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.



BU would play well again on Saturday afternoon coming back from a 2-1 deficit after two periods to beat Colgate 5-2 thanks to two third period goals from Evan Rodrigues. Jack Eichel let off his best snipe of the year to tie the game 15 seconds into the third period. Chase Phelps also tallied his first career goal on the above mentioned powerplay. It will be huge for this team if Phelps, AJ Greer, JJ Piccinich and some of the other freshmen can pick up the scoring pace now that they have some experience at the collegiate level.  The story of this game was how chippy the contest was. The highlight of which was Colgate forward Tyson Spink voicing his displeasure of Matt Lane to the entire rink. There were numerous after the whistle penalties which have been rare for BU this year but it was good to see them to stick up for each other against the goons from the ECAC.

The Terriers had to return to action Sunday for a road trip at Dartmouth where they were shutout and played their worst game of the season in a 2-0 loss. The team looked tired and got manhandled in the second period where Dartmouth scored both goals. This is a stretch that hopefully the team will not need to face going forward. With the last 3 games of this tough 5 game stretch being nonconference games, I wouldn't expect a schedule like this to happen again in the future. The Terriers return to action against a tough Merrimack team that is being deemed a good team because they split with a bunch of decent teams after beating up on some of the weaker teams in college hockey.  Big thanks to Northeastern coach Jim Madigan who chirped Merrimack during his press conference not involving a game with Merrimack. He responded "their schedule" when asked why Merrimack was so successful so far this year. The Warriors will certainly be fired up to prove Madigan and others wrong this weekend.


This Week in #DISRES9ECT

@jprterp @chrismpeters @TSNBobMcKenzie McDavid is a franchise player. Jack should be a solid player
— Alex Mclean (@MacDaddy1913) November 24, 2014

1:24 seconds into the game and Jack Eichel has not scored.
— Dartmouth Hockey (@Dartmouth_MIH) November 30, 2014

Jack Eichel couldn’t score against Crimson nerds? Sound’s like he’s perfect fit for Oilers.
— Juha Hiitelä (@jhiitela) November 26, 2014