Friday, December 26, 2014

2014-2015 First Half Hockey East Ref Stats

The break between semesters is a good time to look back at the first half in a number of different areas. We could take a look deeper into why BU is so damn good but it's pretty obvious why they are. It begins with "J" ends with "el" along with some other big jumps in performance from some returning players as well as the play of Matt O'Connor and the freshmen in the defensive corps. We really have very little to complain about how the #1 BU Terriers are playing currently but we wanted to air our greviences so we turned to a different topic, officiating. This past fall, I calculated the average penalty minutes called in a game for each referee last season. I do realize that this lumps the two refs together who are calling the game but overall, it gives a pretty good indicator of who is calling the most penalties. There is no way to regulate how many should or shouldn't have been called in a given game but in general, I think all fans will agree that the less the officials are involved in a game the better. The numbers for this season don't surprise me at all given my opinion on each referee in the listings.

Now on to the numbers *Yes I know I don't have a life

League Average: 21.49 penalty minutes/game

The +/- indicates whether the number of penalties called are up or down since last season

1. Cameron Voss- 10 games, 29.1 penalty minutes/game,  +3.2 pms/game
2. Kevin Shea- 9 games, 23.9 penalty minutes/game,  -6.5 pms/game
3. Tom Quinn- 6 games, 23 penalty minutes/game,  -2.63 pms/game
4. Curtis Marouelli- 9 games , 22.22 penalty minutes.game, first season in HE

*See the decent refs numbers after the jump

Monday, December 15, 2014

Weekend Recap: BU torches Troy to the ground in 5-1 victory over RPI





                                                        Troy being sacked


The BU Terriers finished the 2014 portion of their 2014-2015 schedule exactly how they wanted to with a 5-1 win over EZAC foe RPI in Troy,NY.  Matt O'Connor was excellent in goal in the first as the Terriers looked to find their groove. This has been a problem for this team so far this season where they give up more chances in the first period but they had their chances as well but RPI goalie Scott Diebold was up to the task as well.




The Terriers found their scoring touch in the second as John Macleod scored on a wrister through traffic from the point before Jack Eichel found Danny O'Regan for a tap in powerplay goal later in the period. Brandon Hickey made it a 3 goal lead heading into the third on a weird play where he scored off a backhand from below the goal line. The scoring from Macleod and Hickey is certainly a welcome site for Terrier nation as you need secondary scoring to succeed in postseason play and it appears that BU is starting to get some bounces and getting that scoring.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Terriers take 3 out of 4 points from Merrimack

The BU Terriers took three out of four points from #18 Merrimack College. In a matchup between the youngest team in college hockey versus one of the oldest, the youth prevailed with a 1-1 tie Friday night in North Andover before a 4-2 BU win Saturday night back at Agganis Arena. Friday night was a tightly played contest that BU has to be happy to escape with a point. Merrimack Brett Seney put the home team up early in the second with a snipe past Matt O'Connor's glove. BU would tie it up in the third on a gritty Matt Lane goal. The game would end in a tie with a few chances for each side but the game was sloppy due a large number of penalties(everyone paid to come see Cameron Voss make penalty calls apparently). As a BU fan, you have to be happy with a tie on the road at a tough rink like Lawler where you certainly didn't play your best hockey.





Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Weekend Recap Terriers drop 2 of 3 in busiest week of the year

The #1 BU Terriers dropped 2 of their last 3 games in a 9 day stretch. The stretch started with a Tuesday night matchup with #9 Harvard at Agganis. Despite outshooting the crimson 42-24 and maybe playing their best hockey of the year, the Terriers were not "opportunistic" enough and were lucky to send the game to overtime on a weak goal by Harvard goalie Steve Michalek. Harvard won it in overtime on Kyle Criscuolo's second of the night on a shot that trickled through Matt O'Connor for the 3-2 Harvard win. The Terriers will get another shot at the Crimson in the first round of the Beanpot which should be a great matchup of two top 10 teams. Unfortunately it will be played at 5:00 pm so start thinking of your excuses to get out of work early right now.

Some of the positive from the game besides the massive edge in shots and possession by the Terriers was a powerplay goal by the second powerplay unit. This was a theme throughout the week as the same unit added a tally on Saturday night as well. The second unit which now consists of Matt Lane, Cason Hohmann, Chase Phelps, Brandon Hickey and Brandon Fortunato is producing a better clip which makes the powerplay that much scarier. The first unit with the OREO line Erod and Grizz has been lethal most of the season so the second unit getting going will only make BU that much more dangerous on the powerplay.