Hockey East Recap: January 2026

It’s the last few weeks of the season everyone! Crazy to think about, right? There’s been a lot of fun in the NCAA, and the best time of the year is fast approaching: tournament season. 

With two weeks left in the Hockey East season, let’s flash back quickly (though you should know by now that nothing about these recaps is quick) to January and what went down with our 10 teams. 

Featured Series: Catamounts Claw Their Way to a Sweep of BU for the First Time in Over a Decade

Okay, I’m gonna take a little bit of grace with this one, but for good reason. The majority of these games happened in January. And by majority, I mean two out of three, which still counts! 

Dating back to 2005, according to BU’s website, the Terriers are 45-15-8 when facing the Catamounts, with 25 of those wins — and six of those losses — coming when playing at home. In January, however, we saw a third of those losses at home, thanks to back-to-back wins for UVM on the 23rd and 24th. 

Things started out well — and by well, I mean quiet — in the first game of the season series. The Terriers outshot UVM 12-9 in the opening frame, but both sides were kept at bay for the opening 25 minutes. Then it became a cat show, thanks to four straight goals from Vermont between the five-minute mark of the second, and the nine-minute mark in the third. 

Darci Matson started things off, followed up by Rose-Marie Brochu, Stella Retrum, and Morgann Skoda. All three of the latter scorers notched their tallies on the power play, which went 3-for-4 on that Friday night en route to the win. 

Both Healey sisters — Keira, then Sydney — closed the gap slightly for the Terriers. But a back-breaking shorthanded tally from Lauren O’Hara sunk them in the end, as BU couldn’t get closer. Altogether, the game was, frankly, well-matched in nearly every statistic. 

Except for the power play and on the score sheet. While BU converted on one of their three chances (with the one happening eight seconds into their second attempt), a 33% conversion rate cannot keep up with the 75% conversion rate Vermont sported throughout the game. 

Back in November, I talked a lot about how BU’s penalty kill taking a step back is what contributed to their lackluster start to the season, while other teams in the conference were capitalizing on their increase in productivity. Now, as we approach the end of the year, things still haven’t swung back in the positive direction for BU. Over the course of three games against Vermont this season, BU conceded four power play goals on just eight infractions taken. 

In total, 22% of Vermont’s 18 goals on the player advantage this season were scored against BU. 

In the second game of the weekend, Retrum’s third goal in two games was notched on the power play, and it’s what ended up as the game winner to secure the series victory for UVM for the first time since the 2013-14 season. 

To add insult to injury, in their first game of February, a game-winning goal just 10 seconds into the contest led UVM to the season sweep of the Terriers, as they shut BU out 3-0 in Burlington. A bad few weeks got even worse for BU, while UVM moved closer to getting a bypass of the opening round for the post season. 

For a team that’s struggling heavily in the last few weeks, tightening up the penalty kill has to be a top priority for BU, especially heading into the post season. While we knew their defensive metrics were going to take a step back, a drop of nearly 10 percentage points in their penalty kill success rate is frankly shocking, and it’s been detrimental to their overall success this season. 

And honestly, I have to wonder what on earth BU did to offend Stella Retrum. The forward, who played two seasons at Penn State before transferring to UVM this year, had four goals and three assists across the three games versus the Terriers. Two of those goals were game winners, two were on the power play, and one was even short-handed. 

Her 25 points leads her team and are good for sixth-most amongst all players in Hockey East this season. Was it helped majorly by her games against BU? Yes. But considering their struggles to score the last two years, her offensive jolt has been a boon to the Catamounts over the last few weeks. 

If there are any positive takeaways for BU, it’s that they weren’t playing with a full lineup in their second game of the series and are still not playing to their top capabilities offensively. With the Olympic stretch starting, both Luisa and Lilli Welcke — who are fourth and sixth respectively on the team in scoring — were out of the lineup for BU, and are still out of the lineup heading into the last weeks of the season. If they’re able to rejoin the Terriers before the season concludes, it could change things. But considering they were in the lineup for the first game and the results were still the same, I’m not sure just how much could be done. 

Special Shoutout: It Finally Happened for Merrimack, in Probably the Wildest Way Possible

If you’ve been following along with the Warriors, you may have noticed that this season has not been kind. The team has just six wins overall, and three in conference in 2025-26, after they went 13 straight games without a win to open HEA play. 

Yes, Merrimack didn’t win a conference game from their 2025 opening round win on February 26, 2025, until January 16, 2026. For those keeping track at home, that’s 324 days between conference wins. 

Their big win also came against an unlikely opponent: the at-the-time No. 5 team in the country in UConn. In overtime, senior Avery Anderson went coast to coast for the Warriors, pushed the puck past Taylor Belchetz (who was making just her second career start in the contest), and secured the win for her squad in overtime. 

Since their win, Merrimack has claimed victory in two more games, and has ensured that all 10 teams in Hockey East this season will reach double digits in total points earned. 

Which frankly, I was a bit worried about. 

Monthly Awards: 

Instead of doing a whole slate of players, because frankly this article is too long as it is, I’m going to highlight a skater and a goaltender who each had a very strong January that deserves to be recognized. 

First is Zoé Cliche, the goaltender from Vermont who made nine starts in January. In those games, the freshman from Ottawa went 6-1-2. In those games, she posted a save percentage of .933 with one shutout, and four games where she allowed a single goal. Her solid play helped push UVM back up into top-five contention, and she was integral to the weekend sweep of BU we talked about earlier. 

Then, we have Madelyn Murphy, a freshman defender from Boston College who hasn’t received as much attention this year as she should, thanks to the play of fellow rookie Ava Thomas. 

Murphy, in eight games in January, posted seven points including three goals. What stands out is the record when Murphy is scoring compared to when she’s not. In her four-point effort against Providence, the Eagles were dominant, and came away with the 8-2 win. In the five games Murphy did not score in, Boston College went 0-5, and they went 2-1 when she did. 

I’m not saying their offense revolves around their freshman defender, but it is a clear example of what will be integral for the Eagles moving forward into the last few weeks: ensuring that various parts of their lineup are clicking, not just their top forwards. 

Looking Ahead

This season, with Hockey East changing things up a bit more on the Women’s side of things, the remaining games on the schedule are all one-off matchups. There are certain matchups that are integral to the standings heading into the tournament, while there are other teams that are already locked in with the games remaining. 

In that spirit, I’m highlighting three teams that intrigue me the most. 

Holy Cross is the obvious answer, considering the team is sitting in third heading into the last two weekends of the year, and is set to play a fairly easy last slate of contests. If they can beat up on Merrimack, Providence, and then play Vermont tight to close the year out, it puts them in a great position heading into the post season — that position being near the top of the conference for the first time ever. 

I’m also keeping an eye out on Boston College, who after a stronger start to the season, have faltered in the new year, going 4-7-0 thus far, though some of those games were out of conference. They need to pick up their mojo, and quickly, if they’re going to be on the right foot when the playoffs get rolling. They beat Providence 8-2 less than a month ago, and with the Friars being their next opponent, no better way to get back on track than that. 

And finally a split, because I’m nothing if not full of surprises. In the sixth spot in Hockey East right now are two teams: Maine, and Vermont. The Black Bears have played one more game than the Catamounts have, at 21 total, however their 26 points leaves them tied in the standings as of February 12. 

Lucky for all of us, the two teams square off this weekend, and depending on who comes out on top, that very well might dictate the finishes for both teams for the overall season — finishes that mean the difference between playing in the opening round, or getting a bye to the quarterfinals. 

It’s chaos, it’s fun, it’s college hockey at its best. Genuinely, what could be better.

What Comes Next

It feels wild to be saying this, but by this time next month, the Hockey East season will be officially complete, and the Bertagna Trophy will have been presented once again to one of our 10 teams. With the end of the regular season approaching, some details for the post season have been sorted already, including our No. 1 seed, and the tournament schedule. 

In their 20th conference game of the season, Northeastern secured the regular season championship with relative ease, sitting at a comfortable 56 points to UConn’s 43 — the team closest to them in the standings. An 18-1-1 record in conference play is nothing to sneeze at, and it brings NU back to the top of the table after finishing in fifth last season. 

The Connecticut Huskies have also secured home ice advantage for the playoffs in their spot in second, and while there is still mathematically a chance, the eight point lead over Holy Cross in third with a game in hand seems pretty secure to me. Boston College rounds out our top four host teams with 33 points to HC’s 35, although that one extra game played for the Crusaders could complicate things for them as we approach the last few weeks. 

At the bottom of the table, things are also fairly secure. Merrimack, with 10 points, can finish no better than ninth this season, and will undoubtedly play the opening round on the road. Providence, currently in that ninth spot, is above them at 20 points, and the Friars still have a chance to boost up into as high as sixth place, however difficult the road to that may be. 

Those opening round games, which will feature the No. 7 and No. 8 teams playing host to No. 9 and No. 10 respectively, are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, February 25. The quarterfinals will be played three days later on Saturday, the 28th, and this year the league has bumped the semifinals date to Tuesday, March 3rd, instead of being the usual Wednesday of that week. 

The championship game has also been changed slightly, from a noon start to a 3:30 PM one, though still on Saturday, March 7th. 

Going into the last two weekends of the regular season, this is what the potential playoff bracket would look like: 

Opening Round

• No. 8 Boston University vs. No. 9 Providence 
• No. 7 Maine/Vermont vs. No. 10 Merrimack 

Quarterfinals

• No. 1 Northeastern vs. lower remaining seed from Opening Round 
• No. 2 UConn vs. higher remaining seed from Opening Round 
• No. 3 Holy Cross vs. No. 6 Maine/Vermont 
• No. 4 Boston College vs. No. 5 New Hampshire 

Please remember that unlike some of the other conferences, all Hockey East playoff games are win-or-go-home single elimination. 

Buckle up everyone, things are just getting started.