Beanpot Preview: BU takes on Harvard looking for 31st Beanpot

The BU Terriers look for their 31st Beanpot Championship tomorrow against the Harvard Crimson from across the river. The Terriers and Crimson haven't faced off in a Beanpot final since 1998 which the Terriers won in overtime. These two programs did meet earlier this season at Agganis Arena which resulted in a 5-3 BU victory. The Terriers come off a 3-2 loss to UMass Lowell this past Friday where they clearly let Lowell win since they wanted Hockey East to have more teams in the running for a NCAA at large berth while Harvard easily beat Union because they hate America and probably sided with the confederacy during the Civil War. BU at least tried to lose to Union in January by scheduling them during World Juniors but still beat them with 2/3 of a lineup.

BU Wagon Hits Speedbump, Wood suspended, Beanpot Jr. Idea

The BU Terriers lost just their second game since the winter break as they dropped a 1-0 OT heartbreaker to their archrival in the Beanpot Championship game. There really is no positive way to spin a loss like this. It sucked. It was a great,entertaining hockey game but the outcome was the opposite of fun. It made me want to go puke into a bush outside the TD Garden. It is never fun to lose a game like that. That's all there really is to say on that. I am not bulimic so I am not going to put myself through every little detail of reviewing that game.

The Terriers return to action this Friday against UMass Lowell in a huge home and home series that will have large implications on who earns the byes in the first round of the HE tournament. Lowell is currently three points ahead of the Terriers for the fourth and final bye but the Terriers do hold two games in hand on the Riverhawks. What's good news for BU is that Lowell also may be the most overrated team in the country. They have beaten 2 current NCAA tournament teams so far this season. They are coming off a home loss to UNH. These are two games that the BU Terriers need to win. They need it to move on from the tough loss Monday night and to continue to climb up the Hockey East standings to secure the first round bye in the tournament. Lowell is typically well coached especially under Norm Bazin but they do have flaws and few difference makers. Their weakness appears to be in net with UMass transfer Kevin Boyle. Boyle got beat routinely by teams last year by getting him to go down and then firing 5 hole. I would expect the Terriers to try to open him up and then beat him five hole like they did atleast 3 times in the HE championship last year.

Twas The Night Before the Beanpot

The Only Thing That Matters in February

Twas the night before the Beanpot, when all through the city

Beanpot preview

It is highly unlikely that we will post a UMass recap because we are quite content pretending that Friday's game never happened and moving on from there. The focus now is the Beanpot Tournament also known as the BU invitational. The Terriers have won 29 of the 60 Beanpot tournaments ever held. This is the greatest regular season tournament in college hockey and probably all of sports. The Beanpot is well known throughout the college hockey world and the only fans they don't enjoy are it are just bitter that their team isn't involved in it. All hockey fans in New England know what falls on the first two Mondays in February every year.This year is different than any other year in that no one team is the clear favorite. BC has the best record but their defense is in shambles and beating UVM at home doesn't mean all their problems are solved. Northeastern is just doing their thing which means playing as inconsistent as anyone in the conference. Harvard has been killed by the cheating scandal that rocked their athletic department last spring. The thing about the Beanpot is that any one of these 4 could easily win it despite Harvard and Northeastern's droughts. Northeastern has not won a Beanpot since 1988 and Harvard has not won since 1994. 

Watching the Game in NYC

Sick turnout for the game tonight in NYC.

BU beats Merrimack; Harvard preview

The BU Terriers broke their two game losing streak with a convincing 4-1 win over Merrimack in North Andover on Friday night. The Terriers got a first period goal from senior captain Chris Connolly and two second period goals from Sahir Gill and Alex Chiasson. Connolly added another in the third which sealed the game for the Terriers. Senior goalie lost the shutout with 1:48 remaining which sucks but hopefully gives him some motivation to shut out Harvard tonight at the Beanpot.

The newly appointed #1/2 BU Terriers take on Harvard today at 5 in the first round of the 60th Beanpot. The 16-8-1 Terriers are also #1 in the pairwise rankings while 7-6-9 Harvard comes in at #23 one spot ahead of Northeastern. Northeastern takes on BC in the nightcap at 8pm(I hope they play a 5ot thriller so the teams are just gassed for the rest of the season). Harvard has one of the best powerplays in the nation(30%) which can be a problem for BU who is the most penalized team in the nation. The Crimson tested BU at a game 3 weeks ago in Cambridge before the Terriers took home a 4-3 OT win after trailing 3-1 going into the 3rd. The Terriers look to win their first beanpot since 2009 and take back control of the "BU Invitational". The student sections are sold out so it should be a great atmosphere there tonight.

BU releases 2011-2012 schedule

Boston University has released it's hockey schedule for the upcoming 2011-2012 season. This schedule was released in the last week by the school and has some interesting changes and additions to the schedule. Here are some notable games but for the full schedule follow this link.

1. 10/8 - UNH 8 p.m. - Regular season opener at home against a very talented UNH team. The Greek will be rocking for sure.

2. 10/15- Denver 7 p.m.- The Pioneers visit BU as part of a Boston weekend as they also travel to Newton University the night before. I honestly can say I hope they split on the weekend. You know where I am going with this.

3. 11/13 @ Newton University TBA- This is interesting and just too much ammo. We play at BC on a Sunday. Isn't there a religious a rule against this? "Thou shall not get destroyed by BU on the sabbath". I think that is one of the ten commandments but no one pays attention in CCD so who knows. This is earlier than usual as it is usually the first weekend of December for BC home and home which also exists this year. That puts all of the BC games (minus the Beanpot final) before the winter break.

4. Cornell 11/26 MSG - Red hot hockey. Enough said here.

5. Notre Dame 12/31 TBA- New year's day in South Bend? I want in. Who wants to road trip over winter break next year?

6. 1/13 @Northeastern- The first game against the fucks who ended our season. Maybe they'll be have and not throw trash on the ice but probably not. It is Northeastern we're talking about.

7. 3/2 vs. Northeastern- The return of Vinny Saponari to the Greek. There will probably be some hostile fans in the building considering what a dick he was and how our season ended to these goons last year.

- These are just some of the games that standout to me at first glance but obviously the games with Merrimack, Maine, and the rest of Hockey East are all very important. So here is an early prediction. BU goes 34-0-0.Connolly wins the Hobey and team mvp while beating Northeastern a combined 15-1 in the three meetings and BC 19-0. Sorry college hockey BU is going to be back. We're winning it all. NCAA, HE tourny, Beanpot, HE regular season. If there is a trophy, we 'll win it. Is it time to play hockey yet?

Rock Chalk Terrier: Basketball Beanpot?

In the immortal words of Indians Red Sox Dodgers Rays Outfielder Manny Ramirez, I'm happy to be back, I'm here to play. After a semester student teaching I'm ready to jump back into the fray of blogging BU and Boston sports by introducing what I hope to keep a regular feature on the blog: Rock Chalk Terrier, featuring discussion of our dearly beloved BU men's basketball team, which I eventually plan to spin off into game previews and recaps.

Imagine my surprise Monday when I read a piece in the Boston Herald online that I actually did not think was stupid. (Unsurprisingly it was not the product of Dennis or Callahan or whichever one of WEEI's morning monkeys writes there) This article posited the idea of a Basketball Beanpot tournament similar to the one played among the Boston hockey schools every February. In addition to BU, BC, Harvard and Northeastern, the tournament could potentially include other Massachusetts D1 programs UMass and Holy Cross, both schools with substantial tradition in the sport.

The coaches at the schools all seem to think this is a great idea, but simply a logistical issue that needs to be solved as far as how to pull it off. At least initially I feel that the best approach the schools should take toward this tournament would be to take a similar approach to how the Philadelphia Big 5 is run. those 5 schools (La Salle, Penn, 'Nova, St. Joe's and Temple) All play one another each year on their home courts and the team with the best record in those games against each other is declared champion. I think this would be fine in the case of this tournament as well since these teams typically play 3 or so games a year against other Beanpot schools in their non-conference schedule. Playing everyone every year would build rivalries at all of these schools, which can in the long run give fans a compelling reason to come out to the games. Plus the teams haven't been as unbalanced against each other recently as you might think given their vast differences in conference prestige (ACC vs. A-10 vs. CAA vs. Ivy League vs. AEast); BU is 3-5 against Beanpot schools since the 2008-09 season, Northeastern is 3-3, Holy Cross is 1-8 (but 9-3 in the 4 years before), UMass and BC are 4-3 and surprisingly enough, Harvard is 7-2 (they'd have been this and least year's champs, BU and NU would've tied for 2008-09). Given this kind of parity I think it'd make sense to pull the trigger on making it happen. ARE YOU LISTENING, COACHES?

Here's who would've won the last few years (Based on best record, which admittedly is skewed since BC often doesn't play the lower level schools like BU, Northeastern and Holy Cross)

2010-11: Harvard (2-0)-2

2009-10: Harvard (3-0)-1

2008-09: BU-1 & Northeastern-1 (2-1)

2007-08: Holy Cross (2-0)-2

2006-07: BC (2-0)-5

2005-06: BC (3-0)-4

2004-05: BC (3-0)-3

2003-04: BC (4-0)-2

2002-03: Holy Cross (2-0)-1

2001-02: BC (3-0)-1