Junior Day: Glory Glory Matt Nieto

This is part 1 of a one(hopefully) part series on underclass members of the 2013 BU hockey team who have chosen to pursue their professional careers before graduation.

                                                           Glory Glory Time!

This past week Terrier junior forward Matt Nieto chose to forego his final year of eligibility at BU and turn professional. Nieto signed  with the San Jose Sharks  and will report to their AHL affiliate Worcester Sharks to finish their season. Nieto came to BU through the USNTDP coming into the 2010-2011 season where he had recorded 54 points in 61 games the year before. Nieto was a young freshman, being only 17 years old when he entered collegiate hockey. This not stop the hype from building up before he arrived on campus as Nieto and classmate Sir Charles Coyle built up plenty of pre-season buzz. Nieto would live up to the hype and become one of the most prolific scorers in the country.

Nieto began producing from the very beginning as he scored his first goal in an October contest against UMass.  Nieto would go on to score 10 goals as a freshman and 23 points overall. As would be the norm over the course of his career, Nieto was a streaky scorer. He finished the year hot with a 4-9-13 line over the final 11 games as he became a legitimate scoring threat. He was a named a conference top performer 4 times, 3 of which fell in the second half of the year. After his freshman season, Nieto was drafted in the second round of the 2011 NHL draft by the San Jose Sharks. This would be a bit of a homecoming for the Long Beach, California native.

Weekend Recap- BU sweeps, exposes Merrimack

                                               -actual flyer on cars outside of Agganis

The Boston University Terriers swept the Merrimack College Warriors this weekend to end their season and advance to the Hockey East Semifinals next weekend at the TD Garden. The Terriers beat the Warriors by scores of 3-0 and 5-3 and swept all 5 games from the Warriors this season. The Terriers excelled at exposing Merrimack weaknesses defensively to get goals when they needed to. Theye also shut them down throughout the season defensively. Merrimack is a team that will outwork you to score goals and has given teams like BC and UNH fits this year. In order to beat them, you need to work equally as hard/if not harder which is no easy task. These games were the last two home games of coach Jack Parker's career as he announced his retirement this past week.  The Terrier sweep was their first in the Hockey East QF's since the 2005-2006 season against UMass. The Terriers do advance through to the Garden for the 11th time in 12 seasons. The Terriers also hit the 20 win plateau for the second consecutive season and give themselves a chance to make the NCAA tournament by winning one or two games next weekend.


Friday night's win was a result of solid defense and opportunistic offense. After a scoreless first, BU got goals from leading scorers Wade Megan and Matt Nieto. Nieto's line of himself, Danny O'Regan and Evan Rodrigues continues to roll and produce points. The Terriers added a third goal on the powerplay from senior grinder Ryan Santana who battled hard in front of the net for the loose puck.  Freshman tendy Sean Maguire had a great night for the Terriers pitching his 4th shutout of the season along with a gem of a press conference which you can see below. It was just the effort the Terriers needed to bring to a playoff game as they didn't score a ton of goals but did enough and played great defense in front of Maguire to pick up the victory.

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. 

BU pounds Merrimack

The BU Terriers got back on track Friday night against the Merrimack Warriors with a 4-1 victory.  The Terriers were coming off one of their worst games of the year after blowing a 3 goal lead to Harvard on Wednesday night. The team seemed to learn from it though and got back on track defensively against Merrimack to pick up two more points in the league. The scoring was started by captain Wade Megan who snuck a deflected wrister top shelf on Merrimack goalie Rasmus Tirronen (I believe that is Finnish for " Not as good as Oksanen"). The goal came short handed and was a great individual effort by the captain in the first. BU could not score for the rest of the period as both Matt Nieto and Ahti Oksanen hit the right post with separate shots and Danny O'Regan just missed an open net off a great slap pass from Alexx Privitera.

The Terriers continued to push in the second and got a goal off a Sahir Gill redirect from another great pass from Privitera. Tirronen never had a chance on the play and BU continued to push from there as Cason Hohmann added another off a great saucer pass from Wade Megan. Hohmann would finish the game a nation's best +20 for the year. Matt Nieto picked up his 5th goal of the year in the third and has now scored in two straight which isn't good for the rest of the league because he can put up a lot of points fast if he gets hot. Merrimack goon Kyle Bigos scored later in the third to ruin Sean Maguire's shutout bid. He would then promptly break the HE all-time record for penalty minutes after he got beat up by Sam Kurker in a scrum. Kurker dominated him and it was awesome. It seemed like Maguire felt he was interfered with on the Bigos goal but I couldn't see the play that well considering I had one of the worst seats in the arena. It was an overall thorough effort and big win for the Terriers' confidence going forward. Maguire has now won 5 starts in a row and seems to be the hotter goaltender. It will be interesting to see how Coach Parker handles the rotation this coming weekend as BU has two home games with Northeastern and Lowell coming to Agganis.

BSRS 3 Stars of the Game

1. Wade Megan (1-1-2, +2)
2. Sean Maguire (1GA, 37 saves)
3. Cason Hohmann( 1-1-2, +2)

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.

Saturday recap: BU pummels Saint Lawrence

The Boston University Terriers improved to 7-4-0 on the season after dropping the 6-4-2 St. Lawrence Saints 4-0 on Saturday night at Agganis Arena. The Terriers got a goal from each of their four lines and dominated the game from the opening face off. St Lawrence seemed tired throughout the game, which may have been because they played(and beat) Northeastern Friday night at Matthew Arena.BU out shot SLU 47-21 which tells the story of the game. The Terriers had many more quality chances and this game could have been 7 or 8-0 fairly easily. Freshman Sean Maguire earned the win and the shutout in his first career home start. He was perfect in goal and left very little to chance as his defense played very well around him. The win improves the Terriers out of conference schedule this year to 2-1-0 and was a must win when it comes time for the NCAA tournament selection in March.

The Terriers dominated the first period but only had one goal in the period as SLU goalie,Matt Weninger, made 16 of the 17 shots thrown at him. Wade Megan had the BU goal as he took a pass from freshman dman Ahti Oksanen and sniped a twisted wristah under the crossbar into the back bar in the net which was ruled a goal after a quick review by the referee. BU continued to dominate play throughout the second period but continued to get stuffed at the goal by Weninger. The Terriers finally put one home when Sahir Gill split the SLU defense and fed Sam Kurker for his first career collegiate goal as he slammed one five hole on Weninger. That was a huge goal and clinched the game. The Terriers added two more in the third to make it 4-0. Ben Rosen had the third goal minutes after SLU Sean McGovern took a cheap shot at his head away from the play. The fact that it wasn't a five minute major is a travesty but Bendetto was the ref so the missed call comes as a shock to no one.  Matt Nieto added the fourth goal with 39 seconds left which sealed the game and the Cane's Challenge(free chicken for everyone!). BU also shutdown the top two scorers in the nation in Kyle Flannagan and Greg Carey. This was the most complete effort from the team this season and is great to see leading into next weekend's home and home with BC.

North Dakota Recap- To hell and back

I made my first ever trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota this weekend and it looks exactly how you would expect it to. Something like the picture above. The rink itself was huge and really nice. Every North Dakota fan will ask you if you like the rink because they know that it is awesome. The atmosphere was crazy as 12k packed in Saturday night to see the BU 4-2 win while slightly less(due to the opening of hunting season..not a lie) packed in Friday to watch the North Dakota 4-2 win.  First, I'm going to cover some comments on the experience watching a game in the Ralph and then get to the actual games.

The Ralph is quite large, nice and sells beer. All of these things are necessities for North Dakota. If you saw the view of the bar between periods, you would understand what I mean. There is a HIGH demand for beer. The crowd was a sellout Saturday night and it was loud during introductions and when North Dakota scored. Besides, the goals and intros, the arena itself was awfully quiet both nights besides when music was piped in or Alexx Privitera was touching the puck and therefore booed. This goes back to an incident Friday night where it is reported that he had an altercation with fans while in the penalty box. I didn't see anything myself but I'm sure the fan deserved whatever happened because UND fans suck. They did not start any chant on their own. Music had to be piped in or BU fans were loud enough to rile up the fans to start a "Let's go Sioux" chant. This is not to say they don't care about the game because they do and let me know on many occasions what a crazy liberal I am because I am from Boston. They are just too stupid to start any different chants or use their brains at all. Their goal song is pretty cool/funny as these small firecrackers/bombs go off over the goal they just scored on.  Overall, enjoyed my time there and for all the idiotic students, there were just as many welcoming fans who seemed glad to have us there. Now to the hockey.

UMass recap Game 2- BU sweeps, gets all 4 ponies(points) on the weekend

The BU Terriers finished off the home and home sweep of the UMass Minutemen with a hard-fought 3-2 victory at the Mullins Center in Amherst. The game was played in front of a hostile 7,300+ fans. BU put itself in an early 2-0 hole after a power play goal by Shane Walsh and a penalty shot goal by Rocco Carzo. On both of the goals, BU goalie Matt O'Connor was in position and got a piece of each shot but was unable to make the save. It certainly is promising to note how well he is consistently positioned. He made a great glove save late in the first to keep the team in the game at a time when UMass had momentum. Walsh's goal came on a powerplay, which was a result of a weak call on Ahti Oksanen.

BU bounced back quickly after the penalty shot goal by Carzo when the top line of Evan Rodrigues, Cason Hohmann, and captain Wade Megan produced once again. Megan banged the puck in the net in the middle of a pile as the self-proclaimed "leader in greasy goals" banged in another one to cut the UMass lead in half in the middle of the second. BU tied it up at the end of the second when Matt Nieto made a great tip off a pass from freshman Danny O'Regan who had a coming out party this weekend. O'Regan posted a 2-2-4 line over the two games over the weekend. He really has played well on that new second line with Nieto and Sahir Gill who is playing the off-wing. This line was on the ice for the game-winning goal which defenseman Sean Escobedo banged home off a rebound over UMass goalie Kevin Boyle with 1:22 remaining.

Preview Week 1 PC @BU, NCAA screws Oksanen

Here we go for the first game of the regular season this year. First off, we have some negative news. According to multiple sources including the Boston Hockey Blog,  Finnish freshman dman Ahti Oksanen has been suspended or forced to "sit out" two games for playing two games with a professional player while in Finland. He was never paid but his teammate was so he is forced to sit out.  The rule is one of the many bullshit rules the NCAA decided to enforce on its players. They haven't had a good week as the NCAA also suspended incoming freshman forward Nic Kerdiles of Wisconsin for interactions with an agent. Kerdiles was suspended for the year however and is most likely heading for the CHL even though he wants to play college hockey,  which is just a shame. The NCAA sucks and needs to get it together before the product on the ice is diminished and disrupted more.

Now, on to the game. BU opens the regular season Saturday night at home against Providence College. Providence finished last season 14-20-4 (10-14-3). They are replacing their goaltender as is BU. PC landed big time recruit Jon Gillies after he decomitted from Northeastern. Gillies will be the starter right away. Their leading returning forwards are Ross Mauremann(10-15), Derek Army(11-11-22), and Tim Schaller. Schaller(14-7-21) led the team in points per game. The defensive corps is lead by senior captain Myles Harvery (7-10-17). Second year coach Nate Leahman has really changed the culture down in PC and it is certainly a program heading in the right direction.

BU Hockey Line Projections Take 2

I took my first shot at the opening night lines over a month ago. I figure it is about time to take another stab at it and hear your input as well so feel free. The recruiting class has changed as we did not know who the 9th member and 7th dman on the roster was going to be. Now that we know that it is Ahti Oksanen, I can make a better guess at the dpairs and forward lines for the coming season.

1. Nieto-Gill- Cisse- I'm not changing my first line as I expect both Cisse and Gill to have big years compared to last year and Nieto should be first team Hockey East with his speed.

1st Half Review: Forwards Part 1

I first would like to apologize for our slow times here. We, unfortunately, had to take finals this past week so we haven't had much time to blog. Yes, even we study for finals. Now back to hockey. This is going be the first of four posts reviewing each player on this year's BU team in our typical biased fashion. So here we go. This will be the first half of forwards on BU's current roster (7 today, 7 tomorrow)...

8 Ben Rosen- First, we would like to say Happy Hanukkah to our favorite (and only) Jewish BU hockey player. Hope he has 8 Crazy Nights Adam Sandler style. Rosen had a solid first half for the Terriers posting an 0-2-2 line while centering the fourth line, including an assist on Ross Gaudet's GW OT goal at Red Hot Hockey. His impact isn't measured in terms of points as he centers the 4th line which is a grinding line that can really change the course of the game when the top 3 lines aren't playing as well. Exhibit A of this was Red Hot Hockey where his line accounted for the winning goal and were praised by coach Jack Parker as the best line for the Terriers. He will likely see much more ice time in the second half with the recent departures at forward (Charlie Coyle to QMJHL and Corey Trivino-dismissed). I would expect to see Rosen get some special teams time as he seems capable to play both the PK, possibly with linemate Ross Gaudet and run the point on the PP with his defensive experience in previous seasons.

9 Alex Chiasson- The assistant captain had an up and down first half of the year. The junior forward hit a low point when he was a healthy scratch against UMass in October and seemed to turn it around since then. He is the second highest returning scorer on the team posting a 5-9-14 line in 15 games in the first half. If this team is going to continue to get better through the second half, they need Chiasson to become a dominant power forward on that second line. Chiasson also leads the team in +/- with a +8 and should only get better depending where he plays next semester. Rumors out there is the second line could be Nieto-Megan- Chiasson..I don't hate it for sure. I would look for big things from Chiasson in what is most likely his last semester at BU with him currently being rated as one of Dallas' top prospects.

12 Chris Connolly- The senior captain has been a difference-maker for the Terriers as his constant hustle and desire to win is something all fans can appreciate. He has been snake-bitten on the goal front but has still posted 13 assists with a 0-13-13 line in 15 games so far this year. He also has posted a +7 rating and has only taken one penalty all year for the Terriers. He has done a great job, in my opinion, of having this team ready to play since the embarrassing loss to Lowell in the beginning of November. He will continue to be tested as a leader going into the second half but if there is a reason he was the unaminous choice as the first 2 year captain since Jack OC in the late 70's. I would expect to see some goals start pouring in for the senior. Once the first one hits the back of the net, it should open the flood gates.

15 Ryan Santana- Santana never hit the ice in the first half due to offseason surgery but he seems to be splitting time on the fourth line in the second half with senior Kevin Gilroy. Despite not hitting the ice, Santana still made headlines (in a good way). Santana attempted and failed the Rhett's challenge which involved eating a triple bacon cheeseburger, a root beer float, an order of fries and an 8 scoop ice cream sundae in 30 minutes. I give him an A for effort though. I might give it a try next semester but GW can barely eat a single cheeseburger so it might be a one man adventure (stay tuned for details). Santana also made news in our interview with Garrett Noonan for having a "pretty greasy muzzy" going during Movemeber. Kid making headlines even when he is hurt. You got to love it.

16 Kevin Gilroy- The senior forward hasn't seen the ice since being benched for skipping classes in early November but still has a goal on the season in only 5 games played. I would expect more of the senior in the second half, splitting fourth line RW time with Santana. Hopefully the time watching from the stands will give Gilroy extra motivation to show what he is capable of when is out on the ice. I'm still calling that he scores the GW OT goal in the National Championship game in Tampa. He wins it after Noonan ties it up and does an awesome celly.

17 Matt Nieto- The sophomore forward leads the Terriers in points posting an 8-8-16 line in the first half in 14 games. The Terriers will be depending upon Nieto to continue to produce big numbers, assuming he has recovered from his shoulder injury that caused him to miss the last two games before break.

18 Wade Megan-The junior forward has put up solid numbers so far this year posting a 7-1-8 line in 16 games. Megan has done a great job, playing mostly with the two freshmen on the third line. It would be expected that Megan will move up to the second line for second semester which should produce more points for the junior from Canton, NY. Just change the words from Jayne to Wade in the song below and we have his goal song for next semester.

National polls, weekend recap

Both polls came out today and put BU #12 nationally in the USCHO and USA Today polls. BC remains the top team in both receiving a majority of the votes in both polls. Here is the top 5 of each polls and notable others throughout Hockey East.

USCHO:

1. BC(42) 7-1-0

2. Colorado College(5)4-0-0

3. Michigan 6-1-0

4. Western Michigan(1) 5-0-3

5. Minnesota 7-1-0

7. Merrimack 6-0-0

12. Boston University 3-2-1

20. Maine 3-2-1

USA Today

1. BC(30)

2. Colorado College(3)

3. Michigan

4. Notre Dame

5. Minnesota

7. Merrimack

12. Boston University

The INCH power rankings also came out today and place BU up two spots to #14 in the country. For some reason they respect the EZAC and have Colgate, Union, and Yale ranked ahead of BU despite Yale's unproven 1-0-1 record and Union's loss to UNH this weekend. Everyone will find out how weak that conference is once they all fail to make a Frozen Four again. Yes Yale that is directed at you. Also here is a recap of BU players mentioned in the HE performances of the week

Hockey East Weekly Top Performances:

Charlie Coyle So, F- Recorded a goal and three assists in the weekend home and home series with UMass.

Sahir Gil So,F-Scored three points against UMass including the tying goal Friday night

Matt Nieto So, F- Recorded two goals, including the game winner Saturday, and two assists in the series with UMass

Career Milestones/Who is Hot/ Trends

Sahir Gil - Has a point in all six games this season

Matt Nieto- Has scored a goal in all six games this season

"Boston University: Dating back to last season, sophomore Matt Nieto has scored a goal in eight straight games, the longest streak by a Terrier since Chris Drury scored in nine straight games from Nov. 1-26, 1996…The Terriers have outscored their opponents 10-2 in the second period this season but have been outscored 10-3 in the first period…BU went to overtime with UMass in both ends of this past weekend's home-and-home series and came away with three points. The Terriers have not lost a conference game in overtime since Feb. 21, 2003, at Providence…BU erased a 2-0 deficit on Friday before coming all the way back from a 3-0 deficit in Saturday's overtime triumph…Sophomore Charlie Coyle currently sports a league-best plus-9 rating and has recorded two points in each of the last three contests…BU leads the nation in shorthanded goals this season with four…Senior goaltender Grant Rollheiser (Chilliwack, B.C.) earned his first start since last December on Saturday and overcame a three-goal first period to record 29 saves in the victory. He is now 12-7-4 in his career with a 2.91 GAA…Travis Roy was the recipient of Boston University's prestigious Young Alumni Award on Saturday as part of this year's Alumni Weekend."

BU takes 3 out of 4 points on the weekend

The BU Terriers mens ice hockey team certainly enjoys making games interesting. The team began the weekend climbing out of a 2-0 deficit at the Mullins Center to salvage a 2-2 tie. This was due largely to the solid play of senior goalie Kieran Millan. Millan made 33 saves including many crucial ones in the 3rd period and OT. UMASS got out to an early lead with a PP goal by T.J. Syner and padded the lead with a goal by Connor Sheary midway through the second. BU would climb back within one with a goal by sophomore Matt Nieto who has a goal in every game thus far this year. The Terriers tied the game for good when Sahir Gil flipped the puck over UMASS goalie Kevin Boyle who has on his stomach in the crease. Overall, it wasn't a great effort Friday night and the team seemed happy to get a point behind Millan while Parker said there would be changes in the lineup for Saturday's matchup. He wasn't kidding.

Last night, they won an OT thriller 5-4 after trailing 3-0 at the end of the first period. The buzz before the game was over the benching of assistant captain Alex Chiasson who has been playing well offensively but not working hard enough defensively. Parker benched him to send a message and wake him up. We will see with time if it sends the message to him and the rest of the team. Back to the game, the team gave up some tough goals early as the first UMASS goal was a result of goalie Grant Rollheiser inability to cover up the puck. The second goal was a bad break as Ryan Ruikka attempted to clear the puck on the penalty kill and the puck took a weird bounce ended up right in front of the goal to be tucked in. The third UMASS goal was a result of a poor play by Charlie Coyle as he took the puck out in front of his own net and was pit pocketed by Sheary who roofed it past Rollie. The score remained that way until mid way through the second when BU seemed to wake up and UMASS fell apart. BU scored goals by Garrett Noonan on a great pass from Corey Trivino and then Sahir Gil scored as well to make it a one goal game entering the third.

In the third, BU took over the game. BU tied the game shorthanded on a goal from Charlie Coyle 9:51 into the third. BU then took the lead two minutes later on Corey Trivino's fourth of the year. UMASS would tie it at 4 on the PP after Charlie Coyle took his second penalty of the game for an unnecessary hit. The game would remain tied until OT when Matt Nieto would score his sixth goal in as many games and give the Terriers a huge 2 points to keep pace in HE. Who said Parker can't motivate? The Terriers return to action next Saturday at UMASS Lowell.

This weekend certainly was nowhere near as well as BU needs to play to go anywhere this season but it is a step in the right direction as they recovered from early deficits both nights. Both goaltenders played well and seem to give Parker a viable option to keep Millan on edge. I wouldn't expect to see Rollie again for a couple weekends unless Parker feels comfortable playing him against Merrimack or BC in two weeks and those teams seem like the two best teams in the league currently.

Three current BU Terriers selected on Day 2 of NHL draft

Three current member of the BU Terriers men's hockey team were drafted by three different teams on day 2 of the NHL draft yesterday. Adam Clendening was the first to go, to Chicago, at #36 overall(second round). This is a good fit for the rising sophomore at BU as Chicago is weak on the D-line and he was their first defenseman selected this year. This most likely means Clendening only has one or two years left at BU before jumping to the NHL but time will tell there. The second pick was also in the second round as winger Matt Nieto was selected 47th overall by the San Jose Sharks. This comes the day after the Shark traded the right from current Terrier Charlie Coyle in a deal with Minnesota. Sources from the Boston Hockey Blog have spoken with Coyle though and he has said he hasn't had much contact with Minnesota but plans to return to BU next season still. The third and final Terrier to be drafted yesterday was defenseman Garrett Noonan who was drafted #112 in the fourth round by the Nashville Predators and former Terrier Colin Wilson. Coach Jack Parker was present for the draft and the both Clendening and Nieto were evidently thrilled to have him there for support as shown in the two articles linked here( USCHO, ESPNBOSTON). This is just another example proving the haters wrong that Parker is just a crazy old man and doesn't care about his players. He cares more about them then any other coach in HE and tells them honestly the best move for their careers not for the program. He doesn't pray to the lord and grovel like York does out there in Newton. Just another class move from Parker. In another note, current Terrier Sahir Gil who was a draft prospect went undrafted.

In other HE news, two Northeastern recruits( Haar and Gaudreau) decomitted(will return to the USHL) following their coaching change while current player and first round pick D Jamie Olesiak is strongly considering moving to the OHL. Looks like Vinny Saponari is going to have to be a one man show for Northeastern to go anywhere this season no matter who the coach is. Aka not too concerned about the goons over on Huntington Ave. Cue the music!

Terriers sneak past PC with half-ass effort

BU took the first of six must-wins coming down the stretch with a 2-1 victory over Providence College. BU jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on Matt Nieto's first goal in 49 days. The Terriers later made it 2-0 half way through the second with a PP goal from freshman D-man Adam Clendening on a wrister from the point. After that goal, the Terriers got outplayed and relied heavily upon junior goalie Kieran Millan. The first half of the game was owned by the Terriers and could have been 5-0 easily if not for the efforts of PC netminder Alex Beaudry. Beaudry made 32 saves on the night while Millan made 36.

Coach Parker dug into his team in the postgame presser for being selfish and stupid among other things. The lone PC goal was with two minutes remaining on the end of a pp where junior D-man David Warsofsky jumped up to steal a past and got burnt badly leading to a goal. It was another poor play by the junior who after being benched at UMASS last week hasn't improved. He took some solid shots tonight but made some poor decisions as well. Those have to stop if this team wants to make a run in the postseason.

Coach Parker was especially upset at the penalties of Alex Chiasson and Wade Meagan in the third period after a scuffle that resulted in eight minutes of penalties assessed to the two. Parker clearly chewed Meagan out before he got to the penalty box. Parker said there he was contemplating changing up the lines for tomorrow's game at PC for guys being stupid. It would seem Meagan and Chiasson would be those guys but the second line of Trivino Nieto and Chiasson produced both goals tonight so I would be shocked if Chiasson is benched. Meagan has been playing better as well so it will be interesting to see who Parker benches. I would guess possible Meagan for Santana/Gilroy depending on who plays on what line. There is no way he benches Chiasson for untested freshman Matt Ronan though. Sorry Matt.

I also wouldn't be surprised if MacGregor gets a game at d tomorrow night. Overall, the defenseman played well besides Warso and I don't see Parker benching him again. He has liked what he has seen from MacGregor though so the lines will be interesting. Hopefully, Warso gets his head out of his ass soon though and plays the way everyone knows he can. He is making some people wish he would go pro at the end of the season which is never a good thing. He needs to be the player we all know he can be and be an example for the young defenseman. Instead recently, the d-pairing of Noonan and Clendening has clearly been the best pairing out there. We will see what happens tomorrow.

In other HE News:
-Merrimack beat UMASS 4-3 on OT at the Mullins Center without Frenchie(read Da Costa)
-Maine took care of Lowell 4-0 at Tsongas to stay five points behind BU
- Northeastern and BC skated to a 7-7 tie? Is this football? Anyway don't expect to see little pussy Parker Milner anytime soon. He gave up 4 goals on 9 shots tonight before being pulled. He is too busy running away from the scene of accidents to practice goalie. But hey life could be worse you could be Greg Cronin(NU head coach) suspended indefinitely for recruiting violations.
NU showed some fight though I give them props.
- UNH shit on UVM's face in a 6-1 blowout on national TV. Nice job UVM.