Merrihack Preview

The #11 BU Terrier hockey team will travel to North Andover this Friday night to take on the 4-3-1(3-1-1)Merrimack Warriors. Merrimack currently sits tied for 2nd in the conference with 7pts in 5 games played. BU sits 4th with 6pts in 4 games played. The two teams battled out all 3 games last season with BU taking 2 of the 3 games, including the last 2. This will be a big test for a young BU team as it would be easy to overlook this game with a certain game on Sunday looming in the near future. We're not blogging about that game until this one is over though and I don't see any reason to overlook Merrimack, who is coming off a sweep of Northeastern and is as hot as they have been all season.

Merrimack has had a good amount of turnover since last season especially at goalie where sophomore Rasmus Tirronen and junior Sam Marrotta have split starts. Marrotta has put up better numbers(3-1-0, .927, 2.26 GAA) to date but Tirronen(1-2-1, .888, 3.23 GAA) has been much better in his last 2 starts. This is most likely due to shaking off some rust after being suspended for most of last season for NCAA regulations.  They are lead offensively by junior Mike Collins who has posted a 5-7-12 line in 8 games thus far and has put the Merrimack offense on his back. Junior d-man Jordan Heywood and sophomore Josh Myers have put up 8 (4-4) and 7 (3-4) points respectively. The offense depends on Collins though. He leads the league in scoring by 3 points over the nearest competitor.  Forward Justin Hussar is their leading freshman scorer with a 1-3-4 line thus far.

Merrihack Preview

The BU Terriers will open up the second half of their conference schedule against the #7 ranked 11-3-3(7-2-1) Merrimack Warriors. Merrimack went undefeated in their first 10 games including a 3-2 OT win at BU in November. Since then, they have struggled due to injuries and an increase in the strength of schedule. Since the beginning of December, the Warriors have struggled with a 2-2-3 record against less than stellar opposition. The highest ranked team during that period was t13 Pairwise Colgate who Merrimack tied. Merrimack has struggled through injuries to most of their team and have not been able to gel since their sweep at the hands of Providence in the beginning of December.

Merrimack is led in total points by senior, trash talking forward Ryan Flanigan who has posted 14 points in 17 games so far this season but also had a little extra to say to Garrett Noonan in the handshake line in November. That will certainly be something to watch during the game and afterwards to see how bad Noonan beats up on the little punk from Rochester,NY.

The Terriers come into this game coming off a 5-2 loss at Notre Dame on New Year's Eve. The Terriers will be getting sophomore defenseman(and our next interview hopefully) Adam Clendening back from WJCs which should give the team a boost along with the elevated roles of Sahir Gill(who gets a shoutout on USCHO) and the hero from Canton Wade Megan. The Terriers look to prove to the nation that the new revamped lineup is just as effective as the lineup from the first half.

BU moves up to 15 in new polls

The BU mens' ice hockey team has moved up to #15 in the new USCHO.com poll released today while remaining the first team out in the USA Today poll. They also moved up to #18 in INCH power rankings which mean even less the meaningless polls besides national perception of the team. Here is the top 10 of the USCHO.com and my expert opinion on each along with some other notables.

1. Merrihack 8-0-1- they should have been first place last week so it is where they belong. It is weird that they get there by not playing a game this past weekend.

2. Notre Dame 9-2-2 - I was a fan of this team for one night and they came through with that 3-2 OT win over BC on Friday night. Now back to rooting against you for every game.

3. Minnesota 11-3-0 They have lost the last two Friday nights before rebounding to win their Saturday night games

4. Colorado College- 7-2-0

5. Boston College 9-4-0-

6. Minnesota-Duluth 9-3-2 - The defending national champs look strong after getting swept by Minnesota earlier in the year

7. Ferris State 10-3-1

8. Yale 5-1-1

9. Ohio State 10-3-1 - Went into Michigan this weekend and swept the Wolverines which is an impressive feat that puts them atop the CCHA standings

10. Denver 5-3-3

11. Michigan

15.BU -Gotta keep riding this 3 game winning steak into RHH this weekend at MSG

17. Cornell- Take on BU this weekend in Red Hot Hockey in NYC

Also receiving votes were UMass-Lowell, UNH , and Providence.

-Also, in the Hockey East press release, goalie Kieran " XBox is more fun than class" Millan earned himself the HE defensive player of the week for stopping 33/34 shots against UNH Saturday night. Terrier forwards, Wade Megan, Corey Trivino and Matt Nieto also found themselves in the Top Performers Categories. The press release also mentions sophomores Garrett Noonan(for already matching his goal total from last season with 4) and forward Charlie Coyle for leading the league with a +10 rating.

Hockey East Power Rankings

So after the first weekend where every team has competed in conference play, I figured it was about time to reveal my first Hockey East power rankings. So here we go

1. Newton University-Boston College 7-1 (5-0)- undefeated in the conference so far but haven't exactly faced any of the big boys yet. Their conference opponents combined record is 6-14-2. Not exactly facing the top of the conference so far. This changes this weekend as they play Maine Friday night at home before playing UMASS once again on Saturday night.

2. Merrihack 6-0(4-0)- I'll give Merrimack this. They look good so far but like BC haven't played any of the top tier of Hockey East besides Maine where they squeaked out a 2-1 win in their season opener. They are going to have a couple quality wins to sell me but so far they seem legit.

3. Maine 3-2-1 (3-1)- Maine's only loss comes to Merrimack(even though it was at home) and they competed in their series in North Dakota out of conference. Maybe Whitehead will build an actual team this year with the loss of Nyquist... just kidding it is Tim Whitehead we're talking about.

4. BU 3-2-1 (2-1-1)- Obviously inconsistent so far but I believe Hockey East will get four teams into the NCAA by the end of the season(not necessarily in this order) but as of now BU has plenty to prove. We will see if Saturday's dramatic OT win over UMASS sparks the team to go on a run if they have another "let down" game in Lowell this Saturday.

5. UNH 2-4-1(1-3)- Obviously UNH got off to a terrible start but I believe that got it on track this weekend with a pair of convincing wins over Union and Northeastern. They will be right there at the end of the season fighting for the NCAA's as usual(but never actually winning anything of importance). They have two home games this weekend so it will be interesting to see how the team performs.

6. PC 2-3-1 (2-2) -PC came out flying in conference play but were quickly silenced with a sweep by Maine this past weekend. They get UVM for two this weekend at home which is a series in which if they want to be considered legitimate contenders, need to take 3 points.

7. Northeastern 1-4-1(1-4-1) Northeastern beat UNH at home when UNH was still reeling but then lost to them this past weekend back at UNH. Northeastern is better than their record indicates since their losses have come to BC, Merrimack, Maine,and UNH so don't count them out.

8. UVM 1-3(2-2)- They really haven't done anything noteworthy thus far besides win @ Minnesota but that is one more accomplishment than the teams I am listing below them have accomplished thus far.

9. UMASS 1-3-2 (0-3-2)- Ok this is a bit of a stretch considering their only win is against Bentley. They did go into Matthews and tie NU though and they gave BU a hell of a weekend this past weekend despite choking away multiple goal leads in both games.

10. UML 2-3(0-2)- They failed to give BC much of a fight this weekend despite outshooting them in both games but not scoring. Learn how to score and beat someone besides Minnesota State without losing to UCONN and get back to me. Yes, I am writing this very different than if I was traveling to Lowell this weekend. If I was making the trip, I would have placed Lowell in first and been praising Mickey Ward because I value my own life. Of course, that is assuming anyone in Lowell can read or would read this shitty blog but hey you know what I mean.

Quack Quack Sr.'s notes from Merrimack-BU game tonight

This is the gist of of what Quack Quack the Elder gave me over the phone after attending tonight's game.
1. Max Nicastro takes too many chances going for big hits when he should stay home and play good defense. Merrimack's second and third goals were a result of this type of play.
2. This team keeps battling no matter the score or how the game is going which is a great attribute to have.
3. Merrimack's rink roof is way too low with four of five live pucks striking the ceiling
4. Merrimack is a punch of goons who refuse to play skilled hockey. The radio call agreed with this as they described their type of play as five goalies in front of their actual goalie.
5. It was a good tie for the Terriers to remain undefeated making a strong two goal third to tie the game.
6. The crowd was very uneducated with many girls caring more about what they are going to wear out and what inappropriate things they were going to do.
7. Merrimack's white out was pathetic attempt to intimidate BU. BU had many fans in attendance and that is nothing to what we are doing BC weekend. Just saying. Merrimack blows!
8. The officiating was average at best. Merrimack makes alot of dumb penalties so that the refs eventually start letting stuff go when normally penalties would be called.

- My opinion of this game was that BU was getting baited into playing undisciplined hockey through the first two periods and taking risks they did not need to take. I'll take this tie and the two points from a Merrimack team that always shows up against the big time schools. In the end of the day, the Terriers keep playing quality hockey and this blog owns the Warrior Rink Rat blog which thinks Merrimack is a better team than BU. Come on buddy, you play ultra conservative hockey and refuse to go on a forecheck because we are better than you in every aspect of the game. Expect Merrimack and their punkass style to get them to fifth or sixth in the conference though and BU has not seen the end of these pesky bitches. The game Jan. 12th at Merrimack will be attended by Redd10 and myself so we can give better notes but we will take QuackQuack's Sr. notes even though his pen broke.

- Overall, BU is playing about to our expectations as the third best hockey team in HE. I know we are ranked #1 for the time being but in reality, Maine and UNH are better than us right now and the rest of HE is lagging behind. Obviously BC is also very good and will turn it on at some point this year but the rest of the league is well behind the top four unless Providence Merrimack or UVM proves they can stick with the big boys over the course of a season

- Stay tuned for the press conference from Redd10

odds and end leading into the weekend

- Expect a big bounceback game from the Pats this weekend as they look to rebound from getting thrashed by the Jets last week. Every expert in the country is picking the team to roll Buffalo but don't tell Wes Welker that. When asked about the Bills this week, Welker spoke nothing but praise of the team that the Patriots have not lost to since 2003.

-Randy Moss wore the number 33 in practice today as a tribute to injured captain Kevin Faulk. Now just wait for the media to warp this into some attack on Moss.

-BU hockey talk heats up as multiple blogs are posting Hockey East preview for the coming season. There is one on the Boston Hockey Blog that only has the top two teams to be announced. There is also one of the Warrior Rink Rat blog by the Eagle Tribune's by Mike McMahon but this one sucks and supports Merrimack hockey including that little gay ass frenchman Da Costa so I'm not posting the link for people to look at just to rip on how bad it is. After every team preview, they say the next team will be the next day. Then two weeks later they do another one. There is no way there is that much going on at Merrimack. The school blows and is in fuckin North Andover. Yeah I heard its crazy there all the time pause nahhht.

- Shatty has his first goal in an exhibition game for the Avalanche this week as five former Terriers are on the roster(Colby Cohen, Brandon Yip,Dave Van der Guilk, Zach Cohen(AHL)).