After last weekend's two losses, the University of Massachusetts hockey team urgently needs some points to stay in the Hockey East playoff picture.

The Minutemen will play Northeastern tonight at Matthews Arena in Boston and are at home against Merrimack Saturday. Both games are at 7 p.m.

The Minutemen and Huskies are tied for seventh in Hockey East with 14 points each. UMass (9-10-5, 5-8-4) is 1-0-1 against Northeastern (10-11-3, 6-11-2) this season.

The teams tied in Boston to open the season and the Minutemen prevailed 4-2 at the Mullins Center on Nov. 12. A win or a tie would give UMass the tiebreaker should the Minutemen and Huskies finish with the same number of points. NU has played two more league games than UMass.

Only eight teams make the Hockey East Tournament and what remains concerning to the Minutemen and Huskies is that New Hampshire is only a point behind them in ninth place with 13 points. New Hampshire plays a home-and-home series with Providence this weekend.

Freshman forward Ludwig Karlsson and junior Steve Qualier share the Huskies' scoring lead with 22 points apiece. Karlsson has nine goals and 13 assists, while Qualier had eight goals and 14 assists.

Junior Chris Rawlings has started 23-of-24 games with a 10-10-3 record, a 2.49 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.

The Huskies gained some momentum and snapped a five-game losing streak with a sweep of Vermont last weekend. NU doesn't play Saturday because it plays Boston College in the Beanpot Monday night.

This is UMass' first game against Merrimack, the only Hockey East team it's yet to play. The teams will meet again in a home-and-home series March 2-3, the last weekend of the season.

The fourth-ranked Warriors rose all the way to No. 1 in the country earlier this season, but right now they're trying to secure a top-four finish and home-ice advantage in the Hockey East Tournament. Merrimack (14-5-5, 10-4-3) is fourth with 23 points, but it's just two points behind Boston College and Boston University, who are tied for first, and one back of third-place Maine. Fifth-place Lowell is closing fast with 22 points.

The Warriors host Boston University tonight at 7 before coming to Amherst.

Senior Ryan Flanigan leads Merrimack with seven goals and 13 assists, while Jesse Todd has 10 goals and nine assists. The Warriors lead the conference with 2.00 goal allowed per game. The defense's strength is in goal with senior Joe Cannata, who is 13-5-5 with a 2.02 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.