Month: January 2014

Live blog: BU visits Mike Pereira, UMass

Time/location (TV): 7:30 p.m., Mullins Center (Amherst) (NBCSN)

BU lines:
Evan Rodrigues – Robbie Baillargeon – Danny O’Regan
Matt Lane – Cason Hohmann – Nick Roberto
Tommy Kelley – Mike Moran – Kevin Duane
Brendan Collier – Dillon Lawrence – Matt Ronan

Garrett Noonan – T.J. Ryan
Doyle Somerby – Dalton MacAfee
Ahti Oksanen – Patrick MacGregor

Matt O’Connor
Anthony Moccia

UMass lines: 
Conor Cheary – Steven Iacobellis – Branden Gracel
Michael Pereira – Ray Pigozzi – Troy Power
Marc Hetnik – Adam Phillips – Zack LaRue
Steven Guzzo – Emerson Auvenshine – Shane Walsh

Joel Hanley – Colin Shea
Mike Busillo – Ben Gallacher
Oleg Yevenko – Brenna Baxandall

Steve Mastalerz
Alex Wakaluk

Referees: Jack Millea, Cameron Voss
Assistant Referees: Brendan Blanchard, Chris Millea
Live blog:

From the FreeP: Terriers set to take on UMass

By Meredith Perri/DFP Staff

It was the first game of the David Quinn Era – before the injuries, before the winless streak and before the frustrations came to the surface.

Back on Oct. 11, the Boston University men’s hockey team took the ice for the first time in the regular season and faced off against the University of Massachusetts at Agganis Arena. By the end of the game, the Terriers, and Quinn, had their first win behind them.

Just over three months later, that game means little as the Terriers continue to look for a way to right a ship that has been tilting ever since December.

“I don’t think there’s any correlation of what happens in October and what you’re going to see at the game tomorrow night,” Quinn said. “Both teams have grown. I know they have, and obviously we’ve had our struggles.”

For more, read dailyfreepress.com

From the FreeP: Moccia plays in first regular season contest

By Kevin Dillon/DFP Staff

Before the Boston University men’s hockey team fell to No. 17 University of Vermont 6-2 at Agganis Arena Saturday night, there was already some activity in the news conference room. This press conference was not between the collected media and BU coach David Quinn like it usually is, but instead it was between a youth hockey goaltender and his father.

The son sat tall at the microphone, wearing his team’s jersey and fielding questions from his father who pretended to be a media member. It was a chance for the boy to dream he played goalie for the Terriers, and he smiled wide during each answer he gave his father.

Later in the night, the boy sat in the stands and watched senior goaltender Anthony Moccia finally get his chance to live that dream. The Medford native, who spent a year as a practice goalie, walked on to the team and is now in his third and final season as a third-stringer, got between the pipes in front of 4,948 fans for his first regular-season action.

“It’s kind of always been a huge goal of mine to play in a regular season game and I was able to get in there today,” Moccia said. “I can check that off the list of things that I have to do.”

For more, visit www.dailyfreepress.com.

Pluses & Minuses: Tired Terriers can’t complete sweep

By Meredith Perri/DFP Staff

Saturday-night doldrums and 90s music filled Agganis Arena Saturday night as the Boston University men’s hockey team struggled in the second game of a weekend series with the No. 17 University of Vermont.

In what could have served as the team’s first weekend sweep since the opening weekend of play, however, turned into a 6-2 loss only highlighted by one player’s first regular-season appearance.

“You guys have watched this all year,” said BU coach David Quinn. “We play our best players so many minutes on Friday night, there might be a correlation with what’s been happening on Saturday night.”

Here’s a closer look at what went wrong – and the limited things that went right – for the Terriers.

Minuses

The power play
Before the Terriers even gave up their league-worst eighth shorthanded goal of the season, the team struggled to produce with the man advantage.

Over the course of approximately 40 minutes during the game, the Terriers spent twelve minutes on the power play. During those 12 minutes, the team had a total of eight shots on goal.

The most offensively productive power play came just after the Terriers had cut the score to 4-2. Unlike its other chances earlier in the game, BU managed to set itself up and take a few shots instead of chasing down the puck in its defensive zone.

The team had two advantages where they did not manage a single attempt on goal. One those power plays led to a shorthanded tally by Vermont center Chris McCarthy.

“I thought our power play hurt us, because we had some power plays at key times in the game, and not only did we not score, we didn’t really control the play much throughout those power plays,” Quinn said. “I just thought from start to finish [Vermont was] the better team.”

The defense… and Maguire
Since coming in to relieve classmate Matt O’Connor in goal a few times at the start of the second semester, Sean Maguire had staked his claim to the No. 1 goaltender spot. Friday night, Maguire even picked up his second win of the season – the first time he has won a game since the season opener.

Saturday night, however, Maguire gave up six goals, a few of which were on the softer side. The netminder cannot take all the blame, however, as the defense had plenty to do with a few of those tallies.

Right after the third period began, Catamount right wing Brady Shaw won a battle with senior captain Garrett Noonan along the boards. He then wrapped the puck around the net and slipped it by Maguire untouched.

“You cannot fault these guys for how much they care and how much they want to win,” Quinn said of Noonan. “Our depth sometimes gets in the way. … You play as many minutes as he does, guys are going to get beat. That’s going to happen.”

Pluses

Moccia’s time
When Maguire gave up his sixth goal of the game, Quinn seemingly had two options – leave him in for the final 3:46 or let O’Connor take his place. Quinn didn’t go with either.

Instead, he sent senior Anthony Moccia into his first regular season game, and, for the first time since puck drop, Agganis filled began to wake up.

BU spent the majority of the time Moccia was in goal on the penalty kill, but the Terriers’ defense blocked almost every shot attempt. With less than a minute left in the period, Moccia made his first career save.

The only other time the third-string goalie has played in a game was during BU’s exhibition against St. Francis Xavier on Oct. 5. Moccia stopped all seven shots that he faced during his one period of play.

O’Regan on the wing
In just his second game playing on the right wing, Danny O’Regan continued to find success. Much like Friday night, O’Regan scored the Terriers’ first goal of the game.

While Friday’s goal was a near-perfect passing play with his linemates, Saturday’s was all O’Regan as the sophomore’s initial pass was blocked by a diving Catamount. O’Regan then picked up the blocked shot and placed it by the Vermont’s Mike Santaguida.

O’Regan now leads the team in goals with eight.

UPDATED: BU loses to Vermont, splits weekend series

By Tim Healey/DFP Staff

So much for momentum.

A day after the Boston University men’s hockey team picked up its first win since November, the Terriers came out flat Saturday afternoon and never really picked it up before falling to No. 17 University of Vermont, 6-2.

There were moments when BU was buzzing, threatening to get back into it after falling behind early, but those moments were fleeting. Too often, an uninspired power play left the Terriers (8-14-2, 3-8-1 Hockey East) unable to capitalize when the Catamounts (13-9-3, 5-7 Hockey Eats) were back on their heels.

“It seems to be a little bit of a pattern the last two weekends,” said BU coach David Quinn. “Play well and play hard on Friday night, not able to match it on Saturday night. I thought Vermont really set the pace early, and I don’t think we were able to match it.”

UVM coach Kevin Sneddon said the difference was his team played hard and physical — and desperate, like BU did the night prior — for 60 minutes, not the 20 or so they did Friday.

Quinn had a different take. He said his guys were tired.

“We play our best players so many minutes on Friday night, there might be a correlation with what’s been happening on Saturday night,” Quinn said. “We play our best players so much, maybe I need to tail it back a little bit. Our depth isn’t one of our strengths right now.”

Quinn pointed to the role of special teams in particular. BU had to kill nine VUM power plays in Friday’s win, and players like senior captain Garrett Noonan (35 minutes) and freshman center Robbie Baillargeon (30 minutes) saw obscene amounts of ice time.

That took its toll when the Terriers took to the Agganis Arena ice again, for an earlier-than-normal 4 p.m. start, no less.

“We wanted to compete,” said senior forward Matt Ronan. “But I think sometimes it just wasn’t there, our legs weren’t there. I know guys were excited for tonight, so I guess I’m just a little concerned with the laziness creeping into the game.”

Sophomore forward Danny O’Regan played well, again, in his second game since moving from center. He scored one of BU’s goals and continued to utilize his speed along the wings.

But sophomore goaltender Sean Maguire proved penetrable for the first time in several games. He gave up all six goals on 32 shots, and his rebound control was unusually suspect at times.

Quinn pulled Maguire in favor of senior Anthony Moccia after the sixth goal, with 3:46 left on the game clock. It was the first game of Moccia’s career.

Moccia got a loud round of applause from the crowd of 4,948 when he entered, then again when he stopped the only shot he faced.

“It meant a lot,” Quinn said of getting his third-string netminder in a game. “It was great to hear the crowd react.”

The first period was drastically different from the very even one that started Friday night’s contest. Vermont forward Brendan Bradley put UVM up 1-0 at 3:18 in the frame when he skated behind the BU net, then roofed one near-side from the bottom of the right circle.

His linemate, captain Chris McCarthy, made it 2-0 at 17:04 when he found the top-left corner from the left circle.

McCarthy added another late in the second — he beat Maguire one-on-one while BU was on a power play — but that wasn’t until O’Regan got the Terriers on the board.

Midway through the second, O’Regan skated down the right wing and almost lost the puck in traffic before regaining composure by the crease. He backed in closer to the goal line, deked around Catamount netminder Mike Santaguida (16 saves) and backhanded it into an open net from a sharp angle at 9:03.

Freshman Brady Shaw extended the Catamount lead to 4-1 at 2:21 in the third when he picked the puck up behind the BU net, wrapped around to the front and put it away at the far post for his third career goal.

Freshman wing Kevin Duane mirrored that play when he made it 4-2 with 11:02 to play. He forced a turnover, skated around the net and finished his own rebound off of Santaguida’s pads.

Captain H.T. Lenz put away one of Maguire’s big rebounds with less than seven minutes to play, and winger Colin Markison scored from the left circle minutes later to account for the 6-2 final.

BU killed all five of Vermont’s power play chances, but itself failed on the man-advantage (0-for-6).

Vermont held a sizeable shot advantage, 33-18.

“We have to find a way to play a little bit more simplistic on a Saturday night,” Quinn said. “But when you get tired, you tend to make bad decisions. The first thing to go when you get tired is your brain.

“I think it caught up with us tonight.”

Live Blog: BU looking for first back-to-back wins since first weekend of season

Time/location (TV): 4:00 p.m., Agganis Arena (NESN)

BU lines:
Cason Hohmann – Robbie Baillargeon – Danny O’Regan
Matt Lane – Mike Moran – Nick Roberto
Tommy Kelley – Dillon Lawrence – Kevin Duane
Brendan Collier – Evan Rodrigues – Matt Ronan

Garrett Noonan – Patrick MacGregor
Doyle Somerby – T.J. Ryan
Ahti Oksanen – Dalton MacAfee

Sean Maguire
Matt O’Connor
Anthony Moccia

Vermont lines (projected): 
Brendan Bradley – Chris McCarthy – Mario Puskarich
Tom Forgione – Jonathan Turk – Pete Massar
Connor Brickley – Jake Fallon – Brady Shaw
H.T. Lenz – Matt White – Colin Markison

Rob Hamilton – Michael Paliotta
Nick Luukko – Nick Bruneteau
Caylen Walls – Yvan Pattyn

Mike Santaguida
Brady Hoffman
Pat Feeley

Referees: Scott Hansen, Kevin Shea
Assistant Referees: Chris Millea, Marc Sullican
Live blog:

First line switch helps Terriers in win

By Meredith Perri/DFP Sports

When David Quinn spoke with reporters before Friday’s tilt against No. 17 University of Vermont, he told them a change to the lineup was coming.

“It might be radical,” the Boston University men’s hockey coach said. 
The next day, Quinn put out a first line that had never played together during a game – freshman Robbie Baillargeon, sophomore Danny O’Regan and junior Cason Hohmann. As if that new group was not change enough, for the first time this season, O’Regan did not center the line.

The swap worked, as the Terriers broke a winless streak that spanned across two months when they defeated Vermont, 4-2, Saturday evening at Agganis Arena.

“I always like to get your top three players together, but Baillargeon and O’Regan are centers,” Quinn said. “For Danny – Danny is not a big guy . . . Playing the wing, it’s not the banging or the demand that the [center] has. He had a little jump in his step tonight, and I think he is excited and hopefully that line can kind of find some chemistry and build on what they did today and move forward.”

For O’Regan, who has centered all eight of the Terriers’ different first line combinations until Friday’s game, the transition to wing was easy.

“I felt a little more rested, I had some more legs – not as much battling down low,” O’Regan said. “Playing with a good center like Robbie is easy, it’s easy to adjust to the wing, and, so, it wasn’t too hard for me.”

The line showed how well it worked together just over five minutes into the second frame when it broke the 0-0 stalemate to give BU the lead. The trio pushed up the ice with Hohmann sending a pass over to Baillargeon. The freshman center then sent the puck across the crease to O’Regan, who had a wide-open net.

“The two guys I was playing with were capable of making a play,” O’Regan said. “I just kind of drove to the net once Cason got it over the blue line, kind of drove to the net and those two made great passes and put my stick down on an empty net, so it was nice.”

The tally was O’Regan’s seventh of the season, and, thanks to the full participation of the line, it increased the trio’s total production this season to 49 of the team’s 157 points.

As play progressed, the line had several other close plays and ultimately took seven of the team’s 26 shots on the night.

Baillargeon, who also went through a position switch earlier in the season, leads the group with 18 points. Sophomore defenseman Ahti Oksanen is the only other BU player with as many points.

“I had Baillargeon on the wing earlier in the year because I thought he was one of our top-six forwards and he was a freshman,” Quinn said. “I wanted to give him an opportunity to get acclimated to college hockey.

“I really like his game down low lately. He has done a good job defensively and he has had a good year.”

With his switch having worked in the first tilt of the two-game series with Vermont, Quinn will stick with it Saturday as BU seeks its first two-win weekend since the opening weekend of the season.

“I liked that line a lot,” Quinn said. “I thought that was Danny O’Regan’s best game in a long time. He has played a lot of minutes for us. I just think he is so competitive that it lightens his responsibility up a little bit, and I really like the way Baillargeon has played.

“I want to get our best players together, and I just think that I like that line a lot. Hopefully they can follow up tomorrow night with that they did tonight.”