Around the W: Hockey East goes 10-4-2 against everybody else

Hockey East spent the weekend playing everybody else, and mostly it won, because the league's teams went 10-4-2 outside the conference, by our count. The four losses tell you who's still figuring it out.

UNH is shutting the door

New Hampshire beat Stonehill 6-0 on Friday, then went to Harvard on Saturday and won 3-0. That's two games, nine goals for and none against, and the second one came against a Harvard team that had started 3-0.

The W read: the Wildcats are 5-4-1 and the record undersells them. A road shutout of a good ECAC team is how a middle-of-the-table team becomes a bubble team.

Providence ran into a wall in Potsdam

No. 10 Clarkson swept Providence 5-1 and 6-1 at Cheel Arena. Sara and Kate Manness each scored twice on Friday, and Sara added two more on Saturday. Jessie Pellerin set up three goals in the second game.

Here's the Ferda number. Clarkson outshot Providence 82-34 over the two nights, and Friars goalie Mallory Hartl made 71 saves, by our count. That's a goalie stealing respectability on a weekend her team didn't have the puck.

The W read: Providence is 3-5 and Hartl is the reason it isn't worse. Clarkson has won six straight and belongs higher than 10th.

BC and Cornell split, and both should feel fine about it

Boston College shut out No. 12 Cornell 2-0 on Friday. Cornell answered with a 5-3 win on Saturday. Two good teams traded punches over two nights in Chestnut Hill, and nobody lost ground in the process.

The W read: BC's Friday was the better result. Shutting out a ranked ECAC team is a résumé line the NPI remembers in March.

Northeastern and Merrimack did their homework

No. 4 Northeastern beat RIT 5-0 and 8-1. Merrimack blanked Post 3-0 and Saint Michael's 8-0. UConn beat Mercyhurst 3-1 and tied the Lakers 1-1 the next night. Holy Cross tied Dartmouth and then won the rematch 2-1 in overtime.

The W read: the one loss that stings is BU's. Yale won 3-2 at BU on Friday, and the Terriers needed a 2-1 win at Robert Morris to save the weekend.

Ohio State reminded everyone who's No. 1

Top-ranked Ohio State beat No. 8 Colgate 3-0 on Friday and 8-0 on Saturday, with six goals in the second period of the second game. Colgate came into Columbus at 6-0 and left at 6-2 without scoring a single goal all weekend.

The W read: the Buckeyes are 9-1 and the gap between them and the rest is wider than the poll points say.

What's next

The new poll lands this week. My call: Clarkson climbs into the top eight, and UNH starts showing up in the others-receiving-votes line.