Month: May 2011

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Highly-touted 2014 recruit Anthony DeAngelo, a 15-year-old defenseman out of Sewell, New Jersey, has decided to forgo his college hockey career in order to play Canadian Major Juniors, according to a report from an Eastern Iowa news source. In typical teenaged fashion, DeAngelo reportedly confirmed his choice via Facebook.

DeAngelo most recently played for Cedar Rapids of the United States Hockey League. At 14 years old, he was the youngest player to take the ice in USHL history and recorded 15 points (1 goal, 14 assists) in 28 games played with the RoughRiders before a broken knee-cap ended his season.

DeAngelo will join the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League after the Sting drafted him in the second round with the 26th overall pick of the 2011 OHL draft. Players earn a small salary in Canadian Major Junior hockey, thus making DeAngelo ineligible to play NCAA hockey.

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

The Boston University men’s ice hockey team released its 2011-12 schedule this afternoon.

The Terriers will play an exhibition against St. Francis Xavier on Oct. 1 before officially opening the season on Oct. 8 at home against the University of New Hampshire.

Aside from the Beanpot, BU will not participate in any tournaments during the regular season, but it will play in multiple exciting non-conference games. BU will host Denver for the first time in six years when the Pioneers visit Agganis on Oct. 15. The Terriers will spend New Years in South Bend, Ind. when they visit Notre Dame’s new Charles W. “Lefty” Smith Jr. Rink.

The Terriers will spend Thanksgiving weekend in New York for the third edition of Red Hot Hockey against Cornell at Madision Square Garden.

BU will also open its season series against Boston College earlier than usual, as the Comm. Ave rivals will face off at Conte Forum on Nov. 13.

The full schedule can be found in the column to the right.

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Former Terriers Chris Higgins and Joe Pereira will reunite next season while playing for Tingsryds AIF, a Swedish hockey team in the Hockey Allsvenskan league, the second-highest level league in Sweden.

Higgins, who graduated from Boston University in 2009, is making his second trip abroad. Higgins played for SV Renon for the 2010-11 season, totaling 20 points (9 goals, 11 assists) in 21 games played before returning to the United States for a stint with the Las Vegas Wranglers. Tingsryds AIF will be the fifth team Higgins has played for in his professional career. Higgins has 52 points (25 goals, 27 assists) in 69 professional games.

This will be Pereira’s third team of his professional career. Pereira joined the Worcester Sharks for one game after BU’s season ended, and then he signed with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers for the remainder of the AHL season. Pereira has 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists) in 11 professional games. Although Pereira was playing well in Bridgeport, he spoke with multiple American Hockey League teams after the season and decided that Europe provided the best opportunities for him to play.

Both Higgins and Pereira were key players during their time at BU. Higgins helped BU to its national championship victory in 2008-09 and enjoyed his best season in the scarlet and white that year, totaling 48 points (14 goals, 34 assists) in 42 games while playing on the top line alongside Jason Lawrence and Colin Wilson. Higgins finished his BU career with 133 points (49 goals, 84 assists) in 159 games.

Pereira served as a co-captain alongside Chris Connolly in his senior season at BU. Like Higgins, Pereira’s best season was his final one, as his 15 goals surpassed his goal total of 12 from his previous three years combined. Pereira is also a two-time Bennett McInnis Award for Spirit and Albert Sidd Unsung Hero award winner for the Terriers. He will graduate from Metropolitan College with a degree in Management Studies later this month.

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Freshman defenseman Adam Clendening and freshman forward Matt Nieto both earned invitations to the 2011 NHL Draft Combine according to the scouting combine invitation list that the NHL released Monday. The top 102 draft-eligible players will attend the combine, which will take place from May 30 to June 4 in Toronto.

Both Clendening and Nieto finished in the top 50 of the Central Scouting Rankings, an improvement over their midterm ranks. Nieto had been ranked at 55 but finished at 43 while Clendening was ranked 61 in the midterm rankings and finished at 45.

Freshman forward Sahir Gill just missed an invitation to the combine. Gill improved his midterm ranking from 139 to a final of 110, eight spots shy of an invite. The only other current Hockey East players ranked by Central Scouting are Northeastern’s Jamieson Oleksiak at 13 and University of Massachusetts-Amherst’s Mike Pereira at 114.

None of Boston University’s known incoming freshmen earned spots among the top 210 draft-eligible North American skaters.