2015 NCAA Women's Tournament Starts Saturday

The eight-school 2015 NCAA Women's Division I Tournament gets underway on Saturday with four quarter final match-ups:

Quinnipiac @ (3) Harvard
Clarkson @ (2) Boston College
Boston University @ (4) Wisconsin
RIT @ (1) Minnesota

(Top seeds in parentheses)

The winners advance to the Frozen Four on March 20-22 at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. Clarkson is the defending national champion.

Alaska's Parayko Signs with St. Louis

Alaska junior defenseman Colton Parayko has passed up his final year of NCAA eligibility with the Nanooks to sign a two-year entry-level contract with the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, according to alaskananooks.com. He will be assigned to the Blues' AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.

Parayko was named Western Collegiate Hockey Association Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-WCHA, and a WCHA Scholar Athlete during his three years at UAF, and was also named to the NCAA Division I All-American Second Team last season.

A 6-foot-5, 224-pound native of St. Albert, Alberta, Parayko served as UAF's captain this past season. He also led the team with 67 blocked shots while recording six goals and 17 assists for 23 points, as the Nanooks finished 19-13-2 overall (14-12-2 WCHA).

Parayko tallied 17 goals and 49 assists for 66 points in 104 career games with Alaska. He also helped UAF to three straight Governor's Cup championships over rival Alaska Anchorage, including last weekend in his final collegiate games in blue and gold. He was drafted by the Blues in the third round (86th overall) of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, following the completion of a two-year junior career with Fort McMurray (AJHL). The Oil Barons, like the Nanooks and Blues, also wear blue and gold.

ECAC Quarterfinals this Weekend

The quarterfinal round of the 2015 ECAC Division I Men's Hockey Tournament is set, as outlined at USCHO.com, following last week's best-of-three opening round for the bottom eight seeds:

No. 10 Union at No. 1 Quinnipiac (Season series: Quinnipiac won, 2-0)

No. 9 Rensselaer at No. 2 St. Lawrence (Season series: Tied, 1-1)

No. 6 Harvard at No.3 Yale (Season series: Yale won, 3-0)

No. 5 Dartmouth at No. 4 Colgate (Season series: Colgate won, 1-0-1)

Union ousted No. 7 Cornell in two games over the weekend, including a 7-0 win in the clincher on Saturday. Rensselaer advanced after outlasting Clarkson in three games, the only conference first-round series to go the distance. Harvard swept No. 11 Brown, and Dartmouth did likewise with No. 12 Princeton.

The quarterfinal winners advance to the single-elimination ECAC Championship in Lake Placid on March 20-21, with the conference's automatic berth in the 2015 NCAA Tournament at stake. Union has won the last three Whitelaw Cups.

UAF Wraps Up 2014-15 Season This Weekend

Alaska Fairbanks faces the end of its season this weekend with two games at rival Alaska Anchorage to decide the annual Governor's Cup. UAF (17-13-2 overall, 12-12-2 WCHA), which stands in fifth place in its conference, is ineligible for the WCHA and NCAA postseason races due to academic violations from 2008 to 2012.

The Nanooks, who dropped a pair of games to UAA by 2-1 and 3-2 (OT) counts in Fairbanks on Jan. 16-17, need to win both games this weekend at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage to force a Cup-deciding shootout. UAA (8-20-4, 5-19-2 WCHA), on the other hand, sits in last place in the WCHA, and can only advance to the league playoffs if it sweeps UAF, and both Alabama-Huntsville and Lake Superior State are held pointless.

As part of its capitulation regarding the NCAA violations, UAF had to vacate two of its past Governor's Cup victories over UAA, along with its appearance in the 2010 NCAA Tournament where the Nanooks fell in the first round to eventual national champion Boston College.

ADDENDUM: UAF won, 3-2, on Saturday night and then won, 1-0, in the ensuing shootout to claim its third straight Governor's Cup.

Hockey East, ECAC Tournament Fields Set

The first round of the 2015 Hockey East men’s championship is set. This year’s opening round will be best-of-three series for the lower eight seeds, instead of the single-elimination games that were played last season. Higher seeds will be the host teams:

No. 5 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Massachusetts

No. 6 Northeastern vs. Mo. 11 Merrimack

No. 7 Vermont vs. No. 10 Maine

No. 8 New Hampshire vs. No. 9 Connecticut

The survivors will be re-seeded and will advance to the second round, also on best-of-three and played on campus sites. Having byes this week are the conference’s top four finishers, Boston University, Providence, Boston College, and UMass Lowell, who will all host games on March 13-15.

The four second-round victors will then advance to the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden in Boston on March 20-21 for single-elimination matchups , with the winner claiming Hockey East’s automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Tournament. UMass Lowell won its first league postseason title last season.

The Eastern College Athletic Conference's men’s division championship will open its own best-of-three first round set of series this weekend, with the top four seeds having byes, and the bottom eight looking to advance to next week. Higher seed is again the host school:

No. 5 Dartmouth vs. No. 12 Princeton

No. 6 vs. No. 11 Brown

No. 7 Cornell vs. No. 10 Union

No. 8 Clarkson vs. No. 9 Rensselaer

Winners will be re-seeded to face the top four teams in Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence, Yale and Colgate in best-of-three series played on campus sites. The four second-round winners will be off to Lake Placid on March 20-21 for the ECAC Championship and its single-elimination contests, with the ECAC’s automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Tournament at stake. Union is the defending three-time ECAC Tournament champion.

BC, BU Win at Beanpot

Ryan Fitzgerald's goal 76 seconds into overtime lifted ninth-ranked Boston College to a 3-2 victory over No. 16 Harvard in the Beanpot Tournament consolation game at TD Garden on Monday evening.

BC, which avenged a 6-3 loss to the Crimson back in November, thus remains in the top 10 in the Pairwise Rankings, which are used to used to mimic the 16-team NCAA Tournament selection process, while Harvard dropped into a tie for the 17th spot.

Matthew Gaudreau tied the game for BC at 8:56 of the third period after Harvard had taken a 2-1 lead on goals by Alexander Kerfoot and Sean Malone less than three minutes apart midway through the second stanza, the latter on a power play. Alex Tuch scored the game-opening power play goal in the first period for the Eagles, who got 33 saves from Thatcher Demko.

In the championship contest, Boston University claimed its record 30th Beanpot crown on an overtime power-play tally by Matt Grzelcyk to top Northeastern, 4-3. The goal was Grzelcyk's second of the game, and came just 51 seconds into the extra session for the Terriers.

It was BU's first Beanpot title since 2009, while the Huskies still haven't won one since 1988.

Monday's games had been postponed from their original date of Feb. 9 due to repeated snow that has blanketed Boston area in recent weeks. Northeastern edged BC, 3-2, in the first round on Feb. 2, while BU outlasted Harvard, 4-3, in overtime later that night.

Brown Unbeaten in Last Five Games

Brown University senior wing  Matt Lorito became the 24^th player in school history to record at least 100 career points on Friday night. The Bears’ captain hit the century mark with his assist on Brown’s fourth goal in a 4-1 win at Princeton on Feb. 20. Lorito is now tied for the team scoring lead with eight goals and 18 points in 25 outings this season.

Following a 2-2 tie at Quinnipiac on Saturday, the Bears are unbeaten in their last five outings (4-0-1). Tim Ernst has been the goaltender of record in all five games for Brown, allowing just seven goals in that span. For the season, he has gone 6-5-2 in 16 appearances.

Brown (8-17-2 overall, 5-13-2 ECAC), which will be on the road for the first round of the 2015 ECAC Tournament, closes out the regular season on Feb. 27-28 at Cornell and Colgate, respectively.