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After a weekend of upsets the Hockey East semifinals decided to go chalk. One was a little more interesting then the other, however.
Semifinal Recaps
Northeastern 3, Maine 1
It was almost another episode of the Carly Jackson show after Maine potted an early power play goal and held that lead into the third period. At that point the Huskies showed up and were saved by Skylar Fontaine who rocketed an equalizer on the power play. Not long after that Kaz finalist Alina Mueller showed why she was the Hockey East Player of the Year and snuck the winner past Jackson which would prove to be the deciding factor. Fontaine would manage an empty netter to seal the deal.
Connecticut 4, New Hampshire 0
Not to be out done by their northern namesakes Connecticut dominated the Wildcats en route to another championship meeting with Northeastern. The southern Huskies opened the scoring a little over four minutes into the competition and never looked back as Morgan Fischer held UNH off the board.
Finals Preview
Season Series
NU 3 UConn 0 (10-2 aggregate)
UConn 0 @ NU 4
NU 3 @ UConn 0
UConn 2 @ NU 3 OT
After a convincing sweep in mid-January Northeastern would need overtime to clinch the Hockey East regular season crown, right before the Beanpot which might have led NU to be looking past the game a little.
Computer Models
KRACH: NU 88% UConn 12%
KRACH favors NU pretty heavily. UConn is rated around Maine and UNH.
GRaNT: NU 79% UConn 21%
NU 4 UConn 1
Per the GRaNT model Northeastern should score about 80% of the goals which would equate to about a 4-1 final score.
Prediction
NU 3 UConn 1
Northeastern is and should be the favorites in this matchup. They are deeper and more talented. The issue is they haven’t been playing 60 minutes of hockey lately. UConn has shown they are capable of beating a good team even NU, if Northeastern can’t get their game going until the third period again they could be in a lot of trouble.