Senior Series #4 Matt Lane

This is post #4 in the Senior Series. You can find the first three posts here(Ahti Oksanen, Sean Maguire, Mike Moran)

Matt Lane is the exact type of player that college hockey teams need to be successful. He came in as a freshman that was a bit outshadowed on his U-18 team that included the likes of Seth Jones and Jacob Trouba amongst others. Lane arrived at BU and from day one he could skate with anyone in college hockey. He was a similar type player with Cason Hohmann in that he was a small, fast skater who had to work hard to develop his scoring touch during his time at BU. Lane's points, goals, and time on ice increased over each of his four seasons ending with him playing a crucial Top 6 role this past season as an assistant captain. Current coach David Quinn mentioned Lane as a hard working leader numerous times throughout the last season even going out of his way to mention Lane's improved shot which resulted in 14 goals this season.

Terriers roll along in league and to Beanpot Final

The BU Terriers continue to roll along in the second half of the 2015-2016 season with a pair of wins this past weekend against Merrimack and vs Northeastern. The win vs Merrimack Friday night was a dominating effort from the Terriers as they beat up on a less skilled Merrimack team who has been struggling as of late. The Terriers jumped out to an 1-0 lead on a Robbie Baillargeon goal and really carried play from there. A Danny O'Regan shorthanded goal less than six minutes into the second really opened it up for BU. They would add goals from fellow seniors Matt Lane and Ahti Oksanen to secure the 4-0 victory.

The weirdest part of the game was that senior Sean Maguire did not get the win or the shutout despite starting and finishing the game without giving up a goal. Sophomore Connor LaCouvee had to come on for a five minute span in the first period due to a skate issue for Maguire. Maguire would return but not be eligible for the shutout or the win due to the missed time. It was really a weird set of circumstance which isn't surprising given the goalies involved #letsgetweird

Terriers throttle Maine

The BU Terriers did what they were supposed to do and destroyed the Maine Black Bears over the weekend. The Terriers took care of business 5-2 on Friday night before backing it up with an even stronger performance and a 6-1 win on Saturday night at Agganis Arena. Friday's night game was clearly the closer of the two as BU required some great saves from senior goalie Sean Maguire to stay tied and stay ahead later in the game. If BU had one flaw this weekend, it was being a little loose with the puck in their own zone. This lead to the benching of sophomore John Macleod in the middle of the game Friday night. The Terriers were able to take control of the game and eventually win the game because of their seniors. The senior class contributed to 4/5 goals and the win in net for the Terriers. Coach Quinn constantly says how important seniors are and this was the case Friday night in a hostile road environment.

The Terriers made the 4+ hour drive back to Boston after the game Friday to play the same terrible Maine team back at Agganis Arena. They jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on goals from Bobo Carpenter and Doyle Somerby on a wraparound and never looked back. BU played a complete game Saturday night which Coach Quinn noted after the game. Carpenter added another goal to get up to 7 on the year along with Matt Lane scoring goals # 12 and 13 on the season to tie him for the team lead with future Hobey Baker winner Ahti Oksanen. It  is certainly a great sign for this team to be getting scoring from so many different guys. None of the goal scorers from Friday night scored again on Saturday night yet the team put up 11 goals on the weekend. It is great to be getting scoring from the third line in Carpenter who has been a tear lately/finally getting some puck luck. It really has been underrated how important him and classmate Ryan Cloonan have been to this team. Both guys are playing top 9 roles on one of the best teams in the country as undrafted freshmen which is huge for the depth of scoring moving forward.

 The line of Greenway-Lane-Oksanen is one that nobody in the country can match up with. Even when they know what's coming, they can't stop it. What's usually happening with this line on the ice is Greenway or Oksanen winning a battle along the boards and feeding Lane in the slot for a one timer unless Ahti finds a way to shoot first #Ahti4Hobey

The BU wagon rolls along: sweep pair with Harvard and UMass

The BU Terriers swept their first two games of the second half of the season with 6-5 and 7-2 wins over Harvard and UMass. The first period of the Harvard game was their worst period of hockey this season but they got some very good play out of senior goalie Sean Maguire to keep the deficit to 1-0. The Terriers would begin to play better in the second as they got two goals from senior Matt Lane but unfortunately they were matched by two goals from Harvard's Sean Malone. The Terriers were forced to fight back from two separate two goal deficits in the third period but they found a way to continue to battle and fight back. The Terriers scored three goals in just over two minutes late in the third to come out a 6-5 victor against another top ECAC team on the road. Their last win of the first semester was a road win at Quinnipiac who is still the #1 team in the country with their only loss coming to BU.

Wisconsin Review: Wisconsin is BADger at hockey

The BU Terriers responded from a less than 100% effort against the U-18 team on Friday with their first win of the 2015-2016 season Saturday night versus the University of Wisconsin. The Terriers' goalie Connor LaCouvee gave up a fluke goal early in the contest but the Terriers responded with four goals of their own  over the next 58 minutes. They would outshoot the Badgers 44-18 and dominate play throughout the contest. The tying goal came from senior Matt Lane who now has two goals in as many games. I'm not saying he is going to put one in the net everygame for the rest of the season but I'm not saying he won't either.

The game winner was from new found dman sniper Brandon Fortunato who scored his first goal of the season after working on his shot since arriving at BU. He was heavily criticized for his lack of a shot at times last year but that no longer seems to be an issue after he went bar down on Saturday. Chase Phelps and Bobo Carpenter added insurance tallies to make it 4-1. I thought Phelps played the best game of his collegiate career as he was all over the Wisconsin D and created numerous scoring chances before potting one off a Fortunato shot. Phelps seems set to have a big improvement in production from last year when he had 4 points in 38 games as a true freshman.

BU Hockey Drops Season Opener to Union

The BU Terriers dropped their season opener 5-3 to the Union Dutchmen out in Schenectady, NY last night. Union scored the first goal of the night on a rebound powerplay goal by Ryan Scarfo. after an AJ Greer slashing penalty which the coaching staff probably wasn't a fan of since it was 200 feet away from the BU goal.  BU bounced back with goals from senior Matt Lane and freshman Ryan Cloonan(his first collegiate goal) on nice plays by Doyle Somerby throwing the puck on net to set up rebound opportunities. The game was a different story in the second as goalie Sean Maguire was forced to stand on his head at times and made one of the best glove saves I have ever seen. Union would eventually put two more past him, one in the late second and one early in the third. BU would eventually tie the game up on Charlie McAvoy's first collegiate goal as he jumped into the rush to bang home the game tying goal. BU's d-zone coverage would fail to keep Union off the board as senior captain Matt Wilkens scored the game winner off a rebound from Maguire and Union would add an empty netter to end the game with a 5-3 win.

Overall, I thought the team played better than they did against Acadia in the exhibition game and there were plenty of positive to take from the game. Coach Quinn seemed to have a similar attitude and he is much smarter than me so it must be correct. Union had 6 powerplays to BU's 2 which was a huge advantage for the home team who definitely got the benefit of the doubt on a few 50/50 calls. I am not saying the refs cost BU the game but they certainly didn't do them any favors. I thought Charlie McAvoy was way better than he was in the exhibition game even before he scored the game tying goal in the third. There was a sequence on the powerplay where he walked the puck in the from the point past three Union penalty killers and dished a slick pass that just missed being buried by O'Regan and Greenway. Jordan Greenway was also a huge physical presence down low as he basically did what he wanted with the puck. He is going to be a force for the Terriers this year for sure. I still love the third line of Olsson Lane Carpenter as they keep the game simply and generate scoring chances while being physical with the opponent. Coach Quinn will certainly have some tough decisions to be made on defense with it seeming that Brandon Fortunato will return to the blue line this weekend after missing the game Saturday for a violation of team rules. His fill in, Shane Switzer, was very solid in his collegiate debut and certainly did nothing to warrant being pulled from the lineup. Fortunately for Quinn, Friday night is an exhibition game so he can dress 7 D and Saturday he could dress 0 D and still beat Wisconsin since they are garbage.

Guest Post from @BurntBoats

Editor's Note: This is a guest post from @burntboats on twitter and you should take the time to read it if you are a BU hockey fan or if you root for another college team and want to become depressed.


If you’ve been following @BurntBoats for any period of time you know by now that possession stats have proven to be a valuable tool when evaluating hockey teams (if you haven’t and you want to learn, tweet at me and I’ll send you links to things written by people smarter than me). Obviously Eichel is a generational talent and comparing what he did to the prior year’s team is beyond unfair, so I have been comparing this season’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines to the prior year’s entire roster on twitter all season, this is my final comparison:

BU 2013-14 possession [5v5 Corsi] (35 games): 44.8%

Now who were the key players from 2013-14 who weren’t on the lines 2-4 in 2014-15?

Half of Baillargeon (Mono)
Half of Ahti (split 14-15 on 1st and 2nd lines)
O’Regan (1st line all of 14-15)
Noonan (graduation)
Half of Rodrigues (split 14-15 on 1st and 2nd lines)
Grzelcyk is a wash as he missed almost half of 2013-14 with an injury and likely spent about half of his 2014-15 with the 1st line.

So this year’s 2nd-4th line lost 3.5 of the best players from last year’s team, they and a handful of role players were replaced by a rotation of four freshman forwards and four more freshman defensemen. This year’s group had the advantage of playing against easier opponents than last year, as this year’s 1st line took up the majority of other teams’ top unit’s ice time. They had the disadvantage of score effects from playing with a lead most of the time, instead of from behind.

All these factors work to somewhat counterbalance each other, my rough educated guess is their net effect on possession is slightly positive, but under 2%.  So if this year BU’s 2nd-4th lines were around 46% that would be equivalent to last year, if they were at 48% that would represent a substantial but reasonable improvement, anything over that would be quite the turnaround.

BSRS First Half Awards

MVP
Matt O'Connor, Soph, G - Pretty much a no brainer here. OC has been one of the  bright spots in the first half, putting the team on his back more nights than not. Playing in 13 of 17 games (12 starts), Matt posted a 6-4-2 record with a 2.61 goals against average and .929 save percentage. He faced 467 shots and made 434 saves, good for 3rd and T-2nd in Hockey East, although he played over 100 fewer minutes than the two players ahead of/tied with him (Gillies and Mastalerz). The sophomore made over 35 saves 7 times, including 37 and 55 against North Dakota (win/tie) and 37 in an epic 3-2 win over Cornell at Red Hot Hockey.

Best Freshman
Robbie Baillargeon, Fr, F - While Nick Roberto and Doyle Somerby put up a good fight, Robbie takes this one by the length of a carrot. Bugs Bunny Baillargeon leads the team with a 5-8-13 line in 17 gp, and also has a team best plus/minus of +6. He's had 3 multi-point games, and in each of those games he registered an assist on the game winning goal. Robbie has the 2nd most face off wins (81) and the 2nd best face off percentage on the team (.482), trailing Danny O'Regan in both categories.



-Live footage of Baillargeon when he runs across some carrots in the dining hall

First half review- Forwards

Now that the first half of the season is over and the Terriers sit at 10-5-0(8-4-0) , it is a good time to look back at individual player's first halves. For reference last season, BU finished the first half at 10-5-1. Obviously, two very different teams but similar results. This year's team is much younger and have more reason to be excited for the second half of the season as the underclassmen develop and execute even better. Here is the review of each forward still on the roster.

1. Cason Hohmann (4-12-16, 15 GP) "Texas Toast" has had a hell of a first half for the Terriers. He has been noted by Coach Parker on numerous occasions as a guy who needed to make a jump this year for the team to succeed. He certainly has met that challenge. He leads the team in points and has doubled his point total from last season(35 games played). He is the top line center and has been producing all season.  He is usually the fastest guy on the ice when he is out there but that might only because Nieto plays on a different line. That is a race I would love to see.

2. Wade Megan(9-6-15, 15 GP)- The Captain from Canton, NY leads the team in goals in the first half and they have come in a variety of ways. He sniped against his hometown St. Lawrence Saints and he had one of the greasiest goals of all time against UNH. The team is 9-2-0 when he records a point and 8-1-0 when he scores a goal. He is obviously a big part of this offense and on pace to do even better than his 20-9-29 line in 39 games last year.

3. Danny O'Regan (5-6-11, 15 GP)- The freshman from Needhman, MA and St. Sebastian's stepped in right away and contributed for BU. He has been the second line center all season and has done it very well. The Sharks' fifth round pick has been responsible on both ends of the ice and has scored some big goals for this team in the first half. Specifically, I am talking about the final goal against UND to finish the game and put it out of reach. He has a great ability to set up in front of the goalie and put pucks away. Very Jason Lawrence-like in that aspect.

North Dakota Recap- To hell and back

I made my first ever trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota this weekend and it looks exactly how you would expect it to. Something like the picture above. The rink itself was huge and really nice. Every North Dakota fan will ask you if you like the rink because they know that it is awesome. The atmosphere was crazy as 12k packed in Saturday night to see the BU 4-2 win while slightly less(due to the opening of hunting season..not a lie) packed in Friday to watch the North Dakota 4-2 win.  First, I'm going to cover some comments on the experience watching a game in the Ralph and then get to the actual games.

The Ralph is quite large, nice and sells beer. All of these things are necessities for North Dakota. If you saw the view of the bar between periods, you would understand what I mean. There is a HIGH demand for beer. The crowd was a sellout Saturday night and it was loud during introductions and when North Dakota scored. Besides, the goals and intros, the arena itself was awfully quiet both nights besides when music was piped in or Alexx Privitera was touching the puck and therefore booed. This goes back to an incident Friday night where it is reported that he had an altercation with fans while in the penalty box. I didn't see anything myself but I'm sure the fan deserved whatever happened because UND fans suck. They did not start any chant on their own. Music had to be piped in or BU fans were loud enough to rile up the fans to start a "Let's go Sioux" chant. This is not to say they don't care about the game because they do and let me know on many occasions what a crazy liberal I am because I am from Boston. They are just too stupid to start any different chants or use their brains at all. Their goal song is pretty cool/funny as these small firecrackers/bombs go off over the goal they just scored on.  Overall, enjoyed my time there and for all the idiotic students, there were just as many welcoming fans who seemed glad to have us there. Now to the hockey.

BU moves from 13 to 12 in USCHO.com poll

BU has moved up one spot in the USCHO.com poll this week despite only playing an exhibition game this past weekend. They switched spots with Minnesota-Duluth who also didn't play a meaningful game this weekend. This just shows how easily the polls can shift. The only teams who played regular season games made some significant movement in the polls. Merrimack climbed into the polls at #19 due to their win at now #10 Union(dropped from #5). Maine dropped from 15 to 20 due their one goal loss now #18 Quinnipiac. BC remained # 1 overall while Lowell climbed up one spot to #6 due to Union's loss to Merrimack(which I predicted). Here are what the polls look like now:

Freshmen Preview part 1

This is the first of 3 number of previews on the incoming 2012 class for BU hockey. While there have been rumors of another dman being added(perhaps an international recruit), I will only preview the freshman who we know will be on campus this fall.  There are currently 8 incoming freshmen if I can count correctly which isn't always the case.

1. Matthew Grzelcyk, D- Charlestown, MA (USNTDP- 56 GP, 2-20-22, 20 PMs) 5-9, 170lbs left shot

-Grzelcyk has been compared to former Terrier David Warsofsky due to his smaller size but expert puck-moving ability. He has put on 20lbs since leaving Belmont Hill for the USNTP and continues to work with BU strength and conditioning coach Mike Boyle over the course of the summer. I would expect "Grizzy" to put similar numbers to Warsofsky and Adam Clendening's freshman years. Warsofsky posted a 3-20-23 line in 08-09 on a National championship team while Clendening posted a 5-21-26 line in 10-11. According to our poll thus far, fans are excited to watch Grzelcyk play this season. He is a local kid and a draft pick of the Bruins, which really is the perfect storm for me anyway to pull for the kid. I could see him reaching as high as the second d-pair this coming season and would expect him to see extensive special team ice time, especially on the power play. Here is what other website have thought of Grzelcyk

" Excellent skater. Has superb first few steps and explodes from a standstill or glide in just a few, effortless strides. Has top gear and the lateral, four-way agility that is ideal for position. Changes direction quickly and able to prevent opponents from attacking his net with speed. Very good passer and puck-mover with a deft touch on the puck. Advances the biscuit confidently and has the stick skills to elude checkers and lug it out of the defensive zone on his own. Has superb offensive and defensive hockey sense; sees the ice beautifully and inherently understands when to attack and when to stay home. Very good in puck retrieval; will take a hit to make the play. Plays with tremendous passion and desire. Grew up in the shadow of the Boston Garden and FleetCenter/TD Garden dreaming of being a Boston Bruin, so he will exert the utmost effort to be a player even with the physical limitations. A respected and popular teammate." -Kirk Luedeke and Jesse Connolly Link to the rest of the article and interview with Grzelyck is right here from New England Hockey Journal.