Trivino News and His Future as a NY Islander

So if you haven't heard Trivino made a guilty plea today in court if you want the whole story head here or there. I decided to cover his future move into the NHL or AHL or maybe another league since he used to play for BU and his draft rights are with my favorite NHL team, NY Islanders. Trivino was drafted by the New York Islanders a few years ago (2008) as center or forward. He was drafted by the Islanders when they were in rebuilding mode and still are in rebuilding mode. Since his draft, the Islanders drafted better players in that position for Bridgeport(AHL) and have better players that have moved into the center position in NHL from the AHL.

The top 4 lines for the Islanders are taken at center. John Tavares, Frans Nielsen, Ryan Strome, and Josh Bailey have laid claim to center in each line. Maybe Josh Bailey is traded (some rumors) or is moved to AHL since he is very streaky player. If Bailey is sent down most likely David Ullstrom takes over the 4th line. In the AHL, he could start no problem. Probably the 3rd or 4th line, which in my opinion is where he should be in career. Depending on possible trades, Trivino could move to the 1st or 2nd line in the AHL (rumor has it Islanders are still thinking about Bobby Ryan but would give up most of their talent in the center position). If Trivino could move his position from C to the RW, since the LW is taken on all levels. The RW has an opening on the 4th line in the NHL and maybe the quickest way to see him make it to the NHL but personally I think he doesn't have enough speed to play in the NHL or rather keep that speed constant throughout a game. So if he stays with the Islanders, I could not see him in the NHL unless he changes position and become an AHL lifer.

Well I guess we have to say something/second half projections

So this has been quite the week for BU hockey. The program has been in headlines throughout the week. First, senior forward Corey Trivino was removed the team and lost his scholarship after an incident Sunday night here in a BU dorm. Trivino has been charged with numerous charges including intent to commit rape. I am going to lay off commenting on this one as it has already been through the ringer this week through various online fan boards and various other blogs. It seems like the only decision to be made by Coach Jack Parker, was made quickly like it needed to be before the story took off from there in a public forum. That part was unfortunate for both Trivino and the victim. We wish the best to both Trivino and the victim in recovering from this incident.

Since Trivino's removal on Monday, sophomore forward Charlie Coyle has announced that he plans on leaving the BU program. Coyle will be joining a stacked St. Johns Sea Dogs team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The team is loaded and seems to be aiming to win the Memorial Cup up there. Once again, I'm going to lay off going on a rant about this without knowing all the details. It is has been reported that Coyle was struggling academically and he hints at this as he says his decision was made so that he could focus fully on hockey. Myself and GW disagree on whether NCAA or major junior will get him more ready for the NHL/AHL next season. I think playing 18-25 year olds will better prepare him for the big leagues as opposed to playing some 16 year old little prick who thinks he is the next Crosby but clearly isn't. Either way, best of luck to Coyle in the rest of his hockey career. We will let you know if anything else come from this but Boston Hockey Blog has been all over this and the Trivino story from the beginning.

Now for all of the haters out there, just calm down. This team did lose their top two centers but they still have the same defense and goaltenders that have allowed 2 goal over their two wins last weekend. This puts more pressure on guys to step up and play together. It also puts more pressure on the students here to support the team more now than ever. The student body needs to make this a way to come together and get behind the guys that still are here. The season isn't over unless you let it be over. This team may not score as many goals as they did this past semester but they have already found out ways to win. I have faith that this will continue in the second half. This is a NCAA team for sure and if they come together through this then they could be serious contenders in April.

Now here are my power rankings going into the second half of the season and projections

1. Newton University 12-6-0 - I'll leave these fruits here just because despite going 4-5 in their last 9 games they still have a very good team if they can find a consistent goalie

2. BU 10-5-1- Obviously the loss of both Coyle and Trivino hurts but this team still has a team full of guys who can carry the team to the NCAA's including Connolly, Gill, Nieto, Chiasson, Noonan, and Clendening just to name a few.

3. UMass Lowell 10-5-0- This team is for sure the wild card in Hockey East as they will be interesting to see if they can continue to play stellar hockey behind Doug Carr.

4. Merrimack 10-2-2- Injuries are killing them now and I think it will combine with a tougher schedule in the second half of the year to cause them to fade but they still grab home ice and probably grab a NCAA berth

5. Maine 6-7-2- Maine is easily the most inconsistent teams in the league but I still think they are better than PC for this year atleast

6. PC 8-7-1- This team has made leaps from last year and will make the conference playoffs this year. Now can they win a QF series at Lowell or Merrimack? Probably not but they did already take a game at PC this year.

7. Northeastern 7-7-2- The hottest team in HE currently but they will have to do more damage in the conference before I buy in. Also their fans are just fucking annoying and it is going to be too funny to watch them go back to Huntington Ave without a Beanpot again in Feb. That will make how many years? 24? sucks to sucks

8. UNH 6-9-2- The University of No Hardware seems destined for another year of winning zero games of any importance

9. UMASS 5-7-4- UMass is still so inconsistent but they are still in position to steal a playoff spot from either UNH or PC.

10. UVM 3-11-1- They just aren't good this year. I expect to see them back with Sneddon as their coach.

BU beats Maine 5-1 to finish first half

- The hillbillies above weren't too happy once again last night as BU sent them back to their sad,pathetic lives in Canada I mean Maine which is actually much worse than Canada.

The BU men's ice hockey team finished off their unofficial first half of the season(16 games out of 34 regular season games) with a 5-1 win at Maine. Alfond Arena was packed as usual and CBS college sports had a nice piece on the history of inbreds filing into Alfond and how "great" they are. The win gives BU a 10-5-1(8-4-1) record going into a 3 week break due to final exams and the holidays. They return to the ice next December 31st at Notre Dame in the first ever televised game on Versus. Now back to the game...

The Terriers went down early while killing off a 5 minute major penalty and game misconduct on assistant captain Justin Courtnall. The call could certainly be questioned as it was deemed to be conduct to the head, but if you watched the TV replay it was clearly shoulder to shoulder contact with the Maine player conveniently putting his head down after the contact(read: he sold the call-must have learned from Whitney on BC). The resulting powerplay resulted in a Maine goal from inbred Mark Anthoine off the left dot.The kid looks like he got run over by a truck aka his parents were related before they had him for sure.

Maine then committed their own game misconduct from captain Brian Flynn. This call could also be questioned but it went in BU's favor so we're going to just pat the refs on the back for that one. BU scored 5 unanswered goals after the first goal of the game by Maine. Senior Corey Trivino scored his first of two(13 on the year) on the night to tie the game 1-1 with 1:37 left in the second.

BU took the lead for good on a Sahir Gil(4th of the year) tip in goal on Adam Clendening pass/shot to put BU ahead 2-1 with 13:49 left in the game and BU added 3 more throughout the 3rd period including Corey Trivino's 13th of the year along with Gil's second of the game. Freshman d-man Alexx Privitera also added a nifty backhand goal for the first of his collegiate career. He has played much better since spending a few games a s a scratch in the middle of this semester. It was Privitera's goal that send the 4910 hillbillies back out to the parking lot to fire up their houses to drive back to the trailor park home.

Senior goalie Kieran Millan broke the all-time saves record at BU passing Sean Fields' mark of 3055(Millan now stands at 3057) which is quite the feat given the amount of great goaltenders to come through BU throughout the years. Congrats from all of us here to Kieran for breaking the record and the stellar play so far this season.

The win sends the Terriers into break having won 6 of their last seven and sitting second in Hockey East and 5th nationally in the pairwise rankings which are the only ones that mean anything. Stay tuned as we will have an interview with Terrier sophomore sensation Sahir Gil in the next few days along with some other stuff recapping the first half before we take our own final exam break.

Weekend Recap- BU hockey splits weekend pair

First, we will start with the bad. BU lost 5-3 to Providence College on Friday night down in Schneider Arena. The night started off poorly for the Terriers as they sat in traffic for over 2 hours as they arrived late at the arena forcing the game to start 15 minutes late. The Terriers played like they were still on the bus in the first ten minutes as PC quickly jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead as the defense specifically Sean Escobedo. BU began to turn the tide in the game and quiet down the uneducated crowd. PC scored again late in the first to make it 3-0 and a steep hill to climb out of it. The Terriers began to do just so as sophomore Matt Nieto and senior Corey Trivino scored quickly in the second to start the come back. The score remained 3-2 throughout the second as goalie Kieran Millan settled in and made some great saves. The Terriers eventually tied the score just 3:13 into the third to make it 3-3. The Terriers couldn't complete the comeback though as PC took the lead for good on a powerplay with 6-5 junior Miles Harvey's first career goal. PC added an empty net goal to make it 5-3 and serve BU's first loss of the season.

Now to comment on the atmosphere at Schneider. It was the most full I have ever seen it at the traditional basketball-first school. Turns out basketball was the reason all of the fans were there as they were waiting for late nite madness tickets and they soon all left with ten minutes left in the third. The ice was also in rough shape and their was fog throughout the rink making visibility tough at times. Overall, the fans were loud but had very little to offer besides "Let's Go Friars" and "F*** BU". Not a very family friendly atmosphere as a fan even ran on the ice as the game concluded and was quickly escorted off the ice but we saw him in the parking lot later so those PC police really cracked down on him hard. The fans were all 'lubed' up and gave Matthews(NU) and Mullins(UMASS) a run for their money as the most annoying,classless crowd I have encountered. They will be nowhere to be seen the rest of the season Iam sure but Friday night certainly wasn't a good reflection upon their school.

Now on to the good game. BU hosted #3 Denver, who was fresh off a 4-2 win out in Newton over BC on Friday night. BU came out flying to atone for Friday night's loss. They scored on a sweet move by junior forward Alex Chiasson on a backhand to forehand move and then flip over Denver goalie ,junior Adam Murray. The Terriers played much better defensively and came out flying the begin the second period. They scored their second goal on a senior Corey Trivino hustle play shorthanded. He scored on a wrap-around after Murray mishandled the puck behind his own net. On the same powerplay, Matt Nieto scored on back hand 5 hole after a great pass from Charlie Coyle who played a great game along with the rest of his line(Nieto and Chiasson). That put Denver in an early hole that grew larger as Wade Megan scored on the powerplay later in the second to give BU a four goal lead with one period left. This lead almost did not hold as the Terriers allowed 3 goals in the third but Kieran Millan but made some key saves and the team competed hard once it became a one goal game. Great 4-3 win for BU!

Overall, the Terriers showed some great spurts throughout the weekend and looked bad at other times. They still search for the more consistent focus and execution throughout the game but they showed the grit to come back Friday night and to hold on to a lead Saturday night against a highly skilled team like Denver. The Terriers might fall in the polls as a result of the PC loss but in October it is more important to get wins and the Denver win will be huge come March as they try to get back to the NCAA tournament. Below are the press conference from Saturday night from Coach Parker and Matt Nieto/Alex Chiasson.

BU opens up the season with 5-0 win

Boston University Terriers came out slugged, out hit and out played UNH in their first game of the season. The 5-0 win gives the Terriers a good start off to the season as a whole while also giving them a quick head start in the conference. The first period was very physical and hard hitting but was a scoreless one. The second period was a different story as the Terriers scored twice to take control of the game. Wade Megan scored the first on a great pass from senior captain Chris Connolly. Connolly then found a streaking Corey Trivino who finished the play to make it 2-0 going into the third period. Matt Nieto then put the game out of reach with a goal 2 minutes into the third and Alex Chiasson added an empty netter with Kevin Gilroy also scoring on a wrap around to account for the 3 Terrier goals in the third. Sophomore Charlie Coyle and Sahir Gil added 2 assists for BU. The Terriers played solid throughout the game and when they(read Clendening) did make a few bad pinches, they were bailed out by Hockey East Defensive player of the week Kieran Millan who stopped all 35 shots he faced. For more info and postgame remarks follow this link. BU killed all 6 UNH powerplays and did enough to get four goals on USCHO's #1 goalie Matt "Frozen Pizza" Di Girolamo. He did make 32 saves out of the 36 fired at him. The Terriers continue their HE schedule with a visit to PC on Friday at 7 in a game that will also be aired live on NESN. BSRS will be well represented at the game so there is really no reason not to go. Go BU!

BU gets first win in over a month...edges UVM 4-2

In a game in which the BU Terriers got outshot 31 to 16, they certainly made every shot count. BU won its first game since the eight of December with a big 4-2 win at Vermont tonight. Sophomore forward Alex Chiasson had two goals while Max NiCastro and Corey Trivino added the others for the Terriers. This was huge win for this young BU team that is trying to answer all of its critics. Kieran Millan made 29 saves and the only two goals he allowed were tipped off of BU players in front of the net. The win solidifies third place in HE for the Terriers leading up to Wednesday night's matchup with Merrimack (who is coming off of a 7-1 thrashing). BSRS will be well represented at the game as GW, Raymundo, and myself will be making the trip up to North Andover to catch the game. It is a huge game for the Terriers as Merrimack sits three points back with one game in hand in the standings after they thrashed Maine. BU improves the overall record to 9-5-6 while UVM falls to a lowly 3-11-4. Look for the rankings coming out tomorrow afternoon and the pairwise rankings are updated. Wednesday night's game are big for both and should be a good one if the first two meetings were any sign as both ended in ties(2-2,3-3). Lawler Arena is a tough place to play so we will see if this young team can respond and build a winning streak.

The win also puts BU to #15 in the pairwise rankings up from #17.

Note- Parker was not pleased with the performance at all and the press conference was very similar to the ones after the games last year so look for the team to get fired up for the game Wednesday after he rips into them the next couple days.

Saponaris Shown the Door, Trivino Suspended

According to The Daily Free Press , brothers Victor and Vinny Saponari have been kicked off the team, and Corey Trivino has been suspended for an unknown amount of games to begin next season. Citing a BU hockey press release, the article says that the brothers and Trivino allegedly drank on Wednesday, March 17, (St. Patty's day for those of you not familiar), which was two days before the season ending Hockey East semifinal against Maine. Vinny Sap and Trivino are both underage, and the team has had a long standing rule that drinking is only allowed on Saturday nights by players of age. Parker also hints that the Saponaris were dismissed from the team for other actions "unbecoming to a Boston University hockey player".

This move by Parker seems to be his way of trying to send a message. Parker made it clear that he was unhappy with the off ice conduct of his players during the 09-10 campaign. With this punishment, he is letting it be known that underage drinking and other inappropriate actions will not be tolerated by members of his team. Let's hope the players get the message before any more punishments are handed down, because we really cannot afford to lose any more scoring power.