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.
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