Athletic Republic Player of the Week Justin Braun of Massachusetts

Wakefield, Mass. - Boston University and Massachusetts swept their respective series in the final weekend of regular-season play in a wild finish to the last night of play. Boston College, UMass and Merrimack all took three points to solidify their playoff positing, while New Hampshire earned its eighth regular-season title in school history on Friday pulling out a 3-3 tie at the Whittemore Center.

The Minutemen got huge performances from Athletic Republic Player of the Week Justin Braun (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) and Casey Wellman (Brentwood, Calif.) Braun registered five points (4g,1a) in the sweep of Maine at Alfond Arena to climb back into the playoffs. Wellman also notched a five-point (1g,4a) series for the Minutemen.

Merrimack earned its first playoff berth since 2004 with a three-point weekend against Providence College, which started with a 5-0 shutout on Friday at Schneider Arena. Sophomore netminder Joe Cannata (Wakefield, Mass.) tallied 34 saves for his second shutout of the season for the Warriors.

The Terriers secured the third seed in the tournament with a pair of victories on Friday (5-4) and Saturday (4-3) to knock the Huskies out of the tightest playoff race in league history. Sophomore Chris Connolly (Duluth, Minn.) had a four-point weekend (1g,4a) for the Terriers with a +4 plus/minus rating.

Boston College took three points from the Wildcats, but they still finished one point shy. The ‘Cats battled back from a 3-0 deficit on Friday and the Eagles edged the win on Saturday at Conte Forum. UNH enters the tournament as No. 1 seed for the third time in the last four seasons. Sophomore forward Paul Carey (Weymouth, Mass.) scored the game-winner 2:44 into the final period in the series finale to give the Eagles their league-leading 16th victory of the season. Wildcat goalie Brian Foster (Pembroke, Mass.) posted 69 saves (.920 save%) on the weekend to keep the Eagles offense from breaking out, which included 39 in Saturday’s losing effort.

The River Hawks also took three points from Vermont, as they opened the weekend with a 5-2 victory at the Tsongas Center and followed that up with a 1-1 tie on Saturday. Pure Hockey Defensive Player of the Week Carter Hutton (Thunder Bay, Ont.) had another solid weekend stopping 42 of 45 (.933 save%) Catamounts shots.

ATHLETIC REPUBLIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK JUSTIN BRAUN - MASSACHUSETTS Senior Defenseman; Vadnais Heights, Minn. Braun netted four goals and an assist in a weekend sweep over Maine. He had two goals and an assist in Friday’s 5-2 win and two goals in Saturday’s 4-3 win. He also finished with a +5 rating while logging almost 40 minutes of ice time per game.

PRO AMBITIONS ROOKIE OF THE WEEK ALEX CHIASSON - BOSTON UNIVERSITY Freshman Forward; St. Augustin, Que. Chaisson recorded a goal, two assists and a plus-3 rating in the home-and-home sweep of Northeastern.

PURE HOCKEY DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK CARTER HUTTON - UMASS-LOWELL Senior Goaltender; Thunder Bay, Ont. Hutton backstopped the River Hawks to a threepoint weekend, stopping 42-of-45 (.933) shots vs. Vermont.

Alex Beaudry, PC (So., Cumberland, Ont.) Made 37 saves in a 1-1 overtime tie against Merrimack on Saturday.

Nick Bonino, BU (Jr., F, Unionville, Conn.) Registered a goal and two assists in BU’s two-win weekend against Northeastern.

Scott Campbell, UML (Jr., F, Navan, Ont.) Scored three points (2g, 1a) in a win and tie with Vermont while recording a +2 rating. Netted the game-tying goal on Saturday.

Joe Cannata, MC (So., G, Wakefield, Mass.) Stopped 34 shots for his second shutout of the season in a 5-0 win over Providence.

Paul Carey, BC (So., F, Weymouth, Mass.) Scored the game-winning goal at 2:44 of the third period in BC’s 3-2 win over New Hampshire on Saturday.

Zach Cohen, BU (Sr., F, Schaumburg, Ill.) Scored a goal in each of the Terriers’ win against Northeastern to take the team lead in tallies with 15.

Chris Connolly, BU (So., F, Duluth, Minn.) Had a pair of two-point nights in the weekend sweep of NU, tallying a goal and three assists to go along with a +4 rating.

Stephane Da Costa, MC (Fr., F, Paris, France) Tallied two assists and nine shots over the weekend in the series against Providence.

Paul Dainton, UMass (Jr., G, Genelle, B.C.) Won both games in the weekend sweep over Maine making 59 saves while allowing five goals. He made 35 saves on Saturday.

Phil DeSimone, UNH, (Jr. F, East Amherst, N.Y.) Tallied a team-best three points this weekend with helpers in two assists on Friday and one goal on Saturday night.

Brian Dumoulin, BC (Fr., D, Biddeford, Maine) Tallied two points, including his first collegiate goal in Saturday’s 3-2 win over UNH and was on the ice for all six BC goals.

Ryan Flanigan, MC (So., F, Rochester, NY..) Tallied a pair of first-period goals at Providence for his first career multi-goal game.

Brian Foster, UNH, (Sr., G, Pembroke, N.H.) Stopped 69 shots over the weekend lifting the New Hampshire to a tie (30 saves) and its eighth regular season title on Friday.

Kyle Kraemer, NU (Sr., F, St. Louis, Mo.) Was the second Husky to score two powerplay goals this year in his farewell to Matthews Arena on Saturday.

Rob Madore, UVM (So., G, Pittsburgh, Pa.) Stopped 35 shots in Saturday’s 1-1 tie against UMass-Lowell.

Jake Newton, NU (Fr., D, San Jacinto, Calif.) Turned in his first-career two-goal performance against BU on Friday and topped it off with a pair of assists on Saturday.

Will O’Neill, Maine (So., D, Salem, Mass.) Scored a goal and added two assists for the Black Bears on the weekend vs. UMass.

Ben Smith, BC (Sr., F, Avon, Conn.) Tallied three primary assists (on six BC goals) in BC’s 1-0-1 weekend against New Hampshire.

Brett Watson (Sr., F, Media, Pa.) Scored the game-winning goal against Maine on Saturday giving UMass a sweep of the weekend and the 7th seed in the HEA playoffs.

Casey Wellman (So., F, Brentwood, Calif.) Had a five point (1g,4a) weekend in the weekend sweep over Maine to put UMass in the Hockey East Playoffs.

Patch Alber, BC (Clifton Park, N.Y.) Tallied his first collegiate point, the primary assist on Paul Carey’s game-winning goal in BC’s 3-2 win over New Hampshire

Cam Atkinson, BC (Greenwich, Conn.) Tallied two assists in BC’s 3-2 win on Saturday, marking his 10th multiple-point effort of the season, and point No. 40 and 41

Alex Beaudry , PC (Cumberland, Ont.) Finished with 906 saves this season which ranks fifth all-time in PC’s single season saves leaders

Mike Beck, UNH (LONG BEACH, CALIF.) Scored his first career goal on Saturday night against BC

Scott Campbell, UML (Navan , Ont.) Has seven points (4g, 3a) in the last five games and a +4 rating

Joe Cannata , MC (Wakefield, Mass.) Notched his second shutout of the season Friday

Stephane Da Costa , MC (Paris, France) Has 23 points (17 assists) in his last 14 games

Kyle Kraemer, NU (St. Louis, Mo.) Scored a pair of powerplay goals in season finale vs. BU

James Marcou, UMASS (Kings Park, N.Y.) Netted three assists against Maine giving him 92 career assists which is just two shy of the UMass all-time record. His 46 points this season is the 8th-best single season mark at UMass

MERRIMACK COLLEGE In securing a playoff berth for the first time since 2004, MC is 6-2-2 in its last 10 games

UNH WILDCATS AT HOME Finished the regular season unbeaten at home with a 9-0-4 mark. It marks the first time since the 1999-2000

Brett Watson , UMASS (Media, Pa.) After just having two goals in his previous three years, Watson has three goals this season – all coming in the last three straight games

Casey Wellman, UMASS (Brentwood, Calif.) Became UMass’ first 20-goal scorer since Greg Mauldin had 21 in 2002-03

Doug Kublin, UMASS (Manlius, N.Y.) After missing 10 games with injury, returned to the lineup for both games at Maine recording an assist – UMass was 2-9 with Kublin out of the line-up and is 16-7 with him dressed

Brian Flynn , Maine (Lynnfield, Mass.) Tallied his 30th career goal on Saturday night against UMass

Chris Kreider, BC (Boxford, Mass.) Scored once in Friday’s 3-3 tie at New Hampshire and has eight goals in the last 11 games

For all the oddities of the 2009-2010 regular season, in the end, this year’s quarterfinal hosts are the four schools who have won 22 of the first 25 Hockey East Tournaments. But that being said, there are no heavy favorites in each of the series.

Hockey East has used just about every opening round format in its 25-year history. Single game, two-game/total goals, and the current Best of Three. There have been 16 years where the Best of Three format has been used and once, 1990, 11 games were played, three series going the distance. As for the other 15 years, seven were done in the minimum eight games, five took 10 games and three took nine games. Twice, the eight games included road sweeps by two different underdogs. I think 2010 has that kind of feel to it.

Note the following:

• #1 UNH had all it could handle against #8 Vermont three weeks ago in Durham, with both games going to overtime.
• #2 Boston College has held Massachusetts to a single goal in each of the three meetings between them this year.
• #3 Boston University gave up 14 goals in its three games with Merrimack this season.
• #4 Maine has won all 12 tournament games it has ever played against #5 UMass Lowell.

Boston College: BC improved to 12-2-0 inside Conte Forum on Kelley Rink this season…Freshman defenseman Brian Dumoulin tallied a two-game plus-minus rating of +6 against UNH, raising his league-leading mark to +24 in conference contests…BC finished the three-game league series vs. UNH with a 1-0-2 record, going undefeated in the league series against the Wildcats for the first time since the 2004-05 season. The Eagles tallied 42 shots on goal in Saturday’s 3-2 win over New Hampshire, marking the seventh time in the last 16 games that the team has eclipsed the 40-shot plateau. The team has now held its opponents to fewer than 30 shots in seven-of-the-last-eight contests…BC’s senior class improved to 8-6-2 in 16 meetings in the last four seasons against the Wildcats… Freshman forward Chris Kreider, who scored his eighth goal in BC’s last 10 games in Friday’s 3-3 tie at UNH, saw his six-game scoring streak (5-1-6) come to an end on Saturday…BC will host UMass in the best-of-three-game Hockey East quarterfinal series from March 12-14. The Eagles defeated the Minutemen three times in the league season series, including a 3-2 overtime victory inside Conte Forum in the teams’ most recent meeting on Feb. 26.

Boston University: The Terriers secured home ice in the Hockey East quarterfinals for the sixth straight season and will be looking to extend their league record of eight consecutive appearances in the semifinals…BU’s 4-3 win at Northeastern in Saturday’s regularseason finale marked the first time this season that it won a contest when trailing after the first period, having gone 0-7-2 prior…Senior Zach Cohen (Schaumburg, Ill.) scored a goal in each win over the Huskies this weekend and now leads the Terries in tallies with 15. He has scored a goal in eight of the last 11 contests...Junior Colby Cohen (Villanova, Pa.) ranks second on the team in goal with 14, the most by a BU defensman in a single season since Dick Lamby recorded 15 as a senior in 1977-78…BU has nine road losses this season, exactly as many as the last two seasons combined...Exactly half of BU’s 34 regular-season games were decided by a single goal and it went 10-7 in those contests…BU is 17-1-0 against Merrimack, its quarterfinal opponent over the last six seasons.

Maine: Maine will host UML in the upcoming Hockey East quarterfinals… It is the first time that Maine has hosted a quarterfinal series since hosting the same River Hawk team during the 2005-06 season…Maine continues to lead the nation in power play percentage, scoring at a 29.5 percent clip on the man advantage… The Black Bears are scoring at a 5.4 percent clip more than Yale, who ranks second in the nation at 24.1 percent…Maine has 56 power play goals on the season, however, are still 31 power play goals shy of the school record of 87 set during the 1992-93 season…Maine has currently scored a power play goal in a season-high 12 straight games…Junior defenseman Jeff Dimmen (Colorado Springs, Colo.) has 12 goals on the season, one shy of tying the school record of 13 set during the 1979-80 season and tied in both 1987-88 and 1994-95…Gustav Nyquist (Malmo, Sweden) continues to lead the nation in scoring with 56 points on the season. He has tallied a point in 29 of 34 games this season.

Massachusetts: UMass snapped a six-game losing streak with a pair of road wins at Maine on Friday and Saturday…UMass swept Maine 3-0 for the season…The 5-2 win on Friday matched the most goals UMass has scored against Maine in program history while the three-goal margin of victory tied the largest margin in program history…UMass is now 13-5-0 when a defenseman scores…UMass is now 17-2-0 when leading or tied after the second period…UMass’ nine goals in two games outpaced UMass scoring production for the entire month of February (6 games, 6 goals)…This is the eighth consecutive year that UMass has qualified for the Hockey East Tournament and the 13th time overall since joining the league in 1994-95. UMass is 9-20 in Tournament games…This will be the fourth time UMass and Boston College have met in the Hockey East Tournament, the last being a two-game sweep in 2005 for the Eagles.

UMass-Lowell: The River Hawks clinched a playoff berth as they finished in a three-way tie for third place in Hockey East after a win and a tie versus Vermont over the weekend…UMass Lowell is heating up at the right time, currently unbeaten in its last five games (3-0-2)…The fifth-seeded River Hawks will travel to the Alfond Arena for a date with the fourth-seeded Maine Black Bears in the conference quarterfinals…The last time these teams met in the playoffs, Maine took two straight games in Orono by identical 4-3 scores in 2006…UMass Lowell will have to break tradition if they wish to succeed next weekend at Maine, the River Hawks are 0-12-0 all-time in the Hockey East playoffs when facing the Black Bears…Carter Hutton earned his 12th win of the season as he kicked out 25 shots…Saturday’s 1-1 tie saw only Campbell find the back of the net despite the River Hawks’ glaring advantage in shots, 36-18…Hutton made 17 saves to move his record to 12- 10-2 on the season.

Merrimack: Merrimack picked up three points in a weekend series with Providence, securing its first playoff berth since 2004 and its first under head coach Mark Dennehy…The Warriors increased their win total this season by 140% from last year, best among all HEA schools…The Warriors set numerous school records during the regular season, highlighted by 12 Hockey East wins and 12 home wins…They also beat every Hockey East team at home and overall for the first time ever and were not swept in any weekend series by a Hockey East opponent for the first time in school history…Merrimack finished sixth in Hockey East in scoring, averaging 3.06 goals per game. It is the first time since 2002 they did not finish last in scoring and the first time since 1998 that they did not finish in the bottom two in the conference…In a 5-0 win over Providence on Friday, Merrimack scored five first-period goals for the first time since joining Hockey East. The final four were scored in a 3:28 span…Stephane Da Costa, the first five-time HEA Rookie of the Month ever, finishes the regular season with 44 points, tops among all rookies nationally and ranks third in the country among all skaters in points per game…Merrimack’s power play is currently ranked third in the country and second in the conference, while its combined special teams was third nationally and first in Hockey East…Merrimack has advanced to the Hockey East Semifinals just once in its history. They defeated BU in three games in 1998…The Warriors, who have never won in Agganis Arena, were 1-2 against the Terriers this season.

New Hampshire: UNH capture its eighth regular season title in Hockey East and third in the last four years with a dramatic 3-3 comefrom- behind tie with #5 Boston College… The ‘Cats were close to a wire-to-wire leader having held its position in first place since Nov. 23, 2009… New Hampshire will play host to eighth-seeded Vermont in a best-of-three quarterfinal series beginning Friday… The ‘Cats, which claimed home-ice advantage for a league-best 14th-straight season, used the most of its home-ice advantage this season finishing the regular season unbeaten at 9-0-4 against Hockey East foes… Before Saturday night’s game-winning goal by the Eagles, UNH had outscored its opponents 12-0 in the third period during a six-game unbeaten streak…Bobby Butler finished the regular season with a league best 41 points and 21 goals. He becomes the first player in Hockey East since Jason Krog in 1999-2000 to record 20 goals and 20 assists in league play.

Northeastern: In one of the craziest seasons in Hockey East history, Northeastern was left outside of this year’s tournament playoff bracket after finishing in ninth place with an 11-14-2 mark in conference play and 16-16-2, overall. The Huskies’ .500 overall marks indicated the first time under Greg Cronin’s watch that Northeastern has finished .500 or better in two consecutive seasons...Junior Wade MacLeod led the Huskies for the second straight year with the most points as the Coquitlam, British Columbia native tallied 30 points, including 14 goals and 16 assists. Senior Kyle Kraemer’s 17 goals stand as the team best this season as the St. Louis product secured his first 20- point season (17-11-28)...Freshman Chris Rawlings filled the void left by Brad Thiessen with a 15-14-2 record this season, posting a GAA of 2.83 and a save percentage of .913...Seniors Jim Driscoll, Chris Donovan, Kyle Kraemer, Dylan Wiwchar, David Strathman and Greg Costa closed out their career at Matthews Arena on Saturday.

Providence College: Providence College finished the 2009- 10 season with three more wins than last season…Providence also finished the regular season second in Hockey East on the penalty kill (84.4%), third in GAA (2.91) and third in fewest goals allowed (99)…The Friars had five wins against ranked teams, four more than last season…Senior Mark Fayne (Sagamore Beach, Mass.) missed one game in his four seasons at Providence…He played in 139 career games and finished tied for 26th all-time in career games played at PC…Fayne also recorded a career-high 22 points on five goals and a career-best 17 assists…Sophomore goalie Alex Beaudry (Cumberland, Ont.) finished with 906 saves this season which ranks fifth all-time in PC’s single season saves leaders…Junior Kyle MacKinnon (Walnut, Calif.) led the team in scoring with a career-high 25 points (12g, 13a), two more points than he had in his first two seasons at PC.

Vermont: The Catamounts have earned a spot in the Hockey East playoffs every year since joining the league in 2005-06…Vermont has advanced past the quarterfinals once in four tries…UVM advanced to the 2008 championship game where they lost to eventual national champion Boston College…Vermont is 3-3-4 in its last 10 games with five of those contests going to overtime…UVM’s seven ties this season match a program high set in 2007-08…The Catamounts are 0-1-7 in overtime on the year…Senior Brayden Irwin (Toronto, Ont.) has 10 points in the last six games…Freshman Sebastian Stålberg (Gothenburg, Sweden) has 15 points in the last 18 contests…The Catamounts have guaranteed themselves a program best sixth straight winning season at the Division I level…Vermont meets New Hampshire in the Hockey East Quarterfinals and went 0-2-1 against the Wildcats in the regular season.

Voting has been ongoing for the last four weeks on the league website and will continue through the final weekend of the regular-season schedule

The following schools announced their All-Decade Teams last week

BOSTON UNIVERSITY (Announced on Friday, March 5)

Goalies:
John Curry
Sean Fields

Defensemen:
Matt Gilroy
Freddy Meyer
Dan Spang
Ryan Whitney

Forwards:
Nick Bonino
Peter MacArthur
Mike Pandolfo
David Van der Gulik
Colin Wilson
Brandon Yip

MAINE (Announced on Friday, March 5)

Goalies:
Ben Bishop
Jimmy Howard

Defensemen:
Doug Janik
Mike Lundin
Peter Metcalf
Prestin Ryan

Forwards:
Niko Dimitrakos
Martin Kariya
Michel Leveille
Greg Moore
Gustav Nyquist
Dustin Penner

NEW HAMPSHIRE (Announced on Friday, March 5)

Goalies:
Mike Ayers
Kevin Regan

Defensemen:
Brian Yandle
Garrett Stafford
Brad Flaishans
Tyson Teplitsky

Forwards:
Sean Collins
Darren Haydar
Colin Hemingway
Mike Radja
Steve Saviano
James van Riemsdyk

UMASS LOWELL (Announced on Saturday, March 6)

Goalies:
Nevin Hamilton
Carter Hutton

Defensemen:
Jeremy Dehner
Maury Edwards
Ron Hainsey
Nick Schaus

Forwards:
Scott Campbell
Kory Falite
Ed McGrane
Bobby Robins
Jason Tejchma
Ben Walter

The Hockey East All-Decade Team and each team's Fan Favorite will be announced at the 26th Annual Hockey East Championship Tournament.