The Boston University men’s hockey team (11-10-3, 7-6-3 HE) has a quick turnaround this week. Heading to Amherst to play the UMass Minutemen (12-6-2, 9-2-2) tomorrow night at the Mullins Center, the Terriers will face the reigning National Champions for the third time this season.
BU is coming off a 4-0 Saturday victory over UVM after losing in overtime the night before. Collecting four out of the six points up for grabs in the series, the group has some positives to build on as they try to take down No. 9 ranked UMass.
The Terriers’ leadership group has really stepped up in the past couple of weekends. Junior forwards Robert Mastrosimone and Ethan Phillips both had two-goal weekends, and captain and senior forward Logan Cockerill has been dominant with his extra-effort play and edge of physicality.
They’ve also had guys like junior forward Sam Stevens and freshman forward Brian Carrabes step up and show their purpose. On the fourth line with the always-flying sophomore forward Nick Zabaneh, the trio were a big reason for the shutout win.
Saturday’s matchup marked sophomore goaltender Drew Commesso’s final game at Agganis Arena before leaving for Beijing to represent team USA, and he also secured his first collegiate shutout with 35 saves.
Commesso would normally be the go-to starter against a powerhouse like UMass, but perhaps O’Connell will want to give sophomore netminder Vinny Duplessis some time in the crease to get comfortable against a big opponent before he officially takes over.
On the other side of the rink, the Minutemen most recently swept Northeastern University, taking it to them 6-0 on the Huskies’ home ice to finish off the series. Team point leader, senior forward Bobby Trivigno, had two goals in the game, boosting his season total to 10 goals and 12 assists thus far.
Graduate student goaltender Matt Murray has consistently held it down for his team between the pipes this year. He has garnered a .931 save percentage and 2.13 goals-against-average and will likely get the nod tomorrow night. Both the UMass and BU goalies are on the heels of their individual shutouts.
The last time these two teams met it was an exhilarating series to watch. The Terriers played some of their best hockey of the season up until that point and it was in no way a blowout by either side. Losing in a shootout the first game and then winning in overtime the next, BU proved they could not only skate but compete with a top tier team.
The scarlet and white have much improved since that weekend and are no doubt hungry to prove themselves once again. Both clubs may show some tired legs, but they seem to always get it going when facing off against each other.
The puck will drop at 7:00pm tomorrow night and we will have full coverage of the competition including a recap after the final buzzer. Follow along on Twitter @BOShockeyblog for live updates of the game and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog for additional content.
Excited for tonight we played them tough last time. If we play better defensively move the puck on breakouts I like our chances.
Playing this game out in my head I see Luch Tuch having a big roll tonight we need bodies in front of net and pucks to the net. If we can get everyone buzzing we can knock them off. U mass is playing there best hockey so we will need to match there intensity I like our chances. Go bu 🐾
Wow, things are looking up! What an effort against the defending NCAA champs! Forty more minutes but it looks like our biggest win of the season.
We just handed UMass their first home regulation loss this season and swept them at the Mullen Center. A particularly strong night for Cockerill and Kaufman. Glad we are back to having our upperclassmen lead the way. I wish it was on livestream but enjoyed the Bernie/Mark broadcast. Now we must fry the Friars on Sunday at Agganis! Go BU!
Nice effort lots of good things. Kids worked hard. I like that we held on to the win I think we played to defensively in the third . Coach called that time out at a perfect time to get the team focused. We won and hopefully learned a valuable lesson of playing with the lead. I know vinnie and Ozzie will remind everyone we have not had a lead on top opponents all year so to see it first hand and what we did and did not do well will help us going down the stretch. So many players played well tonight I just love how hard they competed they have shown great resolve this season.
We will be loosing Drew so we need to keep improving. I liked how we played aggressively for chunks of the game. This style of play needs to be our identity. Go bu 🐾
whew! gritty win. nice to see phillips and cockerill start to start clicking. we got 3 points on merrimack who lost to uncon.
love the way gallagher blocks shots. i look forward to seeing him develop
any news on McCarthy ?
and Colin, don’t speak for me and what i am going to say.
now if vinny could just regain that magic from last year, maybe we could win the Beanpot. nice to see a piece of hardware make it to the lower end of Comm Ave. it has been awhile
I apologize if this comes across twice but service is bad in the bowls of the building I’m in.
Vinnie I said it many times you can root for whoever you want. I’m glad you were happy and are now rooting and believing we can win a beanpot. I’m not sure what will happen the other 3 schools have great programs and it will certainly be a challenge I think bu will be up for it.
I would never speak for you because I fear if bu were to loose Sunday your support would immediately wain and your attacks against the program would resume. I hope I’m wrong and you continue to root and support the team.
Folks who follow this blog are aware even if they don’t agree with me is I always root for this team win or loose. I also do not make things personal I defend my program and it’s players I concede you or anyone has the right to disagree with anything I write and can write whatever you want but I too have the right to counter that and that is not personal that’s just me sticking up for my team. Again win or loose I stick with my team
One thing that will help is if bu can continue to keep winning fans like yourself will support the program and I certainly hope that continues. We played great last night not perfect but we got it done and the best thing is we continue to keep getting better. As always go bu 🐾
colin
i ALWAYS root for BU to win. ALWAYS. but when they play like crap, then i pointed it and when they play well, i point that put too
but i always always root for them to win
you confuse criticism with not being a true fan or a sign of disloyalty. lots of bloggers point put when they do not play well. i believe they are fans because they take the time to write on this blog
so you root root root for the home team. it does not make you more of a fan than anyone else on this blog who criticizes the team