Terriers travel to Burlington for HE showdown

By Jake Seiner/DFP Staff

Looking to rebound from a disappointing 0-1-1 result at the Shillelagh Tournament last weekend, the No. 14/15 Boston University men’s hockey team will travel to Burlington, VT Sunday for a Hockey East showdown with the University of Vermont. Game time is set for 7 p.m.

If the stats are any indication, the contest between the Terriers (8-5-6, 6-3-4 HE) and Catamounts (3-10-4, 1-6-3) should be competitive, especially where special teams are concerned.

Vermont has struggled mightily in odd-man situations both ways, putting together a 13.2 percent power play and a league-worst 75.6 percent penalty kill.

The third-place Terriers haven’t been much better. The team has toiled on the power play all season, converting just 11.3 percent of the time. Though BU’s 84.2 percent PK rate is fourth in Hockey East, the man-down unit has taken a big step back recently, killing 72.73 percent of penalties over the team’s last six games.

“We’re not exactly heating it up on the power play or the penalty kill, either,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “It looks like a good matchup in a lot of ways. It’s a tough place to play, at Gutterson Fieldhouse. They’re a team that’s always gotten up for us, so I don’t think it’ll be any easier to get a power-play goal against them than it would be against anyone else.

“I think they’re a real big challenge whenever they play us. We’ve never played a game against Vermont that wasn’t a hard game, so I don’t care what their record is.”

The power play has been a work in progress for BU since before the holidays. This week was no exception, as Parker and his staff continued to work on adjusting the man-up unit to be quicker and more fluid.

“We’re trying to not be so structured,” junior co-captain Chris Connolly said. “We don’t want to be thinking too much out there. Not get too frustrated because we’re not scoring. It’s not because we haven’t moved the puck around and gotten chances. We just have to keep chipping away at it.”

The Catamounts have a reputation as a stingy defensive squad, mostly a credit to the implementation of coach Kevin Sneddon’s trap.

But this year, opponents have been spending plenty of time in the UVM zone, averaging 31.4 shots per game. The Catamounts are allowing 3.41 goals per game, second-worst in the conference, and that’s with proven commodity junior Rob Madore (3.17 GAA, .897 SV%) in net.

“I don’t think they’re as defensive-minded as people think,” Parker said. “They come and forecheck you pretty hard. They play a back-off trap at center ice, but a lot of teams do that. They’re just a real good team in their own end in the way they play, and they have all their defenseman back from last year.

“They’ve got some big kids back there, some talented kids, and they have their goaltender back as well. They’ll be tough to generate offense against, that’s for sure.”

Notes:

–Returning to the lineup for BU will be sophomore forward Alex Chiasson. The winger missed Sunday’s contest against Notre Dame with a left knee contusion suffered in the team’s 6-1 loss to Brown. Parker described Chiasson as being “100 percent,” and the St. Augustin, Quebec native practiced without the baby blue non-contact jersey on Friday.

–Freshman forward Charlie Coyle will return to the lineup Sunday after missing the Shillelagh while representing the United States at the World Junior Championship. The forward returned to campus this week, but won’t participate in his first BU practice until Saturday as Parker gave the rookie a few recovery days after the tournament experience.

“He said he had a real good time,” Parker said. “Said it was a lot of fun. It was a real good team to play on. He said the team was really disappointed in the way they played against Canada. He was disappointed in that, but it was a good experience for him.”

–As Scott McLaughlin reported earlier today, junior Andrew Glass has been dismissed from the team, according to Parker.

Parker said last weekend Glass had been suspended indefinitely for “missing meetings and being late.”

Parker was asked about Glass’ past transgressions –– namely a one-game suspension for breaking team rules early in the 2009-10 season for breaking team rules –– and said that the punishment was for “a whole bunch of things.”

–Junior Kieran Millan (3.04 GAA, .906 SV%) will get the nod in goal for BU, and Parker said he would consider starting junior Grant Rollheiser (3.98 GAA, 885 SV%) on Wednesday at Merrimack College, but that decision had not yet been made.