March 6, 2011

Joe Whitney and the BC Eagles are the top seed in the upcoming Hockey East playoffs

Wakefield, Mass. -- The Hockey East Association announced the pairings for the upcoming 27th annual Hockey East Tournament, which begins next weekend with the best-of-three quarterfinal round on campus sites of the top four seeds.

All series will start on Friday, March 11 with the exception of Boston University, which will start its series on Thursday night due to a scheduling conflict at Agganis Arena on Saturday (series will be played Thurs., Fri., Sun). All game times are 7pm with the exception of the Merrimack series, which will start at 7:30pm each night.

NESN will televise the Maine at Merrimack game (Game 2) of the Hockey East Quarterfinal Series on Saturday night from Lawler Arena with coverage beginning at 7pm.

Hockey East Regular-Season Champion and top seed Boston College will entertain No. 8 seed Massachusetts beginning on Friday night at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill. The Eagles, who won on the road at UNH on Saturday night to clinch the tile, swept the three-game season series with the Minutemen. The two teams met last year in the quarterfinal round, as BC swept the series en route to its league-record ninth tournament title in school history. UMass' tie with Maine on Saturday night earned them the final spot in the 2011 Hockey East playoffs. BC has won three of the last four tournament championships.

No. 2 seed New Hampshire will play host to Vermont at the Whittemore Center in a rematch of last year's quarterfinal meeting, a three-game series which Vermont won on the road in their only playoff meeting in tournament history. UNH won the season series with the Catamounts, 2-0-1.

No. 3 seed Boston University will faceoff with No. 6 seed Northeastern at Agganis Arena after the two schools completed the regular-season schedule against each other with each team winning a road game this past weekend. The Terriers did end up winning the season series, 2-1-0. BU last met the Huskies in the 1997 quarterfinal round of the playoffs, a 2-0 series sweep for the Terriers.

No. 4 seeded Merrimack will host a playoff series for the second time in school history, as the Warriors entertain Maine at Thom Lawler Arena in North Andover, Mass. Maine won the season series between the two teams, 2-1-0 with the Black Bears most recently sweeping a weekend series at Alfond Arena on Feb. 25 and 26. Maine and Merrimack last met in the Hockey East quarterfinals in 2004, as Maine swept the series and went on the win the Hockey East Tournament that same season.

All quarterfinal games will by streamed live by Pack Network on www.hockeyeastonline.tv for $7.95 per game, with the exception of the NESN game on Saturday night. Watch 11 of a possible 12 games by purchasing the tournament pass for $39.95 and watch all four games simultaneously in the same web browser.