By Jake Seiner/DFP Staff
If you’re a Boston University student, and you think you’re going to be busy next week when classes start, don’t go to a BU hockey player looking for sympathy.
Thanks to the postponement of Wednesday’s contest with No. 15 Merrimack College, the No. 16 Terriers late January schedule has transformed into quite the gauntlet. Next week, the Terriers will –– barring a second coming of the “Snowpocalypse” –– make up the contest at Merrimack, only to rebound for a pair of weekend matchups against No. 3 Boston College and at the No. 4 University of New Hampshire.
First, though, the Scarlet and White will do battle with its nearest neighbor to the north –– Harvard University. Game time is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday.
The past week has been an unusual one around Agganis Arena thanks to the late postponement of the Merrimack game. With BU still struggling to work out the kinks on its power play and improve its game overall, the timing for the extra practice could be worse.
“It wasn’t business as usual because we expected to play on Wednesday and we didn’t, so instead of having a pregame skate we had a real practice,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “That practice was pretty good, but the next day, the practice was just OK, but I thought that was more my planning it incorrectly trying to do a certain Red-White competition day, and it wasn’t very effective. Today’s practice was pretty good.”
With the impending slate of games, Parker has lightened practices –– a usual custom this time of year to help keep the players, especially the freshmen, fresh heading into the home stretch.
“I don’t think it’s the physical aspect of it,” Parker said. “A lot of them played 60 games in a season and that kind of stuff. I think it’s the mental aspect of it. Each game is so much more important. Each game you have to be ready for, but in junior hockey, games aren’t that important individually.
“It’s like watching the NHL, you watch a regular season game then you watch a playoff game and it’s like night and day. Well, junior hockey is like the regular season and this is like playoffs all the time here. I think the toll is taken in the mental aspect more than anything else.”
Of the Terriers’ upcoming opponents, the Crimson (3-11-0) are easily the weakest. As its record indicates, Harvard has struggled in many areas this season, but most notably in the offensive end. The squad has scored a paltry 1.93 goals per game this year, and is converting just 14 percent of its power-play chances.
Harvard has been better on the man-up of late, converting 3-of-11 chances in its last three games.
“They have two pretty good looks on two different power plays,” Parker said. “I saw them on their power play against Yale and they looked pretty good.”
The strongest spot in the Crimson’s game is between the pipes, where senior Kyle Richter has an impressive .919 save percentage and a 2.49 goals-against average, despite a 3-7 record.
Richter will be opposed by junior Kieran Millan, who is 6-3-6 on the season with a .907 save percentage and a 2.98 GAA. Parker said the plan is to play Millan Saturday, Tuesday against Merrimack, and probably on Friday against BC, then play the Saturday game at UNH by ear.
Missing on the BU blue line will be defenseman Max Nicastro, who will serve the one-game suspension designated to the sophomore for his post-whistle actions in Sunday’s win over the University of Vermont. Freshman Patrick MacGregor is expected to take Nicastro’s place in the lineup.
Recent Comments