BSRS Weekly Awards- 11/19

You know your weekly awards are good when they start to sneak into actual journalist's articles. We won't name any names but you know who you are using our Denny Green award...


The Greg Jennings Award-given to the Terrier who best exemplifies the qualities of Greg Jennings through doin' shit and putting the team on his back. (YOU CAN'T STOP HIM)




Winner- Danny O'Regan, F- O'Regan had the highlight goal of the weekend to get BU on the board early against UConn. He made his way through 3 Huskies on the way to tucking the puck past goaltender Matt Grogan and moved into the celebration seamlessly. Nick Roberto, Kevin Duane and Matt Grzelcyk all put in good efforts the GJ but the celly puts O'Regan a step ahead.

The Joe Pereira Trophy- Given to the Terrier who, through grit, hard work, and determination helps the team to victory on and off the scoresheet. Just like Joey did. (Interview can be read here)

Winner- Kevin"Know your role" Duane (Nickname credit to @BurntBoats)- Duane is a back to back winner of the Joey P now after his performance this weekend. Duane logged solid minutes on the third line with Mike Moran and Dillon Lawrence as they played solid all night and were given more ice time because of this. They cycled the puck great every shift of the first period and continued it throughout the night. Duane also was a force on the powerplay as he is a big body in front of the net who knows who to take hits and use his stick to create opportunities for himself and his teammates. This resulted in a powerplay goal off of a Grzelcyk shot late in the second period Sunday.

BS(R)S Weekly Awards 10/29

Here is this week's edition of our weekly awards. If you think of another award we could give out each week, leave a comment or shoot us an email at baystateroadsports@gmail.com

The Greg Jennings Award-given to the Terrier who best exemplifies the qualities of Greg Jennings through doin' shit and putting the team on his back. (YOU CAN'T STOP HIM)




Winner: Matt O'Connor/Sean Maguire, G- This was an easy one this week as both goalies put the team on their back during their starts in Michigan and gave them a chance to win. They carry fantastic save percentages of .936 and .941. The Terriers have not allowed more than 3 goals in a game yet this season and these two are the biggest reason why.


The Joe Pereira Trophy- -given to the Terrier who through grit, hard work and determination helps the team to victory both on and off the scoresheet.  Just like Joey did it. (BSRS interview with Joe Pereira here)

Interview with Joe Pereira

Former Terrier captain and current UConn assistant coach Joe Pereira sat down with us recently and answered some questions about his new coaching gig. Can't thank him enough for taking the time to talk to us. Hope everyone joys some gems from the Bulldog.

                                          -Photo credit to the Boston Hockey Blog/DFP

JP- You guys watching the Sox right now?

Us- Yeah of course. You a Yankees guy?

JP-Yeah, that's why I got the Jeter stall when we played at Fenway(Frozen Fenway 2010).  I was the best looking guy on the team. Somebody had to do it.

On how his coaching career got started:
I think it's something I've always wanted to do. You know growing up, prep school, and college. It's something that keeps you doing something that you love. It is so fulfilling that you get to recruit a kid, bring him into your program, win with him, and hopefully watch him play pro hockey. It's easy to sit at a desk and work 9-5 but it's awesome to do something that you love and have a passion for. Nobody is getting rich coaching college hockey unless you are a head coach.  You got to have the passion and it's a pretty neat job.

On how this opportunity arose and working for a former rival:
I really didn't know Coach Cav much. I talked to him when my brother (UMass senior Michael Pereira) played at Avon. That's probably the first time we ever talked and we had a good conversation. After BU/BC games, we always shook hands and talked after the game, say 'Good game Coach', ' Good game Joe'. A lot of it was looking him in the eye and having respect for one another. At the end of the day, BU or BC guys, for those 60 minutes we really don't like each other. You grow up with a lot of these kids so it's a little different. We joke around about BU-BC stuff but I keep quiet since he has a few more national championship rings than me. At the end of the day, we're not BU or BC guys anymore, we're UConn guys. That's the most important thing.

Former Terrier captain scores first goal in AHL..Frozen Fenway round two?

Terrier captain Joe Pereira scored his first goal in the AHL Tuesday night with the Bridgeport Sound. It has been previously announced that Pereira is playing with the sound on an ATO for the time being and working out a long-term deal with the squad over the summer after graduation. Former NU senior Tyler McNeely also scored on the night.

It was also announced today that the Red Sox are looking to host more college hockey games like Frozen Fenway back in January of 2010. This seems to be sure for another BC-BU matchup as this would be the marquee matchup here even though Newton University students would have to make the big trip into the city for this to lose once again.

Terrier captain Pereira signs ATO...Warso on his way to Providence

BU terriers captain Joe "Bulldog" Pereira has signed an ATO with the Worcester Sharks,the AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks. Pereira told the Boston Hockey blog he was unsure about how long he would be out in Worcester on his amateur tryout contract. Pereira joins former Terriers Sean Sullivan and 09 co-captain John McCarthy on Worcester's squad. Pereira earned this tryout with all of his hard work for the program here at BU for four year. All of the students here at BU wish Joe the best in his career and know he is going to be on the top line for San Jose in no time with McCarthy as the center and Charlie Coyle on the other wing. That line will be a force to reckon with for years to come and be holding up a cup someday...



How can you not root for Joe? just going to work with his shovel each day..

Back from my dreams though...Dave Warsofsky is signing with the Bruins and forgoing his final year of eligibility according to multiple sources throughout the BU campus and hockey world. This is not official yet but should be either tomorrow or Friday. We all wish Warso the best moving forward as he plays for the hometown team in the NHL.


Warsofsky's signing opens up another can of worms with fans sure to start the speculation on other BU players. To get my opinion on this go to my article I wrote awhile back here that sums up the situation of each player pretty well. To sum it up, I think the only other Terrier leaving is sophomore RW Alex Chiasson but you will hear Kieran Millan and Charlie Coyle's names thrown around but Coyle was in class today so everyone can just chill. Any other guy leaving would just be a result of the Brian Strait fallout. He left because he was a junior and the current NHL CBA sucks if a guy stays all four years. This seems to not hold true for goalies which is why Millan stays because he can play here and he is the third rated goalie prospect for the Avalanche.

BU wins in mens' hockey and hoops

BU mens' basketball opened up the night with a 70-67 win in Albany. Hockey finished it with a 5-2 win over those smart bastards from across the river at Harvard.

First, the basketball team came over a 16 point halftime deficit to gain their largest come from behind win under coach Pat Chambers. Senior guard John Holland lead the team with 27 points and eight rebounds. Darryl Partin added 16 points to help BU refuse to lose this game to the Great Danes of Albany. The loss drops Albany to 1-4 in America East play while BU improves to 3-1 as they improve from their loss in to Maine in their first AE contest. Albany was lead by guard Tim Ambrose with 18 points in a game that Albany lead throughout until 4:00 to go when BU took over the game for good. BU continues AE play Monday in Baltimore at 7:00 p.m.

Next, the hockey game was the type of game BU hockey fans enjoyed as the team rose to #1 in the nation early in the season and the type of game the team needed before the toughest regular season week of the season. The captains lead the way with the scoring in a 5-2 win over (3-12-0) Harvard. Chris Connolly had two goal while fellow co-captain Joe Pereira tallied another as BU cruised once the game was tied up 1-1 early in the second. Wade Meagan and Justin Courtnall added the other goals for the Terriers. The goal was Courtnall's first and also was Pat MacGregor's first career point as he had an assist on the play.

MacGregor filled in for a suspended Max NiCastro and looked solid out there. He seemed to have grown since his last shot at action November 27th against Brown. The only flaw I noticed at the game was his failure to get on the ice. He was almost always the last guy on the ice for his line which may have been the plan to limit his ice-time but also due to inexperience doing so. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and attribute it to inexperience. Overall, a good night for the freshman.

The whole team played well and "very thorough" to quote the great Jack Parker after the game. I was at the game and liked what I saw overall from the team. This was a big game with 3 ranked opponents looming this week(#12 Merrimack, #3 BC, #4 UNH). Kieran Millan looked solid in goal while not being forced to make any great saves out of his 31 that he made before Adam Kraus took over with five to go(he leads the Terriers now with 1.00 save% and 0.00 GAA). All four of the lines were skating well tonight and looked ready for a big week ahead of them. This was a must after the weak performance up in Vermont last weekend despite the 4-2 win. The Terriers had 21 more shots than the 16 they put up in Vermont. That tells it all as they got the puck on net early and often.

I would say the disappointment of the night(if there was one) was the Coyle-Chiasson-Nieto line. Coyle played physical but didn't do anything great with the puck and Nieto was trying to develop some stuff but it just wasn't there. Chiasson had a good first period but seemed to lose his head a bit in the second and third as he looked to retaliate for a hard hit in the second by hitting any Harvard player he could find. This isn't a bad mentality to have when you're up 5-2 and I love the agressiveness but QuackQuack the elder and myself noticed he seemed to lose his offensive mindset in the third. I expect this line to bounce right back as all three of these guys looked real good up in Vermont while the rest of the team struggled.

With the win, BU moves up to t-12 in the Pairwise rankings as Miami(OH) and company took some losses this weekend as teams enter the grind of their conference schedules as BU does this week. BU's next five games are against ranked teams as they play @#12 Merrimack,#3 BC,@#4 UNH, and two @#13 Maine. The game Tuesday is the game rescheduled from last Wednesday when it was snowed out. Merrimack may be missing enforcer(read: goon) Kyle Bigos as he was hurt in their game today @ Alabama-Huntsville. The injury seems serious enough to keep him out Tuesday but this will depend on how those tests come out when the team returns home because there is no way they have the right equipment to do that shit down south.

BU beats UMASS 4-3 at the Zoo

From the second we arrived on campus the animals were out lined up for blocks to get into the game. By the end of the second, they were nowhere to be seen or heard in the Mullins Center. The young BU squad responded from an early deficit to pick its first HE win of the season and the best start(3-0-1) for a BU team since 01-o2. The Terriers outplayed UMASS in the first but faced a 1-0 deficit on a powerplay goal by Darren Rowe. The goal coming on a bullshit roughing call on Terrier captain Joe Pereira. Pereira hit a kid as he was falling down against the boards and was called for the penalty because the kid couldn't skate(probably because he pre-gamed with the rest of the school). That got UMASS and the rowdy crowd off to a big start in their home opener. The crowd was loud from before the puck dropped with their sick intro video as a clip from "300" which always gets me pumped up.

BU came out flying in the second, seeming determined to bounce back and take the lead. This is exactly what they did. Freshman Charlie Coyle scored on a goal right in front of the net assisted by captain Chris Connolly. BU then preceded to pour it on as Andy Glass scored on a great pass by Ross Gaudet. He fed Glass right in the slot and Andy ripped a wrister top shelf on UMASS goalie Jeff Teglia. This gave BU a lead they would never give up. The Terriers scored their third goal of the period after another bullshit penalty called on Pereira which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Pereira jumped out of the box and was fed at the UMASS blueline leaving him one on one with Teglia who he quickly beat five-hole to give BU a 3-1 lead after two.This is when the student section stopped the "Fuck BU's" and left to go get shitfaced like the wild hooligans they are and also when QuackQuack and the great Skip got on NESN. We are famous. Just saying.

BU came out in the third and played afraid to lose much of they did last weekend. Sure enough Darren Rowe scored again less than two minutes into the period on a screened shot from the point that Kieran Millan never had a chance to see. BU seemed to be woken up by this goal as they came out and played with aggression for the rest of the period but not much action happened again besides UMASS scoring after they were whistled for an offsides with seven minutes remaining. Then with less than two minutes left, freshman Sahir Gill held the puck in the zone and beat a defender to get Teglia one on one before making a sick move to his backhand and beating the freshman goalie easily. This put the game away even with UMASS scoring 6 on 5 with 19 second left. A few face-offs later and our Terriers had put away a solid road victory in HE on a night where UNH and Northeastern tied and Lowell beat Providence in OT.
The Terriers return to the rink later tonight to face PC. Look for a similar lineup to tonight which included Kevin Gilroy in place of Justin Courtnall while Ross Gaudet moved back to center and Glass and Santana moved back to their natural wing positions. The defensive pairings were also changed as Nicastro and Warso anchored the top line defensively.
If our bottom two lines can give us two goals a night, this team will be very good. Look for the momentum to keep building tomorrow night at home. BSRS will be stationed in 108 once again for anyone who actually reads this and goes to the games. Hopefully we can manage to stay in the stands unlike those party animals in Amherst even though they were classier than Northeastern fans which isn't saying much I know but still surprised me.

Thursday's Hockey Odds and Ends

The Boston Bruins defeated the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night, 3-1, in a contest held down in D.C. The Bruins got goals from David Krejci, Milan Lucic, and Matt Hunwick, as well as a stellar 35 save performance from goalie Tim Thomas. The Bruins D-Men kept the Capitals potent offense in check, including shutting down superstar Alex Ovechkin. Lucic recorded the always impressive "Gordie Howe Hat Trick", which consists of a goal, assist, and a fight (see the goal below this post).  Thomas continues to make his case for starting goalie, improving his record this season to 3-0 with a ridiculous .67 gaa and a .979 save percentage. The B's are back in action tonight against these same Capitals, this time at the Garden...


Prior to the Bruins-Capitals game on Tuesday night, Versus showed a 15 minute video about former BU Terrier Travis Roy. For those of you who don't know, Roy was a promising 20 year old freshman in 1995 who suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury only 11 seconds into his BU career. The injury left Roy a quadriplegic, and forever ended his hockey career. These days, Roy gives motivational speeches and raises money for his charity, The Travis Roy Foundation. The video included BU great Chris Drury as well as legendary coach Jack Parker You can find the video right below this post, and I'd definitely recommend that any BU fan or hockey fan in general should watch it...


The Daily Free Press (BU's top student newspaper) has a good article about BU's lone seniors - Captain Joe Pereira and back-up goalie Adam Kraus. You can read that article here.

Keeping with BU hockey, the men travel to Zoomass tomorrow night for a rematch of last Saturday night's tie at Agganis, while the women take on St. Lawrence at Walter Brown Arena. If you are a BU student who doesn't want to make the trek out to Amherst like QuackQuack will be, I would highly recommend attending the women's game. They are extremely talented this year and are a fun team to watch...

Ever since I bought tickets through BC for the BU at BC game last season, I've been receiving e-mails from the BC athletic department from time to time. And last night, I received probably the funniest e-mail yet - a promo for the upcoming "Ice Jam". Apparently the "Ice Jam" is some sort of retarded rally to get kids hyped about the winter sports season. Here's the best part - this dumb ass video featuring members of the men's and women's hockey and basketball teams:

Seriously how retarded is that? First off, getting Bob Costas as emcee seems a little dramatic. This isn't the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for Chrissakes. It's an overblown rally. Plus, what kind of production value is that? Cmon looks like that video was shot on a freakin Flip Cam or some shit. All I'm saying is for a school that thinks it's a half step away from Harvard, that was pretty shitty. Did none of them own a camcorder or something? Good lord. I guess I'll just never understand those holy-types...

BU Opens Season with 4-3 Win Over No. 13 Wisconsin

Going down 2-0 quickly in the first period wasn't the way this BU team wanted to start their season. And as Captain Joe Pereira pointed out, if this had been last year the game would have been over right then. But as the No. 14 Terriers proved last night, this year looks to be nothing like last year. Pereira himself poured in the first and fourth goals, with freshman Charlie Coyle and junior Dave Warsofsky adding goals 2 and 3 to propel BU to victory. Junior netminder Kieran Millan looked shaky in the first period, allowing those two quick goals and one more before the period expired. But that's all the Badgers would get out of Millan, as he shut them down in periods 2 and 3. A large part of this turnaround for BU is centered on power plays - ours and theirs. Our power play gave us 3 of our 4 goals, and their power play gave them 2 of their 3 goals. Parker explained that BU's early problems on the penalty kill resulted from improper spacing due to an NHL sized rink, opening more passing lanes for the Badgers to thread the puck through.

BU now takes on No. 17 Notre Dame in the finals of the Ice Breaker Tournament, Sunday afternoon at 4. Notre Dame beat Holy Cross 6-3 in their opener. Check back in with us then for another recap of hopefully another BU victory and our first title of the year...

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

BU won its regular season opener tonight over #13 Wisconsin. Captain Joe Pereira scored the first and fourth goals in a 4-3 win. Kieran Millan looked shaky in goal in a three goal first for Wisconsin but settled down to make some great saves in the third to preserve the 4-3 win for the Terriers. Charlie Coyle and David Wasorfsky also contributed goals. The team played scared at the end of the third but held on thanks to a goal disallowed and some great play by Kieran. All four of the Terrier goals came from the top line as they move on to play Sunday for the Ice Breaker Invitational Championship against Notre Dame who beat Holy Cross 6-2 earlier in the evening. Look for more details to come as the post game media festivities start now.

BC ranked #1 in USA preseason poll...fuck that..my HE predicions/rant

The USA Today preseason hockey poll came out a couple days ago with no big surprises. The fuckfaces down the street start off #1 in the country with many experts picking them to repeat as national champions. NESN, ESPN Boston and other news outlets are already going crazy for Newton College to actually do something well in a sport since their football team sucks with a 26 year old QB. At least when we have 26 year old players like Matty Gilroy, we win championships. Their 26 year old sophomore QB sucks dick. But let's not get distracted with the rest of their athletic department.
Their hockey team has to try to repeat while being ranked number one in the country... an almost impossible task. Jack Parker had a conversation with Eagles' coach Jerry York at a beanpot game two years ago where York explained the toughest thing to do in college hockey was to repeat and stay hungry for that next one. This is especially tough at big time hockey schools as was way too evident for us last year. I can already predict how this season will go for the choir boys down the road...they will be extremely inconsistent. They will not stay one for long because they are a bunch of pansy ass little fucks who think the world should bow down to them because they do to that to priests everyday and call it theology class. The kids were already driving into the T before the they got out of school. Don't expect that to change as the school covered their asses and blamed the T driver. Like really?! Everyone in Boston knows the T drivers are drunker than you no matter what. They won't have the drive or effort to win another one despite all their talent returning for another season.
BU is predicted to be fourth in the conference but 14th nationally. I would rather not be ranked to start off the season. I want that extra chip on the shoulder for Parker to use. I want us to win it all and have Joe Pereira look into the camera on ESPN and pull of the Rodney Harrison(in a sling quote) "Nobody believed we could do it! But we believed in ourselves!" Like granted someone forgot to tell Rodney the Pats were favored to win that SB by 10.
These polls and predictions mean nothing but give teams reasons to work harder. That is why UMASS and Northeastern scare me this year and Merrimack doesn't. UMASS and NEU are already being called dead with no chance. They have all the motivation in the world to come out and outwork teams despite differences in talent. Merrimack and their little french bitch Da Costa think they're going to be good because they were OK last year for the first time ever. My prediction is they fall back before taking another step forward. OK ill shut up now and just list my predictions for Hockey East in the coming season.
HE predictions
1. Maine-Easily the most solid team if they lay off the moonshine
2. UNH- I think this is the year they avoid the second half collapse
3. BU- The Terriers outwork teams to set up solid position for the postseason
4. BC- The alter servers serve up plenty of bread and wine to other teams this year leaving Muse hanging all year with lazy defense.
5. UVM- They are always good. That's my reasoning...and they have great cheese.
6. UMASS Lowell- They finish higher than expectations but slow at the end of the year as multiple players are arrested for dealing cocaine.
7. Northeastern- They get back into the HE playoffs but don't have enough scoring to get very far.
8. UMASS- They just don't have the talent but they still scare me of getting hot with some good chemistry
9.Merrimack- Da Costa breaks his leg after MacGregor comes out off the bench like the German tanks came through the woods in WWII and sends him off the ice waving a white flag.
10. PC- They are alter boys with much less talent than their Newton brothers.

P.S. If you think I am just a pussy who only talks shit about BC, I guarantee you BSRS will make their presence felt December 4th BU at BC. We got our sign taken away last year but this year we have a plan in place that security can't fuck up.