Sunday, March 1, 2015

Weekend Recap: Regular Season Hockey East Champs

This weekend , the #4 BU Terriers completed their regular season schedule with a home and home versus Northeastern. Both teams were coming off the emotional OT victory last Monday in the Beanpot final.  BU won that game in OT on a Matt Grzelcyk goal because it was the Beanpot and that's where winners find a way to win and losers find a way to lose. Friday night may have been the worst defensive effort from the Terriers this season as they were pinned in their own zone throughout the game. They faced deficits of 3-0 and 6-2 but still gave themselves a chance to win after Evan Rodrigues' goal of the game made it 6-5 with just under six minutes left. Three out of the five BU goals did come on the powerplay as both Northeastern and BU finished the game 3/4 on the powerplay. BU could never get the equalizer as a goal from Brien Diffley was called off with about ten minutes left which would have made it 6-5 at the time. The referees blew the goal off for a creas violation even though it appeared Matt Lane was neither in the crease or in contact with Clay Witt. The referee pair of Scott Hansen and Tim Low are generally very good and two of the better ones in the league but it appeared they blew this call even though they could see it on replay.

Matt O'Connor allowed 5 goals and was pulled in the second period but none of them appeared to be his fault. Connor LaCouvee played well in relief even though he was eventually given the loss for allowing the sixth goal, which came on a 5 on 3 powerplay. Overall, it was a rough night for just about everyone on the roster who wasn't named Rodrigues, Eichel or O'Regan. The positives from this game is the team's belief that they can come back from any deficit no matter the score or the time remaining. Obviously, you want to avoid those types of situations but you have to love the fight in this team no matter what the situation is. They have bounced back strong from these types of games in the past and did so again Saturday night.




BU clinched the Hockey East Regular season title on Saturday night with a 6-1 victory over the same Northeastern Huskies. This win came at Matthews Arena and was the Terriers' 21st win of the season. The Terriers dominated early and often to jump out a 4-1 lead after one period and finish off the season with a 6-1 win. They were lead by Jack Eichel and Ahti Oksanen who had two goals each along one from Danny O'Regan(who achieved 100 career points) and captain Matt Grzelcyk who is quickly becoming a Northeastern killer(3 goals in 3 games this year). BU now sits at home two weeks and awaits their Hockey East tournament Quarterfinal opponent who will be one of the following :UNH,UConn,Maine Merrimack or UMass. Personally an ideal matchup for BU would be UConn or Merrimack as they are teams that can really be exposed on the bigger ice at Agganis but none of those teams should scare the Terriers as they have a combined 7-1-2 record against them this season and 4-0-1 at Agganis Arena.



Now that BU has won it's second trophy and championship of the past week with the regular season title. The Hockey East Tournament begins this weekend with the first round series between the bottom 8 teams in the conference. The post season is where teams' seasons begin to end but before we move on to the playoffs, we wanted to take one last moment to make fun of each of the other 11 lesser schools/teams in the conference.

2. Providence College- You lost the Mayor's Cup to a 8-18-3 Brown team that would probably lose to Catholic Memorial. Nate Leaman should have been fired on the spot for that lack of effort with a trophy on the line...Boom roasted

3. Boston College- It has been well noted what a great job David Quinn and Co have done on the recruiting trail since taking over but the lack of recruiting from BC has to be a concern if you are a BC fan. Word on the street is they had to put out a missing person alert in all ushl and bchl rinks as old man Jerry has been MIA..boom roasted

4. Lowell- You failed to defeat UMass in 2/3 of the games you played against them this year. UMass had only 6 games all year where they didn't lose in conference. Lowell was the opposing team for 33% of those games. Embarrassing....boom roasted.

5. Notre Dame- Dear Jeff Jackson, constantly whining about officiating and travel in a league that you chose to join only a year ago won't win you any friends. Also, you coach the most boring style of hockey of all time. I would rather watch paint dry than watch a Notre Dame hockey game...boom roasted

6. Northeastern- You lost the Beanpot in heartbreaking fashion again...boom roasted

7. UVM- Your leading scorer is a dman and you start a midget in goal...boom roasted

8. UNH- You signed Dick Umile to a lifelong contract and now look at your program...boom roasted

9. UConn- The ice bus was fun at the beginning of the year but now it is lit on fire steamrolling down a hill to an ugly end to the season. Oh, and you lost to Sacred Heart...boom roasted

10. Maine- Maybe your coach should focus less on making the "old girl shake" and more on getting good recruits to go to Orono. No, recruits from the USPHL don't count as good recruits(unless they are Ryan Cloonan). He could also focus on winning but I know that's tough to do in Orono without cheating...boom roasted




11. Merrimack- Yeah maybe scheduling all garbage teams in your nonconference schedule wasn't the best idea considering you only won 5 games in conference and Stephan Da Costa ain't walking through that door...boom roasted

12. UMass-  Over the course of the regular season, Providence scored two more goals than you and allowed 65 less and they lost to Brown....boom roasted
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