Around the NEC

Or as I'm thinking of renaming this series of posts, "You figure this league out."

Sacred Heart goes to Robert Morris and wins, then gets dangerously close to blowing an 11-point lead with four minutes left at home against FDU.

The fighting DeMario's are playing well. That was a big win at the Hockey Rink in Hamden against LIU. The Bobcats trailed with less than five minutes left, but finished the job. That was their gut-check, and they passed.

Those two teams meet at Sacred Heart in a few days, should be interesting.

On the 24th, Wagner is home for the Mount. That's a big game for the league standings, obviously, but it's another chance for the Seahawks to show that their start was real. Four of their six wins are against the bottom of the conference, so they'll need to beat some of the top teams in the weeks ahead to keep this pace.

I still think the Mount is the team that will mess with both the standings and the tournament in March. If it can stay in the middle of the pack, it can cause some reseeding in March, I'll say that much.

A team that fits two of these descriptions is Central. Like the Mount, CCSU will be a very dangerous team to face in the first or second round that could end up in the middle of the pack. But like Wagner, the Blue Devils have had rather predictable results this season. They've beaten the teams they were supposed to and lost to the teams they were supposed to. What will they do in the next 10 games? That's when we'll know if they've improved or if they're a .500 team.

New York's loss to Monmouth in OT hurt the Terriers, but they're still among my favorites to make the playoffs, I like Hines and their grit a little too much to count them out. That probably leaves LIU for the final playoff spot. They get their share of shots up, you have to give them that.

Who do you all think will make the Tournament?