Red Hot Hockey Round Six

By: Matt Dresens

NEW YORK — For the sixth time since 2007, BU and Cornell will square off at Madison Square Garden in New York City as part of the bi-annual Red Hot Hockey series.

The No. 19 Terriers have won the event three times (2007, 2011 and 2013), tied in a thrilling fashion in 2009 and won a dramatic shootout in 2015 to stay undefeated against the Big Red in the Big Apple.

“Its a pretty good experience,” mentioned junior forward Jordan Greenway, who scored a late goal in the 2015 meeting to force overtime and a shootout. “The atmosphere is unbelievable. I didn’t think there was going to be as many people as there were and it was really loud. All the history in that building, its an honor to be able to play there.”

“It’s such a special night for both schools,” said BU Coach Dave Quinn. “The fact that we do it every other year makes it a bit more special. We’re playing one of the top teams in the country right now, a team that’s 8-1-0 and fourth in the country [PairWise] right now. It’s gonna be a test for us.”

No. 7 Cornell started the season on October 27th and rolled off seven straight wins to open their schedule. A 3-2 victory at home to ranked Harvard and a 2-1 win at Quinnipiac are the most notable. The Big Red’s only loss thus far came at the hands of Clarkson last weekend in Ithaca, 4-0.

Last weekend, BU’s offense finally exploded, posted seven goals against Maine in a 7-0 blanking of the Black Bears to salvage a weekend split.

“It was good for a lot of the freshman to get their first goal[s],” said Greenway. “Its a confidence booster, but we are really focused on just going to the net hard and playing harder defense because we think that leads to more offense, and that’s kind of how it worked out for us in that second game [at Maine].

BU Notes
It sounds a lot like Brandon Hickey is close to making a return to the Terrier lineup. Quinn simply said earlier this week, “He should be ready to go.”

There is no update on Nikolas Olsson, who has been out since the beginning of November with an undisclosed injury.

Scouting the Big Red
Senior Trevor Yates, who scored Cornell’s second goal in the last RHH game, currently leads the team in scoring with 10 points. Those tallies come by way of six goals and four assists. Jeff Malott is second with eight points off of three goals and five assists.

Overall, the offense is running at a 3.56 goals-per-game pace, while the Big Red have only allowed an average of 1.89 goals a game.

Between the pipes, freshman Matthew Galajda has posted an impressive 7-1-0 record in nine appearances. In that time, the Aurora, Ontario native has a .913 save percentage and a 1.92 goals against average.

Puck drop is set for 8 p.m. at Madison Square Garden between the Terriers and the Big Red.