Senior Week: Matt Ronan

This is the first 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.

                                                                               Photo by Michelle Jay/DFP staff

From the first time he laced up the skates, Matt Ronan was always destined to be a Terrier.


Prior to the 2010-2011 hockey season, Ronan was considering his junior league options when he learned he could walk-on to the hockey team at Boston University. The decision was an as easy one for the lifelong Terrier. As he told us in our exclusive interview in 2012,  Ronan was part of the Terrier hockey family for "as long as he could remember."  His cousin Ed Ronan graduated from BU the year after he was born and his brother Dan later played for legendary BU coach Jack Parker as well. 

Ronan attended Belmont Hill High School and put up solid numbers in his senior season( 9-10-19). He then moved on to the Valley Jr. Warriors of the Eastern Junior Hockey League where he tallied 12 points (6 goals and 6 assists) in 39 games. Ronan was a freshman on the 2010-2011 BU hockey team and saw his first action in the IceBreaker Championship victory over Notre Dame. Ronan was an even +/- on the night as he played RW alongside classmate Sahir Gill and sophomore Justin Courtnall.

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

BSRS Weekly Awards 12/10

Greg Jennings Award-given to the Terrier who best exemplifies the qualities of Greg Jennings through doin' shit and putting the team on his back. (YOU CAN'T STOP HIM)



Winner- Matt Grzelcyk- Grzelcyk had the best weekend of the season for the Terriers as he contributed a goal Friday night and produced numerous other quality chances with his superior skating ability. Grzelcyk knew when to jump into the rush and his teammates did a great job of covering his back when he did. If Grizz continues this type of play, good things are going to happen for both BU and the USA WJC team.

Joe Pereira Trophy- Given to the Terrier who, through grit, hard work, and determination helps the team to victory on and off the scoresheet. Just like Joey did. (Interview can be read here)

Winner- Matt Ronan,F- Ronan started off Friday night on defense with captain Garrett Noonan out and made a nice pinch and recorded his first point of the season on Tommy Kelley's goal in the second period. Ronan continued his hard skating game and continues to prove his versatility and value to the Terriers. The BOD(Best Offensive Defenseman) has been in the lineup as of late and skating hard every shift which lands him the Joey P this week.

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.

First Half Review- Defensmen and Goalies

Dmen

1. Matt Grzelcyk(2-10-12,15 GP)- The freshman Bruins draft pick has exceeded expectations as he performed extremely well in his first semester of college hockey action. He has settled into a defensive pairing with classmate Ahti Oksanen and they both are seeing plenty of ice time. Both of his goals this year came against BC, which makes it even better. Grzelcyk will miss the Terriers' next game on 12/29 at Denver due to being away at the WJC with team USA. He will be missed for sure but if he helps beat those fraudulent Canadians, it will be worth it.

2. Garrett Noonan(3-7-10, 15 GP)- The freshly appointed assistant captain has had a solid first half for the Terriers even if his goal total is not quite as high as last year. Noonan finished last year with a 16-11-27 line in 38 games. He isn't quite on pace to reach that goal total again but his assists have gone up which is a positive sign. Teams have actually somewhat covered him on the backdoor powerplay this year which was the source of a majority of his goals last season. He has been nothing short of solid defensively He will need to have a solid second half for this team as he is a crucial defenseman and sees large amounts of ice time. He is on a similar pace for penalty minutes from last year. This would be nice to cut down on but penalties happen when you play with as much passion and emotion as he does.