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Despite the team being off until next weekend, there have been some news regarding BU hockey recently. Two weeks ago, sophomore Terrier forward Sam Kurker was added to the roster by the Indiana Ice of the USHL and yesterday, teammate Brendan Collier was added by the Youngstown Phantoms also of the USHL. This does not mean either player is leaving BU. These moves are typically made by USHL teams if they hear rumors that players are thinking of leaving their schools to transfer. They could hear these rumors from family members or advisors of the family. These moves could also mean nothing. Without inside information, it is difficult to guess exactly what prompted these USHL teams to add these players. It should be noted that Indiana dropped its 4th goalie to add Kurker to their roster so it wasn't exactly a high value roster spot.
Photo Credit to Michelle Jay/Daily Free Press Staff
I personally don't believe that either player will transfer during the middle of the season if at all. Both players were regarded as solid recruits(both are drafted) and are talented enough to succeed at this level as well as on this team. I hope both players return as there is a serious lack of depth up front for the Terriers and they need every body possible available for the second half of the season for the big time winning streak they are about to go on.
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.
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.
HS has your interesting Maine recap from Saturday night here. BU knocked off #1 UNH back on Thursday night by a 3-2 score. BU jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind goals from Wade Megan, Sahir Gill and Sam Kurker. Megan's goal was a typical goal for the captain as he kept poking and jabbing at a rebound from a Matt Grzelcyk shot and eventually put it past Casey DeSmith. It remained 1-0 until Sahir Gill scored his 2nd goal of the season off a great pass from Cason Hohmann on a 2 on 1, which was set up by a nice pass by Garrett Noonan. BU made it 3-0 later in the second when freshman Sam Kurker bounced a shot past DeSmith to give BU a 3-0 lead. This was exactly what they needed as I said in my preview. They needed to get out to a lead because UNH just doesn't allow goals in the 3rd this year. UNH added 2 goals from Kevin Gouma and John Henrion but could not score over the last 8:06 as BU killed 8 of 9 powerplays including one with 2:07 remaining. The team competed extremely hard and has to be happy to get out of Durham while handing UNH their first home loss of the season. Matt O'Connor was once again huge for this team and together with Sean Maguire's second consecutive shutout on Saturday, there is alot to like about this goalie tandem. O'Connor has been seeing more time but I would think it is going to become a true rotation for the second half as it has become a healthy rivalry.
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.
This is part 2 of 3 parts previewing the incoming freshman class. I covered the 3 US U-18 recruits last week. Each part will have 3 recruits mentioned as BU announced its 9 member class last week with the addition of Finnish dman Ahti Oksanen to the other 8 recruits that had been previously announced. Today, I am going to cover 3 forwards with Mike Moran, Wes Myron, and Sam Kurker.
4. Mike Moran,F - Marshfield,MA (Victoria Grizzlies(BCHL)(39 GP, 18-28-46, 22 pms) 6-1, 200lbs left shot
- Moran is a graduate of the Taft School in Watertown,CT where he was a 3 sport athlete before he spent the last season in the BCHL with the Victoria Grizzlies. Moran posted solid numbers and wore an A for the squad. He played on a line with classmate Wes Myron and recent Merrimack de-committ Wade Murphy. Moran is an older,bigger recruit who seems like he will be in a fight for a spot in the lineup each game. Fun fact about Moran is that he is associate coach Mike Bavis' nephew. He led the Taft school in scoring his senior year and then put up over a point a game in the BCHL last season. He went undrafted so he should be a solid 4 year player for the Terriers as he continues to develop. Moran will see action at some point this season for sure and I would expect somewhere from 5-15 points for the freshman.
Here is a blurb from USHR about Moran
-"One of Myron’s teammates at Victoria is fellow Terrier recruit Mike Moran, who is 11th in league scoring with an 11-9-20 line in 14 games played. Moran, the nephew of BU assistant coach Mike Bavis, is a 2011 Taft graduate."
5. Wes Myron, F - Victoria, BC(Canada) (Victoria Grizzlies(BCHL) (26 GP, 17-25-42, 18 PMs) 6-2, 190lbs, left shot
Last night's first round of the 2012 NHL draft was quiet on the college hockey front as a whole and that held true with BU as no current or future Terriers were drafted in the first round. Rounds 2-7 today were a different story as 8 future Terriers were drafted. That was 40% of the players taken from Hockey East schools and 12% of overall collegians or recruits drafted. That isn't a bad indicator for the quality of the classes that Coach Parker has coming in the next few years. Another cool fact is 6 of the 8 are Massholes which is always nice to have a local touch to the recruiting classes. Here are the recruits that were drafted.
Round- (Overall) 2- 56- Sam Kurker- Stl- Kurker will be arriving here this coming fall and figures to make an impact right away with his size and skill. Kurker will be joining the Blues, who currently have former Terrier Kevin Shattenkirk on their roster and will for years to come with the production he has put up thus far.
3-85-Matt Grzelcyk -Bos- The Charlestown,MA native d-man was drafted by the Bruins in the third round and called it "a dream come true". He will also be arriving at BU this fall and has drawn comparisons to David Warsofsky, who is a former Terrier in the Bruins system. Grzelcyk is now the third Bruin prospect with ties to BU as the Bruins also have former Terrier Colby Cohen in their system.
4- 113- Sean MacGuire-Pitt- The incoming goalie, who will compete with the undrafted Matt O'Connor, was drafted by Penguins. They obviously drafted MacGuire because they have deemed former Northeastern goalie Brad Thiessen as incompetent, which he is.
5-125- Doyle Somerby- NYI- Somerby is a 2013 recruit but seems to be a Gryba-like big defenseman who will hopefully start laying guys out as soon as he arrives on campus next fall. Here is a video from him after he was drafted.
5-136- Robbie Baillargeon-Ott- Another 2013 recruit here who was ranked higher than where he was drafted. Former Terriers with the Sens now are Eric Gryba and Matt Gilroy. Gilroy is a UFA as of July 1st and I believe Gryba is entering the last year of his deal with the franchise.
5-138- Danny O'Regan- SJ- O'Regan joins current Terrier Matt Nieto as a Sharks prospect and former Terrier and captain John McCarthy who is playing with their AHL affiliate in Worcester,MA.
6-177 -Wesley Myron- Van - Tough luck for Myron getting drafted by the 2nd worse franchise in the NHL besides Montreal but I guess it is still nice to get drafted. He should stay at BU for all 4 years and then not sign so he can be a free agent and never play those losers up in Vancouver.
7-189- Brendan Collier-Car- The 2013 recruit was drafted late in the draft but that seems to be the MO on this kid as people continue to doubt him because of his smaller size but he has continued to produce. Let's hope that continues at BU and he continues his hard work ethic.
