Hockey East Roundup: Dec. 30, 2024 - Jan. 7, 2025

Welcome back to more NCAA coverage, hockey fans! It’s 2025 and we’re in the home stretch of the season at the Division I level. Hockey East had a slate of games this weekend, and they’ve got a bunch more over the next few days too. Let’s get right into it. 

Team Highlight: Boston College takes seven of nine possible points in first games of 2025

While Friday night didn’t entirely go BC’s way, there are still many positives to take from their 2-0-1 week to start off the year. 

First, while they didn’t get the three points they were hoping to get against UConn, they did nab one point with the shootout loss – and more importantly, they kept the Huskies from taking the three points outright. 

All the scoring in Friday’s game came in the third period, and it’s no surprise the two highest scorers for both teams showed out. Claire Murdoch put the Huskies ahead 7:52 into the period, and while it took a bit for the Eagles to respond, they tied the game in the last five minutes of regulation thanks to sophomore star Sammy Taber. 

Murdoch played hero in the shootout and stole the extra point for UConn, but with a game as tight as this one, that one goal from Taber made all the difference. The Eagles outshot the Huskies 29-22, but the shot attempts were more even – BC blocked 13 shots to UConn’s seven, for an overall shot margin of 36-35. The teams were perfectly split 27-27 in the faceoff circle, and both went 0-2 on their power play chances. 

All told, it was as tight a game as to be expected between the sides. It also means the two sides finished 1-1-1 in the season series, and I don’t think it can get any more even than that. 

Then, on Sunday, Grace Campbell and Julia Pellerin (both of whom we’ll talk about later) stole the show. The Eagles curb stomped the visiting Maine Black Bears 5-0, with two power play goals on six attempts, and a perfect clean sheet for the penalty kill that had to kill 12 minutes of power play time themselves. 

Pellerin, with the first BC hat trick since 2022, played a role in all five of the Eagles’ goals, with Abby Newhook adding three assists and Taber adding two helpers as well. In her second shutout of the season, Campbell made 32 total saves, including 14 in the final period of regulation. It was an all-around complete performance for BC, especially in the four-goal, 19-shot second period. 

Finally, the Eagles rounded out their trio of games with a mid-week matchup with New Hampshire on Tuesday – who the Eagles also dismantled. In the 4-0 win, Molly Jordan continued her productivity with an assist and the eventual game-winning goal, and she’s now up to fourth on BC in scoring with 14 points. The power play once again clicked, as they scored on one of their two opportunities. 

This goal was made even sweeter knowing the UNH penalty kill is the third-best in the nation, and the Eagles PPG was just the sixth goal given up by the Wildcats on the disadvantage this season. 

Campbell was once again a rock star in net, making 31 saves en route to the shutout, her third of the last five games played. The skaters in front of her made an additional nine blocks, and the team overall had a well-put-together win. The one place they didn’t steal from UNH was in the faceoff dot, where they fell behind 29-21.

Now, with 16 games played in conference, Boston College has a razor-thin lead on the conference standings. With 34 points, they’re just one point up on both Boston University and UConn, and two points up on Northeastern. All three teams, however, have at least one game in hand on BC, with BU having three. 

All three teams, however, are squads BC has already played and won against at least once this season, and the Eagles only have games remaining against Northeastern (two) and BU (just one) – at least in conference, the way the Beanpot shakes out is a different story. Altogether, it’s a great position to be in for BC, especially after how the season started. 

Buckle up folks, the top four in the conference is going to be interesting in the last few weeks of the regular season.

Emma’s Tid-Bit of the Week: Penalty Killing Prowess

I’ll say it – I love a great penalty kill unit. 

And luckily for me, who watches a lot of Hockey East games, there’s good penalty killing going around in spades. In fact, of the top-10 penalty killing units in Division I, five of those are schools in HEA. And all five are in the top eight. 

No. 1 is Northeastern, who has been near the top of the leaderboard regardless of the players getting reps on the PK unit for multiple seasons. The Huskies are killing 93.3% of penalties this year, the best in the country. Close behind them in third is UNH, who is also at the 90% success mark on 60 penalties taken. 

Boston College is in fourth at 88.4% – although they’ve also taken the most penalties out of anyone in the top 10, at 69 total infractions. Providence, with 10 fewer penalty kills, is in sixth at 88.1%, a steep improvement from last season's 78.3%. The last school from Hockey East in the top 1o is BU, who has seen a slight dip from earlier in the season. Although, the slight dip is only to 87.9%, the seventh best mark in the NCAA. 

From there it’s a far drop to the next Hockey East school, but of the 11 teams in the conference, five schools in the top ranks in the PK department is incredible, and it speaks to how solid all of their systems are to this point in the season. 

It’ll also be something to keep an eye on heading into playoffs in just a month and a half. 

Weekly Awards

Player of the Week: Julia Pellerin, F, Boston College – Sophomore

Frankly, if this wasn’t a slam dunk pick I don’t really know what else to say. Pellerin factored into every single goal for the Eagles in their 5-0 drubbing of Maine on Sunday, including her first career hat trick. The forward added assists on the two goals she didn’t score, as well as having an assist on Friday against UConn in the 1-1 tie. And not to be outdone, the sophomore scored a third power play goal in the mid-week matchup against New Hampshire on Tuesday. Of her 17 points this season, seven of those have come in the last three games for the Eagles, a welcome sight for BC following a relatively quiet start to the season. 

Pro Ambitious Rookie of the Week: Claire Murdoch, F, UConn – Freshman 

I don’t think there are enough positive things I can say about Murdoch. Not only did the freshman have the lone UConn goal on Friday, she scored the only shootout goal to secure the extra point over BC as well. Murdoch then followed it up with another two goals on Sunday, including the game-winner on the power play in the Huskies come from behind win against Vermont. In 22 games played this season, she’s up to 18 total points, the most of anyone on the Huskies and tied for third-best in Hockey East. 

Defender of the Week: Brooke Becker, D, Providence – Grad Student 

It was a relatively productive weekend for Providence, and that was helped greatly by the production on both sides of the ice from Becker. The defender had a power play goal and an assist in the 5-2 win over Vermont on Friday, and had a combined four blocks in the two game weekend. The goal was just her second of the season, and the first since Oct. 5th against Saint Michael’s. 

Stop It Goaltender of the Week: Grace Campbell, G, Boston College – Junior

In the first week of 2025 action, Campbell has been practically unbeatable. The junior saved 21 of 22 shots on Friday against UConn, and then followed it up with back-to-back 30+ save shutouts of Maine and New Hampshire. The netminder's goals against average is now down below two, with a 1.94 mark in her 18 starts so far this season. Her .933 save percentage is tied for 12th in the nation, and fourth-best in HEA.

Complete Scoreboard

Out of Conference Games Bolded  

Monday, Dec. 30th 2024: 

Dartmouth (ECAC) 2 at New Hampshire 1 

Friday, Jan. 3rd: 

Boston University 3 at Holy Cross 0 
Maine 4 at New Hampshire 1 
Northeastern 3 vs. Merrimack 1 
Providence 5 at Vermont 3 
UConn 1 at Boston College 1 – UConn Won SO 1-0 

Saturday, Jan. 4th: 

Providence 4 at Merrimack 1 
Northeastern 4 vs. Holy Cross 0 

Sunday, Jan 5th: 

Boston College 5 vs. Maine 0 
UConn 3 vs. Vermont 2 

Tuesday, Jan. 7th: 

Boston College 4 vs. New Hampshire 0 
Northeastern 4 vs. Yale (ECAC) 3

What to Watch: Boston University at Vermont

Friday and Saturday at 6 PM

I’m not going to sugarcoat it – if BU doesn’t take all six points this weekend, I’ll be shocked. UVM had not had a great season to this point, and in fact have the lowest number of wins altogether in Hockey East with just four. Three of those wins have been in conference against Merrimack, Holy Cross, and UNH, but only one of those has come in the last 11 games they’ve played. 

That being said. I’m not writing UVM off entirely. The biggest place they struggled in the first semester was scoring, with a 1.2 goals per game average across the first 19 games of the season. Against Providence and UConn this past weekend, however, the Catamounts scored five goals in two games, which is a slight improvement but an improvement nonetheless. Plus, three of their goals were first in the NCAA careers of Oona Havana, Julia Mesplède, and Josie Hemp.

Boston University, on the other hand, played just one game last weekend, a 3-0 win over Holy Cross in their first game action in nearly a month. Two of those goals came on the power play, and they doubled up the Crusaders in shots 30-15. The Terriers picked up right where they left off, and should do the same as they head to Burlington on Friday and Saturday. 

The team is a scoring machine, averaging 2.9 goals per game on average for 52 total so far. They also sit with the second lowest total goals against of 35 (1.9 per game), thanks to superb defense and solid goaltending from Callie Shanahan. For a team looking to score (cough cough UVM), playing BU and Shanahan is going to be tough. 

Still, there’s just something about this set that stands out to me. Maybe it’s because it’s a two game set in Vermont and I enjoy seeing games at the Gutterson Fieldhouse. Or maybe it’s because BU has been taken out of the top spot of the Hockey East standings by rival BC for the first time in months, and I’m interested to see how they respond. Either way, it should be an entertaining matchup between these two teams especially with BU riding a five-game win streak against Vermont dating back to November 2022. 

Prediction: BU should and is going to take this two game set with little trouble. I think UVM makes them work for it in at least one game, but the Terriers are going to take the weekend series in Burlington. The two squads will meet one last time at BU on the first day of February, but in the January contests it’s all BU all the way. 

Full Upcoming Schedule

Streaming Details Available Here

Friday: 

Maine at Harvard (ECAC) – 3 PM 
New Hampshire at Merrimack – 6 PM 
Holy Cross at Providence – 6 PM 
Boston University at Vermont – 6 PM 

Saturday: 

Holy Cross at Providence – 3 PM 
Boston University at Vermont – 6 PM 

Tuesday: Beanpot Semifinals

At Northeastern’s Matthews Arena

Harvard vs. Boston University – 4:30 PM
Boston College at Northeastern – 7:30 PM