March 10, 2011

Merrimack's Saturday night quarterfinal game against Maine will be televised by NESN

No. 6 seed Northeastern at No. 3 seed Boston University (at Agganis Arena)

- Since the 2005-2006 season, BU is 15-3-4 against Northeastern.

- Each of the last seven meetings between the cross-town rivals has been decided by a single goal and BU has won five of those contests.

- In the season series BU held the edge winning two of the three matchups.

- Last Weekend these two teams split a home-and home series. Both teams won on the road. BU won on March 4, 3-2, while NU won March 5, 4-3.

- BU is 5-2 all-time against the Huskies in the Hockey East tournament.

No. 5 Maine at No. 4 Merrimack (at Lawler Arena)

- Merrimack secured home ice in the Hockey East Quarterfinals for the second time in school history after defeating Providence 6-1 last Friday.

- MC compiled a 12-2-2 record this year at home and are 24-5-2 since the start of 2009-10.

- Merrimack forward Mike Collins moved into first place in Hockey East in scoring among rookies with 26 points after a five-point weekend.

- Maine is making its 25th Hockey East Tournament appearance. The Black Bears have a record of 49-26 in the tournament.

- These two last met in the playoffs in 2004, Maine won the series by scores of 2-1 and 3-2.

No. 7 Vermont at No. 2 UNH (at the Whittemore Center)

- These two teams met last season in the quarterfinals with UNH being the No. 1 seed and Vermont being the #8 seed. Vermont staged an upset winning the three-game series.

- UNH won the season series, 2-0-1, against Vermont this year.

- UNH senior forward Paul Thompson has scored 16 points (5g,11a) in 15 games against the Catamounts in his career.

No. 8 Massachusetts at No. 1 Boston College (at Conte Forum)

- This season two of the three BC wins over Massachusetts were by one goal; Feb. 25, 4-3 and Feb. 26, 2-1.

- Last Friday night against No. 14 Maine, UMass tied the program's Hockey East record for fastest two-consecutive goals scored just seven seconds apart – the last time was against Northeastern on Jan. 17, 1997.

- Massachusetts is lead by T.J. Syner has amassed 24 points in 27 league games this season (6g,18a) and is riding a nine-game point streak (2g,7a).

Hockey East Notes

- All quarterfinal games will by streamed live by Pack Network on www.hockeyeastonline.tv for $7.95 per game, with the exception of the NESN game on Saturday night. The All-Access pass is $39.95 to watch a possible 11 quarterfinal contests over the weekend with the ability to watch all four games live on the same web browser.