The Hockey East playoffs got underway with single elimination games featuring the bottom six teams in the league. That meant Hugo Ollas and his 10th-seeded Merrimack Warriors got to face seventh-seed Northeastern in a one elimination game.
It wasn’t pretty as Merrimack has been a disappointing team all year long and Northeastern made short work of them shutting them out 4-0 to eliminate them from playoff contention.
It only took 3:15 for Northeastern to get on the scoreboard as Northeastern jumped out to a 1-0 lead and really that was all they needed. Ollas would stop six out of the seven shots he faced.
In the second period, Northeastern would add two more even strength goals to boost their lead to 3-0 as Ollas stopped seven of the nine shots he faced.
Finally in the third Northeastern would add an empty net goal after Ollas was pulled for an extra attacker. All together Ollas surrendered three goals in 59 minutes of play. He was credited with 22 saves as he takes the loss to end his season.
As strange as this is going to sound but many felt that Hugo Ollas actually wasn’t bad this season despite the numbers. That remains to be seen as the numbers will tell a different tale.
Merrimack as a team was 13-21-1 on the season, Ollas finished his junior season with a 7-12 record on a 2.84 goals against and a 0.908 save percentage. It goes without saying that these were NCAA career lows for him.
The question now is does Ollas stay at Merrimack or? Leave school and turn pro? The Rangers extended both Jonathan Quick and Louie Domingue for another season, the only goalie opening the team might have will come if the Rangers choose not to bring back Olaf Lindblom for another season. If the Rangers do not, the opening is only at the ECHL level which would be a backwards move for a guy who has been playing at the highest of NCAA competition.
Return to Merrimack? In all honesty, if Ollas has managed to graduate then transferring to another school might be the best way for him to show that this season was a fluke and that he is a better goalie than the numbers said.
Return to Europe and play pro there. Absolutely not a good idea if Ollas wants to play in the NHL. If Europe is his only option then it would be better for Ollas to remain at Merrimack for his senior season. By doing so the Rangers can work closer with him to fix what might be wrong with his game.
Ollas is a favorite of Ranger’s goalie coach Beniot Allaire so he can work with him as can Rangers goalie consultant Jean-Ian Filiatrault and Hartford goalie coach Jeff Malcolm. The closer Ollas is to New York and Hartford then the better it is for any hope of the Rangers contract next year.
Elsewhere
Maxim Barbashev scored his 14th goal of the season as his Rimouski Oceanic got spanked 7-2 by the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in QJMHL play. Barbashev scored an unassisted goal at 4:10 of the first period which tied the score at 1-1 but that was the last time Rimouski was in the game. Barbashev is 14-19-33 on the season.
Bryce McConnell-Barker had a secondary assist as his Soo Greyhounds lost to the Flint Firebirds 4-3 via the shootout in OHL play. McConnell-Barker earned his assist on the Greyhound’s second goal as he improves to 19-28-47 for the season.
The Greyhound have a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1-1) but trail West Division leader the Saginaw Spirit by five points with five games remaining.
Playoff, Playoffs, Playoffs
NCAA League Playoffs come Friday:
NCHC Only on NCHC TV (stream)
(4)Colorado College (Noah Laba) vs (5) Omaha (Victor Mancini)- best of three.
ECAC All games televise on ESPN+ (Friday and Saturday, Sunday if need be)
(2) Cornell (Hank Kempf) vs (8) Harvard (Zakary Karpa)
Big Ten Saturday 9 PM EDT televised on the Big Ten Network
(3) Minnesota (Brody Lamb) vs (4) Michigan
Hockey East
Single Elimination all games streamed on ESPN+
(1) Boston College (Gabe Perreault, Drew Fortescue) vs (8) UConn
(4) Providence (Jaroslav Chmelar) vs UMass
