Weekend Preview: Silent Killers

The BU Terriers will be heading on their second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament this weekend as they face the Denver Pioneers in a first round matchup before beating the winner of St. Cloud St. and Ferris St to advance to the Frozen Four in Tampa in a few weeks. The Terriers and Pioneers faced off once earlier this year with the Terriers pulling out a 5-4 OT win thanks to Ahti Oksanen's first two goals of the season.

The location will be different as the regional is located in St. Paul, Minnesota but the teams will be the same as will the outcome. There are many Denver fans looking past BU to a matchup with St. Cloud St in the regional final which is an ideal scenario for BU. Getting placed out west is a blessing for BU. There will be fans who will mention BU's record isn't as good in Western regionals historically but you can really throw those records out the window. St. Paul is the only regional where BU avoids other Hockey East teams(which are the best teams) but still will be an underdog in the region for reasons unknown to me. Apparently western fans are delusional and not smart. Who would have guessed? Hopefully once BU trounces Denver, St. Cloud fans look forward to the Frozen Four semi matchup with North Dakota(if they get past lil bro Northeastern). St. Paul is also not a hellhole like Albany and Worcester are. I have only been in the Cincinnati airport so I will refrain comment and that was enough to know that it sucks too.



Now on to why BU is going to steamroll play a hard college hockey game with Denver and "Shock the World West". This BU team is built for the NCAA tournament. They are the deepest team in the country on defense and when they get good goaltending which they usually do with Sean Maguire in net, they are very tough to beat. The offense will lean heavily on its seniors of Oksanen, Lane and O'Regan along with freshmen studs JFK and Jordan Greenway.  Seniors are most important this time of year especially when they have NCAA experience. Denver is good first period team and it is easy to be a little star struck in the first period of a NCAA game on national television. I would expect the Terriers to bring it from the drop of the puck as they have for a majority of the season. By from the drop of the puck I mean like 5 minutes into the game because you have to give Denver a false sense of security for the first few minutes before turning it on.

This year's BU team is facing a Denver team that they matchup well with to beat in a tournament game. Denver has one very good line but don't have the scoring depth behind it to really scare you. BU has 8 20+ point guys to Denver's 5. Goaltending is a wash with a .924 save percentage facing a .925. BU's defense obviously has the edge so you may be asking yourself why so many people are picking Denver to win this game and St.Cloud to win the regional? The answer is rather simple. People are stupid. As a BU fan you should let them think that way. Whether it is a USCHO board poster or someone dumb on Twitter. Let them think that Denver has a chance/will win and laugh at their tears on Saturday night while not mentioning anything about St. Cloud because then you have to lull them to sleep too.

Yearly PSA: Conference loyalty is stupid. Yes I recognize Hockey East is the best conference in the country but I do not want any other conference team to win a title. If BU doesn't win, you gotta just pull for small western schools now that ECAC fans are so annoying about everything.

Coach Quinn talked to the media today in advance of tomorrow’s travel day to St. Paul for the NCAA Regionals: https://t.co/JFbejFHQ9y #GoBU

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) March 24, 2016