Senior Week: Jake Moscatel, Take 2

This is the second in a series of posts about BU's 2014 Senior Class. Be on the lookout for a new post each day, culminating with captains Pat MacGregor and Garrett Noonan at the end of the week. You can find Matt Ronan's post here.

                                                                       Photo Credit to Matthew Healey/Boston Herald



If you would like to read Jake's senior week post from last season, you can do so here. 

Jake Moscatel is the first player in the history of BSRS to get two senior week posts. That is what happens when you achieve beauty status.


By this point, every college hockey fan should know the Jake Moscatel story. At one point he was an injured hockey player in Biddeford, Maine at the University of New England. Less than two years later, he was dressing and playing for his dream school and dream team. Moscatel transferred to BU strictly as a student from UNE but still had the itch to play some puck. He joined the BU club hockey team playing both offense and defense. When there was a rash of departures in the middle of the 2011-2012 season, he was given his shot by Coach Jack Parker. 

Northeastern Preview- Even the blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while

The BU Terriers wrap up the regular season with a home and home with cross town rival opponent Northeastern. Northeastern is currently having their best season(all luck) since 2008-2009 with a record of 18-10-4(10-6-2). They are lead up front by sophomore Kevin Roy(17-25-42) (Pronounced: wahhhhhhhhhhhh), senior Braden Pimm(18-13-31), and freshman Mike Szmatula(12-24-36). Freshmen Dalen Hedges and John Stevens have also chipped in 20+ points each. The strength of Northeastern is their goaltending as redshirt junior Clay Witt has put the team on his back( he would have gotten a lot of Greg Jennings awards if there was a NU blog cool enough to give those out) with a .940 save % and 2.17 GAA.

                                         
                                            * Northeastern hockey finally found the nut this season

Hungover Recap- BU beats SFX 2-1 in exhibition game

The BU Terriers took a 2-1 victory in an exhibition game(highlights) against St. Francis-Xavier last night at Agganis Arena in front of 3,627 fans.  Nick Roberto got the scoring started off with a rebound PP goal in the first period and Tommy Kelley scored the game winner on a deflected slapper with less than 3 minutes remaining.

Every player on the roster got into the action last night and helped contribute to the 2-1 win. In net, Sean Maguire, Anthony Moccia, and Matt O'Connor each took a period. Maguire gave up the lone goal on a rebound that he should have controlled better but that was the only blemish defensively. Moccia saw his first career playing action and was perfect with the help of the crossbar and some great defense in front of him. O'Connor was solid in the third making 16 saves to get the win. I am a big fan of his new pads as well(white with red at the bottom of the pad).

St. Francis-Xavier Preview

It's the wonderful time of year again where actual college hockey games will be played. Granted that they will not count in the standings until next weekend but they will give fans things to talk about for the next week until the regular season begins a next Friday. The BU Terriers host the St. Francis-Xavier Xmen this weekend in an exhibition game which, will be their only tune-up for the regular season. I don't know much about the Xmen besides that their nickname might be the worst of all-time. Xmen just sounds awful and doesn't roll off the tongue at all but hey, they're a canadian school, you can only expect so much from them. If you want to learn more how college hockey works in Canada, you can read this solid interview from our fellow BU blog Bloggin' on Babcock.  It is better written than anything we throw out there and is good to explain the differences between college hockey in the US and America's hat also know as Canada.

For the regular season game previews,  I will be focusing mostly on why the other team sucks and the areas where BU can take advantage of them in each game. For this game, I am going focus on what Terrier fans should be looking for from the team this weekend as they prepare for the regular season.

The Captain Candidates

                                                        Last Year's Captains(minus Noonan)


Due to the coaching change in BU hockey this offseason, the captains of next year's squad was not named at the Friends of Hockey Banquet this past weekend as is typically done. Retiring coach Jack Parker said that he thought this should be something incoming coach David Quinn should decide. Quinn will be arriving on campus once the Colorado Avalanche's season ends this week. Quinn will have plenty of work to do right away as he needs to finish up his recruiting class for next season and get to know his team as summer workouts begin. We have been told that he has stated that he isn't firing any members of the staff so it would seem that both assistant coaches, Buddy Power and Mike Bavis, are welcome back as part of his staff next season. One would assume volunteer goalie coach Mike Geragosian would also be welcome back with open arms considering the work he has done with goalies over the years.

Quinn will most likely listen to what his staff and the players say about each other when considering his choices but we figured we would break it down and make a case for each of the upperclassmen. There are guys who will be favored over others but there are no bad choices in this group. This is according to our completely unbiased opinions and no knowledge of what happens off the ice.  All of the guys listed below will be leaders next year. These are just our guesses for captains. You can vote yourself on the right in our current poll.

Seniors(Next Year)

1. Garrett Noonan- Noonan is the only returning captain from last season's team. He wore an "A" for the second half of last season. He is always one of the most passionate players for the Terriers and would be a great fit to fill a leadership role again next season. I would go as far to say he is a lock to wear some type of letter despite the coaching change. He came back to his school and team when he had an opportunity to go pro this past spring. That dedication to the program and leadership should be rewarded with a C or A when those decisions are made.

2. Sahir Gill- Gill is another senior who has filled a top 6 forward role in each of the last two seasons. He is crucial killing penalties and will be a guy this team relies on for some scoring next season. He has always come across as a team-first guy to us and I would give him a good chance to wear a letter.

First half review- Forwards

Now that the first half of the season is over and the Terriers sit at 10-5-0(8-4-0) , it is a good time to look back at individual player's first halves. For reference last season, BU finished the first half at 10-5-1. Obviously, two very different teams but similar results. This year's team is much younger and have more reason to be excited for the second half of the season as the underclassmen develop and execute even better. Here is the review of each forward still on the roster.

1. Cason Hohmann (4-12-16, 15 GP) "Texas Toast" has had a hell of a first half for the Terriers. He has been noted by Coach Parker on numerous occasions as a guy who needed to make a jump this year for the team to succeed. He certainly has met that challenge. He leads the team in points and has doubled his point total from last season(35 games played). He is the top line center and has been producing all season.  He is usually the fastest guy on the ice when he is out there but that might only because Nieto plays on a different line. That is a race I would love to see.

2. Wade Megan(9-6-15, 15 GP)- The Captain from Canton, NY leads the team in goals in the first half and they have come in a variety of ways. He sniped against his hometown St. Lawrence Saints and he had one of the greasiest goals of all time against UNH. The team is 9-2-0 when he records a point and 8-1-0 when he scores a goal. He is obviously a big part of this offense and on pace to do even better than his 20-9-29 line in 39 games last year.

3. Danny O'Regan (5-6-11, 15 GP)- The freshman from Needhman, MA and St. Sebastian's stepped in right away and contributed for BU. He has been the second line center all season and has done it very well. The Sharks' fifth round pick has been responsible on both ends of the ice and has scored some big goals for this team in the first half. Specifically, I am talking about the final goal against UND to finish the game and put it out of reach. He has a great ability to set up in front of the goalie and put pucks away. Very Jason Lawrence-like in that aspect.