UMass Lowell scored five goals on their first ten shots of the game to cruise past Notre Dame in the deciding third game of their Hockey East first round playoff series with Notre Dame.
So what's the upshot for the NCAA tournament field?
First off, Notre Dame is officially, and some might argue mercifully, done for the season. It was a rebuilding year for the Irish, and it turned out they needed to do a little more building than they had hoped.
UMass Lowell's victory moves them from the 18th spot in the Pairwise to 17th, passing Harvard. But obviously that is only temporary as Harvard is facing off in their own Game 3 against Yale right about now.
Either way, there is still some work for the River Hawks to do next weekend in Boston if they want to make the NCAA tournament field. A win on Friday followed by a loss in the championship game doesn't seem like it will be enough to get them into at-large territory, so they more than likely need to win the Hockey East Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament.
For fans of teams on the edge of the NCAA Tourney Bubble, it's not an ideal result, as it would have been nice to eliminate UML from at-large discussion completely, and the River Hawks likely have a much better shot at winning two games next weekend than Notre Dame would have. It's not necessarily crushing that UMass Lowell won this game, however.