Senior Week: Captain Wade Megan- The Hero from Canton

This is the sixth and final part in a series of posts about BU's 2013 Senior Class. Be on the lookout for a new post each day, culminating with Wade Megan on Friday. You can read part one on Ryan Ruikka here,  part two on Ryan Santana here, part three on Sean Escobedo here,  part four on Jake Moscatel here and part five on Ben Rosen here.

                                                                                     Copyright: Bart Hanlon, Flickr



Captain Wade Megan did everything a coach, fan, or anyone else could have asked for during his time as a Terrier. The 5th round draft pick of the Florida Panthers in 2009 was an extraordinary leader as an upperclassman while also picking up the level of his own play significantly from his freshman and sophomore campaigns. Megan came to BU from the South Kent School in Connecticut via Canton, NY. He had scored 106 points in 2 prep seasons before arriving at BU in 2009-2010. Megan arrived in a class that may not be the most highly touted class ever, but it very well may be the hardest working, greasiest class to come through BU in many years. Megan, who is the self-proclaimed "king of greasy goals", would find his niche as a guy who could bang home a rebound at any time.

He quickly saw regular playing time as he was dressed for 35 games as a freshman. He piled up 12 points on a 5-7-12 line.  He recorded his first point in his first game played and recorded his first goal in a game against Merrimack in November. The highlight of his freshman year would have to be scoring the game-winning goal over BC at Fenway Park. 

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.

Weekend Recap

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.

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.

Monday Polls posted on a Tuesday- BU stays #11, Grzelcyk wins HE Rookie of the Week

                                          - photo credit to nhl.bruins.com


After BU's split with Merrimack and BC over the weekend, they stayed exactly where they were last week in the meaningless polls. They remain #11 in the USCHO poll with their 5-3 record going into another weekend with 2 HE foes on the schedule. BC remains #1  and UNH jumped up to #5 from #9. No one else in the league is ranked because the rest of Hockey East sucks so far this year. Literally every team from 4-9 are more or less even and Maine sucks worse than the rest. Here is my breakdown of the rest of the poll and HE weekly awards.

1. BC(50)- This is right where you want BC. Let them claim their national title in November and get their winning streak out of the way now. They will suck by March. One and done in the NCAAs here they come.
2. Denver- Going to be another tough test for BU when they travel out there in late December
3. Minnesota- Easily have the most talent in the nation, but the results aren't showing that thus far. They'll click eventually. They have a big winning streak in them.
4. Miami
5. UNH- Big test coming into Agganis on  Sunday. BU needs to hold serve and beat them at home. I hate how all 6 games against BC and UNH are in the first semester but then again BU might not lose in the second semester because of that.

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.

BU Hockey Line Projections Take 1

So posting has been a little slow around here which is typical of the summer months. I figured I would take this chance to take a stab at some new line combination for the coming season. Technically, the recruiting class is not filled and has not been officially announced because Adam Clendening's scholarship has not been officially filled. The 2012 recruiting class as of now looks like this:
Forwards: Sam Kurker(2nd 2012 Stl) , Matt Lane ,Wes Myron(6th 2012 Van), Mike Moran, and Danny O'Regan(5th 2012 SJ).
Defensemen: Matt Grzelcyk(3rd 2012- Bos), TBD(Marc Hetnik?- wouldn't require a scholarship since his father is employed by BU)
Goalies: Sean MaGuire(4th 2012-Pitt), Matthew O'Connor

So now that the incoming class is as established as we could hope here is what I think the lines will look like on opening night vs PC without having seen most of these guys play yet.

1- Nieto-Gill- Cisse  - Cisse is obviously the guy who I have jumping from the 4th line to the 1st so he has to have a big summer  but I think since this is his first healthy summer in 3 summers, he certainly is a guy capable of making this type of jump. Gill seems like the best option at center with his hands and Nieto is the fastest guy in Hockey East and I would expect 40-50 points from him this year.

2 Megan-O'Regan-Kurker  - This line has the captain with two very skilled freshmen who I think can compete in Hockey East right away and will need for success. Megan can make their lives much easier with how hard he drives to the net and opens up space for his linemates.

3 Lane- Hohmann- Myron  -This line could easily include sophomore Evan Rodrigues on right wing depending on how Myron looks in camp along with Lane but I see both of them being successful collegiate players.

4- Courtnall- Rosen-Santana - This is really the only line that is set in stone in my mind. This is going to be the most experienced, grinder line in Hockey East easily. They will give this team depth as they are able to roll 4 lines in important games.
Extra forwards: Evan Rodrigues, Mike Moran,  Matt Ronan, Jake Moscatel,

D-Pairs
1 Noonan- Privitera - This d-pair is going to be a force throughout Hockey East as Privitera had a strong second half minus the wrist injury and Noonan will be all Hockey East first team.
2. Escobedo- MacGregor- Coach Parker usually puts one offensive D and a "stay at home" dman together but I don't see him forcing that this year unless he wants to break up Noonan and Privitera. Escobedo will be one of the most steady dmen in Hockey East this season and I think MacGregor will have a coming out party as an upperclassman(maybe even score a goal...nah).
3. Grzelcyk- Ruikka- This pair will be solid to begin the year as Ruikka is a veteran to help lead Grzelcyk as he gets accustomed to the speed of the college game.

Extra dmen- Marc Hetnik, TBD?

Goalies
1a. Sean MaGuire- These top two goalies are going to split starts fairly regularly until winter break and probably beyond unless one of them separates themselves as the clear starter.
1b. Matt O'Connor
3. Anthony Moccia

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.

BU beats UNH 4-1 - gets first 4pt weekend of the year

The BU mens ice hockey team swept their first weekend of the year with a 4-1 win over UNH last night at Agganis Arena. The first period was scoreless and a strong defensive period for both sides with the first goal coming on an odd angle shot from junior Wade Megan to make it 1-0 BU. University of No Hardware tied it up early in the third on a Trevor van Riemsdyk wrister that beat Kieran Millan stick side. The Terriers responded with two goals three minutes later. The first from junior defenseman Max NiCastro and the second from senior forward Corey Trivino(8th of the year). Matt Nieto sealed the win with an empty net goal from his own zone as the puck trickled on edge and curved into the vacated UNH net as Matt "Frozen Pizza" Di Girolamo had vacated the net after making 23 saves on 26 shots. The Terries return to action next weekend in a non-conference tilt at Madison Square Garden against Cornell of the EZAC in "Red Hot Hockey". Hopefully BU can keep the solid play going as they have shown during this 3 game mini winning streak.

Warso out this weekend...Megan questionable

BU Terriers junior defenseman and assistant captain Dave Warsofsky is out this weekend with a concussion suffered in the last few minutes against PC last saturday. Sophomore wing Wade Megan is questionable for the games this weekend as well. This is all according to Boston Hockey Blog so follow this link and learn more as it comes out. Kevin Gilroy(for Megan) and Patrick MacGregor(for Warso) will take their places in the lineup.