The East Side: Merrimack and Northeastern crash the poll, Ritchie rescues BU

Hockey East's best weekend didn't happen in a league game. It happened in North Andover and Amherst, where two unranked teams made the poll come to them. Merrimack and Northeastern are ranked this week, and that tells you how deep and how unforgiving this conference is going to be by February.

First, the grade. Last week I said Boston College would sweep St. Cloud State and climb back inside the top 12. BC won 4-0 on Thursday, lost 5-3 on Saturday and slid to No. 18. Wrong, and not close.

The weekend

BU and Vermont split at Gutterson. These were the only Hockey East conference games of the weekend, and both of them were decided by a single goal. Vermont won 2-1 on Friday.

On Saturday, Vermont led until Ryder Ritchie tied it with 56.3 seconds left and the goalie pulled, then won it on a breakaway 56 seconds into overtime. Mikhail Yegorov made 24 saves and Jacob Oster made 32 for the Catamounts, who still left with a league point.

Merrimack swept Minnesota State. A 4-3 overtime win Friday, then an 8-2 Saturday at Lawler Arena that was over after a four-goal first period. Ty Daneault scored twice in the first 28 seconds of the second, and Nathan King had two more. It was Merrimack's first four-goal period since February.

New Hampshire swept at Colgate. A 5-2 win on Friday and a 2-0 win on Saturday. Senior Michael Simpson needed only 15 saves for his first collegiate shutout, and Nick Ring's second-period goal held up.

Northeastern and UMass traded 4-1 wins. UMass took Friday. On Saturday at the Mullins Center, Sam Caulfield made 34 saves and the Huskies outshot UMass 38-35. It was a non-conference series, so nobody banked league points, but the result moved the national poll considerably.

The rest. Providence won 3-2 in overtime at Union and stays unbeaten. UConn split with Colorado College, winning Friday in overtime. UMass Lowell got swept at home by Arizona State, 5-4 and 4-2.

Boston College's 4-0 win Thursday was its first of the season, then Leo Henriquez made 20 saves in his first college start in Saturday's loss.

The race

The conference table barely exists yet, since only a handful of conference games have been played anywhere in the league, so the national poll remains the real scoreboard for another week or two.

By our count, Hockey East has seven teams in the USCHO top 20: Providence at No. 7, BU at No. 15, UConn at No. 16, Northeastern at No. 17, Boston College at No. 18, UMass at No. 19 and Merrimack at No. 20. No other conference has more than five.

The team that moved most is Northeastern, from unranked to No. 17 on the strength of one road win at a ranked rival. BU fell four spots for a split, which is the price of losing to an unranked league opponent in October.

Player of the weekend

My pick is BU's Ryder Ritchie. He scored two goals on Saturday, and both of them were the kind that change a season's mood: the tying goal with an empty net behind him and the overtime winner on a breakaway.

Oster made 32 saves that night, and the Terriers still needed Ritchie to beat him twice in under two minutes of game clock. He did, and that's the difference between a lost weekend and a respectable one.

Meg's line

Meg Halloran: Seven Hockey East women's teams went 3-9-1 against the ECAC this weekend, and BU got shut out twice by Colgate. I have the whole crossover, and the league has work to do.

Weekend slate

1. No. 2 Michigan State at New Hampshire, Friday and Saturday. The biggest test any Hockey East team gets this month, at the Whittemore Center.

2. No. 15 BU and No. 16 UConn, Thursday in Storrs and Saturday at Agganis. Ranked against ranked, and two league games that actually count.

3. No. 18 Boston College at No. 4 Denver, Friday and Saturday. BC needs points it can show the poll, and Denver just lost its No. 1 spot.

4. UMass Lowell and No. 7 Providence, Friday in Lowell and Saturday in Providence. The Friars' first league weekend.

5. No. 20 Merrimack at Notre Dame, Friday and Saturday. A legitimate road examination for a program that only just arrived in the national rankings.

Also: Colgate at Maine, Clarkson and Vermont home-and-home, and Stonehill at UMass on Saturday.

Kessler's call

New Hampshire takes at least one game off No. 2 Michigan State. I'll grade it here next Monday.