By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff
Offense: C+
Typically, if a team gets 44 shots on net, you would call it a good night. BU definitely put a lot of shots on net, but it only scored three times. As Parker noted in his press conference, BU’s shots on net were misleading when judging how the team played. If Chris Rawlings had been playing tonight, that would have been one story, but Northeastern had Clay Witt in net, a freshman who has seen time in only five games this season. BU made Witt look like an unbelievable goaltender, and while the freshman certainly held his own in net, there was no reason for BU not to be able to capitalize on its scoring chances better. BU attempted less shots each period, and after the first period, BU put only 9 Grade-A shots on him. The Terriers shoot wide, pass through teammates, and fire into traffic way too much. Of their 75 attempted shots, 30 were either blocked by the defense or shot wide. That type of offensive play could easily doom them in the playoffs.
Defense: C
BU did not play defense well tonight, but that’s not surprising considering who they were missing. Assistant captain David Warsofsky, the most skilled defenseman for the Terriers, was out with a concussion and freshman Garret Noonan, who has been one of the most consistent defensemen, was ejected from the game at the end of the first period. Still, the Terriers collapsed in their own zone as the game progressed. In the third period especially, the Terriers let Husky after Husky walk in front of junior goaltender Kieran Millan and take their best shot against him. The Huskies attempted 13 shots from the Grade-A or just outside of it in the third period. The Huskies attempted 33 total shots in the third period, which is an embarrassing statistic for the BU defense.
Goaltending: B-
Millan certainly did not have his best night. His four goals against tonight were the most in a Hockey East game for the junior since facing Northeastern on December 8. Millan was handcuffed on the first two Northeastern goals, but he could have possibly saved the last two. On the third goal, Millan was down in the butterfly too early a puck deflected off a BU defensemen and over Millan. On the fourth goal, Northeastern simply beat Millan and made it look easy. Still, Millan did make some important stops for the Terriers, such as a save on the penalty kill when he slid across the crease to stop two Wade MacLeod shots from opposite sides of the net.
Special teams: A-
BU was 2-for-7 on the power play, and any time they score on the power play, that’s an automatic boost in our grades for them. BU did not play that well on all of their power plays, however. The Terriers garnered 10 shots and two goals on five first period power plays. After the first period, however, the Terriers were 0-for-2 with no shots on the power play. When it came to killing penalties, BU was lights out once again. Northeastern earned nine power plays, but BU only gave up six shots on the penalty kill and did not allow a Husky power play tally. The post-first period BU power plays aside, this was a pretty good night for special teams.
X-Factor: Stupid penalties
Sophomore forward Alex Chiasson displayed in the third period exactly what doomed the Terriers: with slightly more than eight minutes remaining in the game and BU trailing 4-2, Chiasson knocked Silva down after the whistle to earn himself two minutes in the penalty box. Chiasson was benched by Parker for the remainder of the game, and he also took away two minutes of valuable time from his team when, instead of killing off his uncalled for penalty, they could have been attempted to narrow their deficit. Chiasson was not the only offender for BU on Saturday night. Parker noted in his post-game press conference that he would not have a team to play if he benched all the players who took stupid penalties on Saturday. With second place in Hockey East to play for, it was up to BU to keep its composure and play hockey on Saturday, and the Terriers failed to do that.
How did the BU women do in the Women’s Hockey East Tournament? Did they win the championship?
Is Noonan going to be suspended Friday night or can the call get overturned.
The women’s team lost 4-2 to Northeastern in the semifinals. They’ll still make the NCAA tournament, though, and might still get home ice in the first round.
The call on Noonan can get overturned. If it isn’t, he’ll be suspended for Game 1.
Off the ice …
1.) Will the Pep Band learn a few new songs? They play the same songs, at the same time during games, every game. And if they are playing at a women’s hockey games, it is the exact same formula.
The Pep Band is great. They are talented, loud and spirited. So how about a little variety to spice things up?
The “Half-way there” sing-along is quite possibly the lamest song for a game in all of college hockey. Start by getting rid of that one.
2.) Can we do away with the between-periods interviews by the girl whose first name is Vanessa?
We have a lauded College of Communications and that segment is a complete embarrassment to BU. Vanessa knows nothing about hockey, asks incredibly obvious questions and speaks in slang.
“You-guys had a great period, whadaya need to do to keep it up?” Pu-leese!
It is the sort of dialog you might expect if a coed went up to a player in the Dugout and said, “So, you play hockey? Cool.”
3.) “Know Your Terrier” and the baby pictures quiz are also pretty lame.
Maybe if the players kept their focus on hockey, instead of having their egos fed by such nonsense we might get the more consistent efforts on the ice that Jack Parker moans about all too often.
Hockey players may be the big men on campus, but those segments add nothing except feeding egos.
For what it’s worth, Vanessa doesn’t have much choice in the questions she’s allowed to ask. She has to have her questions preapproved by a member of the athletic department before she can ask them. She knows more than a thing or two about the sport but can’t ask some of the hard-hitting Q’s that perhaps she would have in a different saying. Your opinion’s your opinion and that’s just fine. Just making sure you know all sides.
The real question might be why bother having between periods interviews at all? If the questions have to be such softballs, maybe they’d be better off just deleting this segment altogether. If Vanessa wants to go into a broadcasting career, there is nothing here that will further her ambitions. In fact, quite the opposite. Someday she’d hope that there were no tapes of what they have her doing now.
Any word on Warsofsky playing this weekend?
At least one of us will be stopping by practice tomorrow, so we’ll have an update on both Warsofsky and Noonan then.