The University of Massachusetts has done the University of Maine a favor.

Now it will be up to the Black Bears to take advantage of it.

UMass beat Merrimack 5-1 on Friday night, keeping Merrimack one point behind fourth-place Maine in the Hockey East standings.

Today is the last day of the regular season. If Maine can beat the University of New Hampshire at 4 p.m. at Alfond Arena, then the Black Bears will finish fourth and have home-ice advantage in the best-of-three league quarterfinals next weekend.

Today’s game is being televised by NESN.

If Maine loses or ties today, then Merrimack can sneak into fourth place.

The Warriors, who are home against UMass tonight, hold the tiebreaker advantage over Maine. If the teams tie, then Merrimack will get home ice next weekend.

After Friday’s results in Hockey East, Boston College, Boston University and UMass-Lowell are guaranteed to finish in the top three.

Maine and Merrimack will finish in the next two spots and face each other in the quarterfinals.

The reason the Black Bears want to avoid fifth place is obvious. Maine would have to play at Merrimack, where it is 2-7-1 over the last four seasons. Last year Merrimack hosted the Black Bears in the quarterfinals and swept them, 5-4 and 6-2.

This season Merrimack won the season series, 2-0-1.

But before the Black Bears can think about Merrimack, they must focus on UNH.

Both teams were idle Friday — they moved the game scheduled for Friday to Fenway Park in January.

Maine (19-11-3, 14-10-2) and UNH (14-16-3, 11-13-2) have split two games this year, the Wildcats winning in Durham 3-2 in early November and Maine taking the Fenway game 5-4 in overtime.

That loss at Fenway was the Wildcats’ fifth straight. They have since put in a respectable 8-5-1 record. One reason for the turnaround is the insertion of freshman goalie Casey DeSmith of Rochester, N.H. He has a 2.37 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage.

Maine counters with Dan Sullivan (2.65 GAA, .905 percentage), who continues to be the backbone to Maine’s push to the NCAA tournament. In Maine’s 7-1 win last Saturday over Northeastern, the Black Bears’ production was the headline but Sullivan was also sharp.

“Quietly, Dan Sullivan was very good,” Maine Coach Tim Whitehead said. “He made some key stops early.”

The Black Bears had lost on Friday to Northeastern when “we came out flat,” forward Spencer Abbott said. “On Saturday we stuck to our game plan.”

The game plan is to continually attack the net. Abbott remains the nation’s scoring leader with 56 points. His linemates, Brian Flynn (45) and Joey Diamond (41) are in the top 11.

If playing for home ice against their biggest rival does not bring enough emotion for the Black Bears, the seniors will be recognized before the puck is dropped, as they play their last regular-season game at Alfond Arena.

But it doesn’t have to be their last game at Alfond. That fate is in their hands.

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:

kthomas@pressherald.com

Twitter: KevinThomasPPH

 

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