Monday, March 11, 2024

Hockey East honors for Celebrini and Webber; Rankings update; Lots of SNL

 Action photo of Macklin Celebrini next to an action photo of Cade Webber

 For the second time this season, a pair of Terriers have earned Hockey East  awards in the same week. Assistant captain Cade Webber earned defender of the week after his seven shot blocks against Providence set a new NCAA season record of 114 and then he added four more against Vermont for a 118 total.

Freshman Macklin Celebrini earned Player of the Week honors for the second time this season to go along with receiving Rookie of the Week designation on six occasions.  He scored six points in the two wins—2G,A vs. Providence, G,2A vs. Vermont—and won the conference scoring title with 44 points and 1.91 points per game.

· GoTerriers.com Celebrini, Webber earn Hockey East weekly awards

►Two Terriers were named to Hockey East's Weekly Top Performers list:

Lane Hutson, BU (So., D; North Barrington, Ill.) Led all Hockey East defenders with four points in two wins this past weekend, totaling two assists in each Terrier victory. He was also a plus-two and blocked three shots.

Mathieu Caron, BU (Jr., G; Abbotsford, B.C.) The reigning Hockey East Goaltender of the Month posted a .933 save percentage and a 1.57 GAA, allowing just one even-strength goal in a pair of wins.

Polls & Rankings

#1 BC and #2 BU remain atop both major polls—USCHO and USA Hockey/The Rink Live—while #3 Denver and #4 Michigan State each moved up a notch with North Dakota now #5 after being swept by #12 Omaha. Wisconsin tumbled to #9 after being knocked out of the Big Ten tournament by unranked Ohio State. Those upsets helped  Maine, which swept UMass, move up a notch to #8. However, two other Hockey East team fell in both polls: Providence from #11 to #13 (USCHO) and #12 to #14 (USA/TRL) and UMass #12 to #16 (USCHO) and #11 to #16 (USA/TRL).

The Everything College Hockey ranking has #1 BC, #2 BU, #9 Maine, #14 Providence and #15 Providence.  John Buccigross’ ranking is similar, except having Maine #8.

In the all-important Pairwise rankings, 1-5 are BC, BU, North Dakota, Denver and Michigan State. Maine’s sweep moves them up to #7.  #14 Providence and #15 UMass will need some success in the Hockey East tournament to assure berths in the NCAA tournament.

Hockey East Tournament

The field is set for the 2024 Hockey East Tournament with four opening-round games to be played Wednesday. The first five seeds have byes: 1-BC, 2-BU, 3-Maine, 4-Providence and 5-UMass. Quarterfinal games will be next Saturday, March 16. The Friars will host the Minutemen, while the other three match-ups await reseeding following the opening round. BU will take the ice at 4:15 p.m., very likely against Northeastern—nearly a 50% chance—according to data posted by @BUHockeyStats:

Note: In the above graphic, AL=at large berth, AQ=automatic qualifier/league tournament champion.

He also posted probabilities for each of the 11 teams to advance to and win the Lamoriello Cup.

· HockeyEastOnline.com Field set for 2024 Hockey East Tournament

► Happy 79th birthday to Coach Jack Parker.

SNL (Saturday Night Leftovers) 

► Since Feb. 1, BU has an 8-1-1 record with the Beanpot final being the only loss. In those 10 games, goals for/against are 49/19 and 27/6 in the last five.

►BU finished the regular-season schedule with the best scoring defense—2.20 goals allowed per game—in conference games. That’s the Terriers' best mark since the 2016-17 team (Jake Oettinger’s freshman season) led Hockey East with 2.14 goals allowed.

Overall, Terriers rank sixth among all D1 schools with a 2.35 GAA, while the offense is fifth at 4.13 goals per game. Terriers are fourth in scoring margin at 1.76.

►After connecting on three of four power-plays against Vermont, BU has a conference-best 31.9% success rate with the man-advantage.

►Macklin Celebrini’s 44 points (23G,23A) in Hockey East games is the most for a conference scoring champion since Jack Eichel also had 44 (14G,30A) in 2014-15. And 44 is the most points for a Hockey East scoring leader this century.

►As noted above, Cade Webber blocked four shots on Saturday and enters the postseason with an NCAA record 118 blocks so far this season.

►Mathieu Caron has yielded just 8 goals is the past six games, lowering his GAA in conference games to 2.14, second best in Hockey East and his save percentage to .924, also second best.

►Lane Hutson has recorded a pair of assists in three of the past four games, He is now second among all active NCAA defensemen with 91 points, just two behind the leader despite playing 35 fewer games.

►Tom Willander recorded his fifth multi-point game of the season. He has nine points in the last 10 games and six in the current five-game winning streak. He continues to be the team’s plus/minus leader at +23.

►Advanced stats from Saturday’s game show the Terriers had a 26-5 advantage in scoring chances.

►Here's another look at Quinn Hutson’s first of three goals, set up by Macklin Celebrini.

►In Saturday's Bernie & Belle post-game wrap-up, Voice of the Terriers Bernie Corbett made sure his sidekick, Belle Fraser, received Senior Day recognition.

 Looking ahead

2025 recruit Conrad Fondrk scored his 16th goal in the NTDP U17s' 3-1 win against Chicago Steel. With 35 points, he is the team's third leading scorer, one point ahead of fellow recruits Jack Murtagh and Charlie Trethewey.

Looking back

Clayton Keller scored his 24th and 25 goals, but the Coyotes fell to the Blackhawks, 7-4.

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