UNH Preview, A Chance for Hardware

                                                          Photo from Terrier Hockey Blog


The Boston University Terriers have a chance to win their first Hockey East Regular Season title since the 2008-09 season this weekend as they begin a home and home with the University of New Hampshire No Hardware. The Wildcats have struggled throughout the season and their 10-16-2 record shows it. It appears the biggest problem with Dick Umile's Wildcats is their inability to keep the puck out of the net specifically in the second and third periods.  They have allowed 80% of their goals against in the second and third which is not good to say the least. Their best goalie has a .900 save percentage which would be good enough for 14th best in Hockey East if he played enough minutes. Needless to say is the BU revenge tour needs to continue to roll against an opponent who they should dominate both nights. New Hampshire has 6 competent players in their lineup with Willows, Downing, Poturalski, Kelleher, and Thrush up front and with Matias Cleland on D.

As for BU, UNH doesn't have the defense or the goaltending to contain the Hobey Hattrick Line(Erod-Eichel-O'Regan) but I would expect big weekends from some of the secondary scorers. The second line of Oksanen- Baillargeon- Hohmann is clicking right now getting on the board in the last 3 games. I would also expect a big weekend from Brandon Hickey who has been great as of late for the Terriers. He may have the best one timer from the blue line in the league. BC can have Hanafin, I'll take Hickey, MacLeod, Fortunato and Diffley.

Now enough about how much UNH is embarrassment to Hockey East and how much better BU is than them.  What does BU need to do to clinch the Hockey East Regular season title this weekend?

UNH Preview- Taking on #1 Round 4

For the fourth time this season, BU will take take on the #1 team in the country. This is the first time that it will not be Boston College though. Thanks to a Terrier win over BC on Friday, UNH jumped BC in the polls this week and is the new #1 in the weekly polls. This is a typical UNH start where they race out of the gate and will most likely suck by February and March. That is just how Umile runs things up there in New Hampshire.

They do have the stats to back up the #1 ranking so far this season. They have beaten BU twice already by scores of 4-1 and 3-1. The second game was very close after BU came out flat in the first and were down 2-0 quickly. They were only able to put one past UNH goalie Casey Desmith the rest of the game and UNH added an empty netter for a 3-1 win.  UNH's only loss of the season came at UMass on an overtime powerplay goal. This game is critical for BU to stay in the hunt for the Hockey East regular season title as the first half of the season concludes. You simply can't get swept by any team in conference, especially all in one half of a season.

UNH Preview

The 1-0-0 BU Terriers go on the road for the first time this season on Saturday night. They will travel about an hour north to good ole Durham,NH to take on UNH. UNH is 2-0-0 on the season with a pair of non-conference wins against St. Cloud State last weekend. Casey DeSmith seems to be their clear #1 as he got both starts last week and posts a .900 save percentage and 2.50 GAA early in the season. Their offense is lead by junior Dalton Speelman who dominated St. Cloud last weekend posting a 2-2-4 line.  D-men Connor Hardowa and Trevor van Riemsdyk along with forwards Nick Sorkin and Grayson Dowling all posted 3 points last weekend and will be guys to keep an eye on. UNH coach Dick Umile picked up his 500th win last weekend. Exactly 0 of those have been in important or significant games but still impressive for a guy like that.

BU finishes off the season sweep of UNH 2-1

The BU mens ice hockey team finished off the season series sweep over UNH in a 2-1 hard fought win. UNH scored first on a rebound goal by George Burke(4:32 into the first), who roofed the puck past Kieran Millan. That is the only puck he would let by all night as he made 28 saves. BU controlled most of the play through the end of the first and throughout the second as they tied the game on a greasy Wade Megan goal with the assist from Alex Chiasson on a nice 2 on 1 rush during a powerplay. BU scored the game winning goal with 12:09 left in the second as Sahir Gill made a great pass to Corey Trivino who buried the puck into the empty net for his 12th goal of the year. Chris Connolly also had an assist on the play which was his 100th career point as a Terrier. Congrats to the captain from all of us schmucks here at BSRS. You got to love the effort Connolly gives in every game and is a great example to the rest of the team.

The Terriers held on for a 2-1 win in front of 5220 at the Whittemore Center. That isn't even close to a sellout so I guess the "blue out" didn't go over as well as they planned. Shocker. The silly hillbillies probably only own Overalls as their only blue attire anyway. The win puts BU at 9-5-1(7-4-1) at the season with one game remaining in the first half this coming Saturday at Maine. The loss drops UNH to 6-9-2(4-7-1) and free falling in the Hockey East standings.