The 12-9 BU Terriers face off with 10-9-3 PC Friars this weekend in a home and home series. Friday night's game will be held at Schneider Arena in Providence and Saturday night will be back in Boston at Agganis Arena. The Terriers took the first game this year back in October. It was a 4-2 win at Agganis Arena. The Friars are currently tied with BU for 3rd in the conference with 18 pts in 15 games played. The Friars are 3-1 in their last 4 since goalie Jon Gillies returned from his stint with team USA in the WJC. That lone loss was a 2-1 loss at Lowell where Gillies played absurdly well. He is certainly living up to the hype he had as a recruit with his .930 save % and 2.12 GAA. PC is lead by junior(and member of my fantasy team-though he will be benched this weekend) Derek Army. He has a solid 10-7-17 line in 22 GP. Ross Maureman and Shane Luke are also threats to score. The BU defense will also need to keep an eye on freshman Mark Jankowski who is a skilled forward that has been fighting through some injuries so far this year. PC doesn't have a ton of skilled guys up front but they know how to grind and score goals. They typically win in low scoring games with Gillies and captain dman Myles Harvey being the backbone of their defense.
This series is going to come down to how BU plays. No disrespect to PC(rare for us to say I know) but if BU comes out and plays their game from the first half of the season, this should be a sweep for the Terriers. They are only 2-4 in the second half and will be without junior assistant captain Garrett Noonan who is serving a 2 game suspension for spearing Lowell goalie Doug Carr last weekend(we think Carr sold the call but we'll leave that alone). I think this team will be up to the challenge. The forwards will need to control the flow of the game and make it easier for the short handed defense. They also are going to have to help out on the back check as PC will get greasy goals if they get numbers. That is how they score. The easiest way to take them out of this game is to be physical and keep cycling the puck deep in their end. BU has been quite effective at this at times this season but needs to do it more consistently.
The Terriers need these 4 points more so than anytime so far this season. They need to build some momentum going into the Beanpot in a week and a half and get it going to make a run for HE titles and the NCAA tournament. Just gotta get jacked up in front of a 2/3 full Schneider arena due to renovations. Here is the projected lineup.
Friday
Megan-Hohmann-Gill
Nieto- O'Regan- Rodrgiues
Lane-Rosen-Kurker
Moran-Santana- Moscatel
Escobedo- Ruikka
Grzelyck- Macgregor
Escobedo- Ruikka
Maguire
O'Connor
Moccia
-I think the goalies will each get a starts with Mags Friday and OC Saturday. The forward that sits Friday will probably be back in there Saturday but I have no idea who Coach Parker is thinking of sitting besides that he said Jake Moscatel will be in the lineup. Big weekend coming up for the team.
No comments:
Post a Comment