If the Hockey East playoffs began today, the University of Maine men’s hockey team would be forced to host a preliminary game as the sixth seed in order to reach the quarterfinals.
The good thing for the Black Bears is there are still three games remaining in the regular season, so they still have time to climb the standings.
The top five teams earn byes and don’t have to play a preliminary round game in the playoffs. One of the two teams directly ahead of the Black Bears in the standings, Northeastern University’s Huskies, are their opponents for a two-game set this weekend.
They will play at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland on Friday night and at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts, on Saturday night. Both have 7 p.m. starts.
The games were originally scheduled to be played at Northeastern’s Matthews Arena in Boston but it is being torn down and replaced by a new arena.
UMaine will visit Vermont for a season-ending contest on March 7.
The Black Bears are 16-12-3 overall and 10-10-1 in Hockey East while Northeastern is 15-15-1 and 10-11.
The Huskies have 32 points and are tied with UMass for fourth place, two points ahead of UMaine. UMaine and Northeastern each have three games left and UMass has four, including a pair against third-place UConn this weekend.
Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime or shootout win, and one if they lose in overtime or a shootout.
Boston University is only one point behind UMaine with three games remaining.
“These games are as big as any we’ve played this season, even bigger,” said UMaine senior defenseman and co-captain Brandon Holt, whose Black Bears will take a three-game unbeaten streak into the series (2-0-1). “Every game is a playoff game this time of year and we kind of control our own destiny as far as what position we’re in heading into the playoffs.”
Northeastern plays differently than other Hockey East teams, junior defenseman and assistant captain Frank Djurasevic said.
“They play more of a neutral zone trap. They let you set up and get to the red line but the tough thing is trying to regain the puck in the offensive zone.”
The neutral zone trap involves a passive forecheck with the lead forechecker positioned at the offensive blue line and not chasing the puck deep into the offensive zone.
There will be either three of his teammates spread across the neutral zone behind him with one defenseman behind them in the 1-3-1 alignment, or two in the neutral zone and two behind them in a 1-2-2 alignment.
It is designed to clog up the neutral zone and force teams to dump the puck into the offensive zone while also seeking to create turnovers and capitalize on them.
“They always have really good defensive teams. They always have five guys on the right side of the puck,” said UMaine head coach Ben Barr. “They pack it in pretty good around their net, they pack it in in the neutral zone. We’re going to have to be willing to get pucks in (deep) and forecheck.”
Northeastern is the 15th stingiest team among 63 Division I programs, allowing just 2.42 goals per game.
Brown University transfer goalie Lawton Zacher has the nation’s third-best save percentage (.934) and his goals-against average (2.04) is eighth best in the nation.
“They always have good goaltending,” Barr said. “We will have to get a guy to the net-front like we always do. Almost every one of our goals last weekend was a screen or a tip, a second chance, a third chance. That’s how goals are scored this time of year, whether it’s power play or five-on-five.”
Both teams have been streaky.
UMaine won five of six in one stretch, went 4-0-1 in another and is 2-0-1 in its last three while also going 1-4 and having a three-game losing streak.
Northeastern went 7-2 in its first nine games and has also had a five-game losing streak and a six-game winless skein (0-5-1) before winning three of its last four coming into this weekend.
UMaine has three wins and a tie vs. Northeastern in their last four meetings including a 4-3 double-overtime win in their Hockey East semifinal at the TD Garden in Boston last season.
Both teams have injury concerns.
UMaine leading scorer Justin Poirier hasn’t played since Feb. 6 and NU scoring leader Dylan Hryckowian hasn’t dressed since Feb. 2. NU’s No. 2 scorer, Jacob Mathieu, missed last weekend’s 2-0 and 8-2 wins at UMass Lowell and UMaine co-No. 3 point-getter Max Scott didn’t play in the Merrimack series.
Hryckowian is 11th in the country with his 1.32 points per game average.
The two teams have all four of the weekly Hockey East award-winners.
UMaine junior right wing Josh Nadeau was the Player of the Week with his five goals and three assists vs. Merrimack and Holt was the Defender of the Week with his six assists, while NU’s Amine Hajibi was the Rookie of the Week with his four assists vs. UMass Lowell and Zacher was the Goalie of the Week after stopping 63 of 64 River Hawk shots before being replaced by Matt DellaRusso with 2:49 in Saturday’s comfortable win.
