Around Hockey East: Quinnipiac's tour of New England reaches Orono

Hockey East spent opening weekend getting pushed around by outsiders, and this weekend Quinnipiac comes to Orono to try it a third time. My read: the league is fine at the top and soft in the middle, and Maine is the team that gets to prove which half it lives in.

The number: five Hockey East teams sit in the USCHO top 20 this week: Providence at 9, Boston College at 11, BU at 14, UConn at 16 and UMass at 18. And by our count, Quinnipiac has already outscored two Hockey East teams 16-5.

Quinnipiac's New England tour hits Orono

The Bobcats beat New Hampshire 10-2 and Merrimack 6-3 last weekend and climbed to sixth. Now they get Maine on Friday and Saturday at the Alfond, at 7 p.m. both nights (Friday's game, Saturday's).

Maine split at Holy Cross to open, winning 4-1 and then dropping a 3-2 overtime game. That's not a crisis, but it's not a statement either.

Kessler's read: this is the weekend of the fall for the Black Bears. Win once against a top-six team at home and Maine is in the top 20 by Monday. Get swept and the Alfond crowd will be loud for the wrong reasons.

UMass falls eight spots in one trip

UMass went to Colorado Springs as the No. 10 team in the country and came home 0-2 after a 2-0 loss and a 6-1 loss to Colorado College. The Minutemen dropped to 18th, and CC jumped into the poll at 15.

RIT visits the Mullins Center on Friday and Saturday.

Kessler's read: one goal in two games is the only number that matters here. UMass doesn't need to win pretty against RIT. It needs to score more than once.

BU is the only Hockey East team at 2-0

The Terriers flew to Fairbanks and came home 2-0, winning 2-1 in overtime and 4-0 over Alaska. They moved from 16th to 14th. Brown comes to Agganis Arena on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Kessler's read: a shutout in the second game of a trip that far from home says a lot about a team's habits. BU should be 3-0 by Sunday.

Boston College finally starts, and the big man is back

BC opens Friday against Alaska at Conte Forum at 7 p.m. as the 11th-ranked team in the country. The player to watch is Dean Letourneau, the 6-foot-7 junior the Bruins took 25th overall in 2024.

He went from three points as a freshman to 39 as a sophomore, with 22 goals.

Kessler's read: if Letourneau carries that into his junior year, BC's top six is as dangerous as anyone's in the East.

UConn's senior stays, and Penn State comes to Storrs

Joey Muldowney is back in Storrs for his senior year after scoring 29 goals two seasons ago and 17 last year, and the Sharks pick is a two-time Hockey East second-team All-Star. The 16th-ranked Huskies open Friday at 7 p.m. at the Toscano Family Ice Forum against Penn State, then host Bowling Green on Saturday.

Penn State's side of that trip is in today's Campus Ice.

Kessler's read: the poll has them one spot apart. UConn at home, with Muldowney in the lineup, is a coin flip I'd lean Huskies on.

Providence opens in the top 10

The ninth-ranked Friars finally drop the puck this weekend at Schneider Arena: St. Lawrence on Friday at 7 p.m., Clarkson on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Kessler's read: two ECAC teams at home is a fair warmup. Anything less than a sweep and the top-10 ranking starts to look generous.

Also this weekend

UMass Lowell hosts Clarkson on Friday and St. Lawrence on Saturday at the Tsongas Center. Vermont plays at Bentley on Friday, and Northeastern makes its debut at Bentley on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Kessler's call: Maine splits with Quinnipiac, and that win is the first big Hockey East result of the season. Write it down.