Hockey East Roundup: Nov. 7-10, 2024

The chaos in Hockey East continues as we make our way through November, and this week we saw one of the highest scoring series so far this season between New Hampshire and Providence. Plus, one of the lowest scoring ones in the battle of the Huskies. And as we look towards next week, it’s Battle of Comm Ave season – what’s better than that? Let’s get into it, shall we? 

Series of the Week: What… What Happened Between Providence and UNH? 

I’d try to capture every single thing that occurred in this weekend series, but there’s no way for me to possibly do so – I mean, they combined for 19 goals against two games. That’s absurd. 

We’ll go with the highlights, first for UNH: Kira Juodikis had five points (two goals, three assists) in two games, including the game-winner in Friday’s 7-3 win at home and a power play tally on Saturday. Shea Verrier was also productive this weekend, with four points of her own including the final goal in that same Friday game. Overall, to start Friday, the Wildcats were on fire offensively, with four goals in the first 14:04 of regulation. 

Sedona Blair, who made both starts for UNH, made 57 total saves in the two contests. The Wildcats as a whole went 3-for-8 on the PP, doubling their total number of goals on the advantage this season (now up to six). They’ve also scored goals on the PP in each of their last three games (4-for-12 overall). 

Then we have Providence, and it starts with Millie Sirum. The graduate student transfer scored just 50 seconds in on Saturday, and then made it a 2-0 game 7:27 into the first period. She completed the hat trick with under six minutes remaining in regulation, with a power play tally to extend the Providence lead to 5-3. She finished the weekend with three goals and an assist, bringing her season total to 11 points. 

Reichen Kirchmair has also quietly been creeping up the Hockey East scoring standings, and is now tied for second overall with 13 total points. She had a goal apiece in each game, and added two assists on Saturday, including on the game-tying goal in the second period. 13 Providence skaters in total had at least a point this weekend. 

Hope Wallinski did not start Friday, with Taya Currie and Oliva Klunowski instead splitting time. The senior returned to the starter's spot Saturday, however, and made 25 saves on 28 shots. 

The split has caused both squads to jump from a tie in eighth to a tie for fifth, with eight points through eight games. On a national scale, UNH has a slight edge at 24th to Providence’s 27th, per the USCHO Pairwise calculator. 

The one small concern I had for either side came after Saturday’s game, and the apparent inability to maintain the lead for long. Providence had the 2-0 lead, then coughed it up for UNH to take a 3-2 one. But within five minutes of the Wildcats lead, they’d given up two more goals to make it 5-3 Friars. While it’s just one game, the amount of flip-flop between the two – while entertaining for those watching – gave me a bit of pause and will be something to keep an eye on moving forward. Not to mention that Providence gave up back-to-back goals on the power play in that second period. 

Moving forward, it’ll be interesting to see how the weekend’s high-offensive performance carries over into this upcoming set of games. Providence plays host to Vermont, who have been struggling all season to this point, especially on the goals-for front. 

Meanwhile UNH is scheduled to play Holy Cross, who after a hot start to the season, hasn’t been producing at the same rate as of late. The Crusaders do have one of the hottest goaltenders in the conference ready to go in Abby Hornung though, and that might stop the UNH offense that scored a third of their total goals for the season so far in these two games against Providence. 

Thing to Note: 

In the weekly awards we talk more about the performance Northeastern, and especially freshman netminder Lisa Jönsson, had against UConn over the weekend. Was I completely wrong about my prediction last week? Yes, I most certainly was. NU played a tight, complete game on Friday, and followed it with another solid performance on Saturday. UConn was competitive in both contests, but couldn’t find a way to solve Jönsson in either game. It was a great series to watch, with the two teams performing at and even slightly above the expectations set for them to start the year. 

Weekly Awards: 

Player of the Week: Lisa Jönsson, G, Northeastern – Freshman

In two games against the high-powered UConn Huskies, Jönsson recorded the first and second shutouts in her career – in just her third and fourth starts. It was the first time NU has had a goalie shut out a ranked opponent in back-to-back games in 14 years, and the goaltender made 24 and 37 saves respectively to complete the feat. In a limited sample size, Jönsson now leads Hockey East in save percentage (.962) and GAA (1.00).

Pro-Ambitious Rookie of the Week: Lauren Glaser, F, Boston College – Freshman

With eight total goals scored against Maine this weekend for the Eagles, Glaser was tied for the team-lead with points on three of those scores. The freshman had the game-winning goal in the 5-1 BC win on Saturday, and added two assists in the same game. Glaser is now the highest scoring rookie for BC, with seven points in 11 games played – good for fifth overall on the Eagles’ roster.

Army ROTC Defensive Player of the Week: Tuva Kandell, D, Northeastern – Freshman

Another key in Northeastern’s sweep of UConn was Kandell, who had an assist on the game-winning goal Friday night for her third of the season. Additionally, Kandell led Northeastern defenders in shot attempts Friday night, with three – good for a tie for third on the team overall. The Swedish national also got in the way of two shot attempts Friday, and another one Saturday, as the NU defense helped lead the way in two clean sheets.  

Stop It Goaltender of the Week: SPLIT:

Grace Campbell, G, Boston College – Junior 

After a somewhat shaky performance against Merrimack last weekend, Campbell bounced back with two one-goal performances as BC swept Maine. The goaltender made 63 saves across the two games, and has improved her record to 7-2-0 on the season, with six straight wins. 

Abby Hornung, G, Holy Cross – Junior 

In the Crusaders' lone game of the weekend, Hornung was near-perfect, with 28 saves on 29 shots in the team’s 2-1 OT win over UVM. The goaltender is now up to a .946 save percentage on the season, and has yet to allow more than two goals in a game so far. 

Weekly Scoreboard: 

Thursday: 

Boston University 5 at Merrimack 1 

Friday: 

Boston University 3 vs. Merrimack 3 – BU wins SO 2-0 

Northeastern 1 at UConn 0

Boston College 3 at Maine 1 

UNH 7 vs. Providence 3 

Saturday: 

Holy Cross 2 at Vermont 1 – OT

Northeastern 1 vs. UConn 0 

Providence 6 vs UNH 3 

Boston College 5 at Maine 1

What to Watch: Battle of Comm Ave, Obviously (Boston University/Boston College)

Friday at BU – 6 PM, Saturday at BC – 4:30 PM

I’m a sucker for the Battle of Comm Ave any day of the week, but it’s especially entertaining when the two schools are playing well – and arguably playing above expectations. 

I’m gonna be honest: I don’t think anyone really expected BU to be this good right out of the gate. Heading into the season they had a lot of question marks on defense, especially considering the number of names that left in the off season. The emergence of Lola Reid up front and the solid systems head coach Tara Watchorn have put in place on the back-end have been tested to start the year, and save for one rocky game against Northeastern, the Terriers have otherwise been close to perfect in Hockey East. 

On the other side you have BC, who was expected to be good going into the year, thanks to an incredibly deep freshman class and the further development of their big names before 2024-25. However, I’m not sure if sweeping Clarkson was expected, or to be making these kind of waves so early in the year. 

On the scoring front, it’s two young-guns that are leading the charge for their respective teams: reigning Hockey East Rookie of the Year Sammy Taber for BC, and one of the front-runners for this year’s award, Lola Reid on BU. The sophomore Taber has leapfrogged multiple players over the last two weeks to take sole possession of the top-scorer spot in the conference (5-9-14 in 11 GP). Reid, who was leading the conference for a large chunk of the year to date, is still tied for number one in total goals scored, with seven, and is in a three-way tie for third with 13 total points. 

The two teams also have an identical power play, at an 18.2% conversion. BC has the slight edge in goals-for per game, at 3.27 to BU’s 3.08. 

Defensively is where things get a little different, with the Terrier’s having the edge in save percentage, faceoff wins, and penalty killing. A lot of BC’s numbers are skewed from their 7-1 and 7-0 losses to Wisconsin earlier in the season. However, there’s a .020% difference in team overall save percentage (.927% for BU, third best, and .908% for BC, sixth), with the Eagles allowing 20 more shots overall in two less games played (327 against for BC vs. 301 for BU). 

The PK is where things get the most interesting for me, with a 10 point difference in success rate between the two squads. Even last season when BU was struggling overall, they had one of the better PK units in the country, let alone the conference. This season, they’re operating at a 92.3% kill rate, second best in Hockey East, and fourth-best nationally. BC’s penalty kill on the other hand is at just 82.9%, sixth best in Hockey East with four fewer infractions against called compared to the Terriers. 

What it boils down to is these two teams are matched fairly well, but it very well may come down to the power play chances BU is able to get. I’m interested to see how Grace Campbell and Callie Shanahan play opposite one another, especially with how dominant both have been as of late. 

Prediction: I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know why I keep doing these considering just how many I get wrong every week. But I can see a split here, with at least one of the games going to overtime. BU is going to net one on the power play at some point this weekend, but BC isn’t going to let them get away with a sweep with six conference points up for grabs. 

Full Upcoming Schedule:

All times in EST, streaming details available here

Friday: 

UVM at Providence – 12 PM 

Boston College at Boston University – 6 PM 

UNH at Holy Cross – 6 PM 

UConn at Merrimack – 6 PM 

Maine at Northeastern – 6 PM 

Saturday: 

Maine at Northeastern – 1:30 PM 

Vermont at Providence – 2 PM 

Merrimack at UConn – 3 PM 

Boston University at Boston College – 4:30 PM 

Holy Cross at UNH – 6 PM