Friday, December 7, 2012

Maine Preview: Start Your Houses Edition




Last night, your #7-ranked Terriers traveled to Durham, NH and dethroned the UNH Wildcats on their home ice, averting a sweep of the regular season series. It'll be recapped on Sunday along with the Maine game. The win marks the second time this week that the Terriers have defeated a #1 ranked team. The first, of course, came last Friday at Agganis when BU beat BC, forcing Jerry York to wait at least another week to claim a record of exaggerated importance. HUUUUUUGE win for the Terriers last night. You all should still be hungover from celebrating.

For its second game of the weekend, the Terriers will host the Maine Black Bears tomorrow night at Agganis Arena's Jack Parker Rink. Hit the jump for a breakdown of tomorrow's match-up.




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Maine is 2-10-2 on the season and 1-6-2 in HEA play, which is good enough for dead last in the Hockey East. Let that sink in. They've played nine games in conference and have managed to scrape together four points. Maine sucks. 

Here is an artist's representation of how the Bears have been playing so far:


That being said, after coming off of a seriously grueling week of three consecutive #1 match-ups (a first in BU hockey and maybe NCAA history), it would be all too easy for the Terriers to treat this as a throwaway game. The Bears have some bulletin board material this week after Parker called them out to the Freep as the other major diving team in HEA besides BC. However, I don't see the Cubs making a huge difference in play because of it. Hopefully they actually dive less. Maine isn't the least talented team in the conference but they're playing the worst hockey right now. It's important that the Terriers keep their muzzles to the grindstone for this one. BU sits at third in the Hockey East right now with 14 points. That's three behind UNH and four behind BC. These are the easiest two points of the year so far and coming away with anything less would be a colossal failure.

Maine's coach is Tim Whitehead, and he's a joke.


While Maine lost a significant amount of scoring power this summer, the team has more talent than they've played up to so far. They lost Spencer Abbott to the Maple Leafs (LOL) and Brian Flynn to the Sabres but still shouldn't be dropping from an NCAA berth to dead last. Blame Timmy, I guess.



Players to Watch: Maine

Joey Diamond, F, Sr. - Joey Diamond is consistently Maine's best player on the ice...when he's actually on the ice and not in the box. He is second on the team in scoring with 6 pts behind freshman Devin Shore, but Diamond predictably leads the pack with a whopping 45 penalty minutes, the most in the United States of America. Diamond's effort has been powerful enough to land Maine in the #8 spot nationally in penalty minutes. Sadly for the hillbillies, that's by far the highest ranking the Black Bears can hope to attain in any way for the rest of the season.

Over/Under for Joey Diamond game misconducts in the 2012-13 season: 8
Over/Under for Joey Diamond penalty minutes at BU tomorrow night: 7






Brice O'Connor, D, Jr. - With the performance described above, Joey just beats out his fellow Black Bear. O'Connor has had a rough year so far. Besides having to deal with being named "Brice," he's racked up 43 PIM and a 0-1-1 stat line. Look for this kid to be the guy dishing out cheap shots after BU tallies a few goals.

Dan Sullivan and Martin Ouellette, G, Jr. - The two junior Maine tendies have been splitting starts this year. Ouellette has put up better numbers but not great ones (1-4-2, .911, 2.40 GAA). Let me be serious for one moment: I miss UNH's Matt DiGiorlamo (aka DiGiorno, aka Frozen Pizza). He was the best. The "GOALIE - PIZZA" chant at Agganis back in the day made my life. Which is why I'm hoping that Ouellette starts tomorrow so I can try to get everyone on board with calling him Omelette. Not only are omelettes as delicious as pizza, but we can make a bunch of egg jokes too! Chant ideas include SUNNY SIDE UP, OVER EASY, GOALIE - OMELLETE and OMELETTE - BACKUP SIEVE - OMELETTE - BACKUP OMELETTE.

Omelette you finish, Black Bears, but Matt DiGiorlamo had one of the best food-related pun names of all time.

Devin Shore, F, Fr. - Maine's freshman playmaker has a 1-6-7 stat line so far this year in all 14 games for the Bears, and apparently is playing like he thinks he's Grizzy. He's not. Drafted by Dallas in the 2nd round this summer, Shore seems to have good hands and could contribute to Black Bear scoring chances tomorrow night.


Players to Watch: BU

Cason Hohmann, obviously. Texas Toast is leading the Terriers with his 4-12-16 stat line and making everyone's defense look silly when he turns on the wheels.

Sahir Gill - Gill had a goal and an assist last night and with this new top line you can expect his point production to continue.

Kurker/Grizz/E-Rod - I'm looking for one or two of these guys to have a good night as well.

Matt Nieto - Nieto was wheeling through the UNH zone last night. He had a lot of chances and showed good energy and puck hunting skills. He also came this close to notching a goal on star tendy Casey DeSmith on a slot snapper, instead putting it off the left post. The Dog Pound will chant his name at some point tomorrow.



Projected Lines - Basically the same as at UNH

Megan - Hohman - Gill
Nieto - O'Regan - E-Rod
Moran - Myron - Kurker
Lane - Rosen - Santana

Scooby - Privy
Noonan - Ruikka
Grizz - Ahti Ahti Ahti (OY OY OY)

Maguire - OC - Moccia

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