Very little is decided ahead of the final weekend of the Hockey East regular season.

UMass sits 10th of 11 teams with 22 points and two games at current No. 6 seed Maine on deck Friday and Saturday (both 7:05 p.m. ESPN-Plus). The Minutemen (11-16-5, 5-14-3 Hockey East) cannot drop to 11th after they split last weekend’s series against Northeastern.

They can rise as high as eighth and earn a preliminary round home game with a sweep, but that requires help. No. 8 Boston College has 27 points and would need to lose both games against No. 4 UConn. The Huskies beat them 5-1 in October. BC (12-14-6, 7-10-5) can also jump to tie UConn with 38 points if it sweeps the Huskies.

No. 9 New Hampshire (23 points) has just one game against No. 11 Vermont. Neither team can move up, but the Wildcats can drop to 10th depending on UMass’ series with Maine and how many points the Wildcats pick up against the Catamounts.

There are five teams crammed within 10 points of each other between sixth and 10th.

“It really doesn’t matter who you’re playing in the league. It’s crazy this year. It feels like there’s not much difference from team to team,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “The frustrating thing is a lot of games this year we've given up leads in the third period and probably played well enough to win, and that's just the margin. Every year it gets tighter and tighter and this year, I just think it's a whole new level.”

In Hockey East, teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime win or shootout win, and one point for an overtime or shootout loss. Shootout results only count for Hockey East standings purposes and are recorded as a tie for NCAA record keeping.

The league’s top five teams earn a bye into the quarterfinals. Four of those spots have been secured. No. 1 Boston University (48 points), No. 2 Merrimack (47) and No. 3 Northeastern (46) will battle for the regular season title. The Terriers (22-10, 16-6) will have two games against Providence. The Huskies (16-11-5, 13-6-3) will face No. 5 UMass Lowell (16-13-3, 10-9-3).

The River Hawks are the only team in danger of falling out of the top five into the preliminary round, scheduled for next Wednesday, March 8. Either Maine or Providence would have to earn at least five more points than they do to jump them.

The Warriors (20-12-1, 15-8) close the season with one game against Vermont at home. 

The sixth through 11th seeds will face each other in the preliminary round, and the bracket will be re-seeded before the quarterfinals.

UMass would face Providence if the standings don’t change but could also match up against Maine, Boston College or New Hampshire.

“We’ve got the, I don’t want to say luxury, but whether we win or lose these games this weekend is not going to make a huge difference in where we play in the playoffs,” Carvel said. “So I’m going to give the young guys as much time on the ice as I can.”

Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.]]>