Weekend Preview- #17 RPI, # 2 Wisconsin visit Agganis

This weekend, the #15 Terriers look to improve on their 2-0-0 record on the young season as they host two ranked non conference this weekend. As Coach Quinn said in his presser last weekend, this team will get better each practice and each game they play as the younger players grow and develop over the course of the season. This certainly should be a telling weekend for how the team stacks up against top teams throughout the country.

                                                      Photo Credit to Kenshin Okubo(link)
#17 RPI(1-1)

Rensselaer comes into their contest Friday night at BU on an even 1-1. They took care of business with a 6-0 victory over Sacred Heart in their opener before getting trounced at BC this past Sunday 7-2.  They were one of the pre-season favorites in the ECAC and always give the Terriers a tough test. Last year's game was a 3-2 BU win in OT at Agganis Arena thanks to a late Cason Hohmann OT goal.

RPI will be without starting goalie Jason Kasdorf who was hurt in practice Tuesday on a freak play. The Terriers will face junior Scott Diebold in his place. Kasdork is coming off a game where he was pulled at BC so I'm not sure it is a good thing that he will miss this contest. No matter who is in net for the Engineers, BU must build on last week's performances and get the shots on net.  They are lead up front by their junior trio of  Matt Neal(8-22-30), Ryan Haggerty(12-14-26) and Jacob Laliberte(11-17-28). Sophomore Milos Bubela and senior Matt Tinordi. The Terrier defense will be faced with the task of keeping these forwards in check. RPI lost to BC 7-2 last weekend but controlled the majority of the game before a few fatal errors
caused the game to become unglued for them. This is no cupcake opposition for the Terriers and if they get caught looking forward to #2 Wisconsin a day early, they will lose this game. The focus has to be there as it was against Holy Cross and UMass for this important non conference game to go into the win column. You can't lose to a team of engineers, you just can't.

#2 Wisconsin(2-0)

                                                 Photo credit- U-Sin Lee/DFP Staff

Having said that the team can't look forward to Wisconsin early, I still can because I'm not writing two previews. To sum up Wisconsin quickly, they are loaded with skill guys all over the ice and have a stellar goalie to back them up. Up front they return four 30+ point scorers in Michael Mersch(23-13-36), Nic Kerdiles(11-22-33), Mark Zengarle(9-23-32), and Tyler Barnes(15-15-30). Junior Jake McCabe leads the defense and is a force all over the ice.  They are coming off a sweep of Northern Michigan who they beat with two different goalies in starter Joel Rumpel and backup Landon Patterson.

This will easily be BU's toughest test of the young season. The advantage for BU will be the home ice advantage along with Wisconsin coming off a game at BC the previous night. The Terriers must get great goaltending and find a way to take it to the Badgers to limit their chances. If you sit back, they will eventually break through and you will lose. If the Terriers can keep 3 lines going with the ability to score , then they will have a decent chance for the "upset". BU is just as talented as this Wisconsin team but younger. It certainly will take a complete effort but a victory here certainly wouldn't be a shock heard around the world. I'm predicting a close BU win. Go BU!