If you're a fan of offense, this was the weekend for you in Hockey East. Of course, that means it was a pretty rotten weekend for goaltending. We'll start with the scars:
First Scar: Chris Rawlings. Northeastern's senior goaltender had a .788 save percentage, on the weekend, getting pulled from the BC game in which his team would ultimately fall, 9-3. Sure, the Huskies beat BU on Friday night, but not without Rawlings letting five in in that game, too.
Second Scar: Vermont's steady play. During the holidays, we were praising Brody Hoffman and the Cats' consistency. But now, after losing to first year varsity program Penn State, Kevin Sneddon's squad is now on a four-game losing streak and looks to be completely without direction.
Third Scar: Casey DeSmith. UNH's once all-world netminder has been positively pedestrian since the calendar turned to December. Not accounting for his strong play in holding off BC last weekend, his save percentage has been less than .909 after being unworldly first few months, and he has a save percentage south of .750 in two of his last three games, and it may have been worse on Saturday had he not gotten yanked from UNH's eventual 6-5 loss to Providence.
First Star: Mike Collins. Merrimack's captain doesn't get a lot of attention these days, but he notched assists on all three of the Warriors' goals on Saturday night to lead his team to a win over Maine, which is still yet to win a home conference game this season.
Second Star: BC's new second line. Sure, they didn't do much on Friday night, but nobody not named Lowell played two good games this weekend, and their 12 combined points (including Steven Whitney's hat trick and Johnny Gaudreau's four assists) on Saturday night against an overmatched Northeastern team were exactly what you'd expect from the Eagles' former top trio.
Third Star: Jon Gillies' value. I'm not too familiar with the Flames' goaltending situation, but Gillies keeps giving them hope for the future. He stopped 48 of 50 shots on Thursday night against Lowell, and came back by keeping 37 of UNH's 42 shots out of the net en route to a very unexpected road win on Saturday night.