HEA Playoff Picture: Warriors have a path to a bye, control their destiny for home ice

All things considered, the Merrimack men’s hockey team is in a good place after they sat on the sidelines with a bye week this weekend and watched the rest of the conference play for points in the standings.

The Warriors entered the weekend six points ahead of Vermont for the final home-ice spot in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs. They came out of the weekend five points ahead of Northeastern for the last home-ice spot.

Most teams in the standings had games in hand on the Warriors heading into the weekend, but that’s not all evened out.

Northeastern is currently in ninth place. The Warriors are guaranteed to win the tie-breaker against the Huskies after winning the first two games of the season series on Dec. 14 and Jan. 25.

The Warriors remain six points ahead of Vermont and will likely win the tie-breaker against the Catamounts due to regulation win percentage in league games (although that is not official yet).