	23	12	8	3	27	76/61
6. Robert Morris	23	12	8	3	27	66/50
8. Connecticut	23	11	10	2	24	68/53
9. Canisius	24	9	12	3	21	50/64
10. Army	23	3	15	5	11	42/78
11. American Int’l	23	4	17	2	10	43/86
12. Sacred Heart	23	2	18	3	7	53/107

This weekend’s intriguing matchups

The series between Air Force and Mercyhurst could finish with a new leader of Atlantic Hockey. With Mercyhurst behind by only 2 points they could take overall first unless RIT has a good weekend as well. Air Force will be a tough opponent and might be too much for Mercyhurst to handle. However, Mercyhurst did best Air Force 3-2 in a previous match up in November but Air Force is a much improved team since then as well.

Robert Morris is only 4 points behind second place RIT before the two play each other in a series this weekend. Right before the holiday break Robert Morris shut out RIT 4-0. Look for a jumble of conference positions after this weekend in Atlantic Hockey

Overall in February, College Hockey’s Conference races heat up to heart stopping excitement for some fans. In all the conferences this weekend, great hockey will be played and some teams hopes and dreams could take a hit while others will flourish in the triumphs. Go Hockey!

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