{"id":28926,"date":"2021-11-12T10:55:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T14:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=28926"},"modified":"2022-05-16T12:46:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T16:46:11","slug":"mens-hockey-terriers-look-to-snap-losing-streak-against-reigning-champion-no-8-umass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2021\/11\/12\/mens-hockey-terriers-look-to-snap-losing-streak-against-reigning-champion-no-8-umass\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Hockey: Terriers look to snap losing streak against reigning champion No. 8 UMass"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joe Pohoryles<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Following sweeps at the hands of UMass Lowell and Northern Michigan, the Boston University men\u2019s ice hockey team sits at 3-7-0 (2-4-0 HE) on a season beginning to spiral out of control. Already struggling to pick up wins in the early stages, a gauntlet of northeast hockey powers lie ahead of the schedule that will carry the team into winter break.<\/span><\/p>\n

It all starts this weekend with a home-and-home series against the No. 8 University of Massachusetts Minutemen (6-2-0, 4-0-0 HE). The defending national and Hockey East champions are riding a four-game streak of their own — except this one is of wins. If you don\u2019t count their exhibition loss to Dartmouth on Oct. 23, then their win streak is actually six games.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to get back into league play,\u201d BU head coach Albie O\u2019Connell said. \u201c[UMass is] on a little hot streak; we\u2019re in a little \u2018not\u2019 streak.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Last weekend, UMass completed an impressive sweep over the then-No. 7 Providence Friars, in which graduate goaltender Matt Murray backstopped a 28-save 1-0 shutout on Nov. 5 before the Minutemen offense sprung to life the following night in a 5-1 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Murray\u2019s 2.13 goals-against average and .933 save percentage both rank third among Hockey East goaltenders, while the team as a whole is scoring 3.1 goals per game (t-4th in HE) while allowing just 2.1 (3rd in HE).<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior forward Bobby Trevigno leads the Minutemen in scoring with nine points (3g, 6a) in eight games. He\u2019s followed closely behind by junior forward Cal Kiefiuk (3g, 5a) and freshman defenseman Scott Morrow (3g, 5a), who each have eight points. Sophomore forward Josh Lopina also has five points (3g, 2a) in as many games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the vastly different direction of each team\u2019s season so far, the Terriers memorably swept the Minutemen the last time these teams faced each other. A 4-2 victory on Jan. 17 was followed up by a 4-3 overtime win, the winning blast coming from departed defenseman David Farrance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re just gonna have to be really ready to skate,\u201d O\u2019Connell said, reflecting on last year\u2019s victories entering this weekend. \u201cThey\u2019re highly competitive, especially at both nets. \u2018They\u2019re in your face\u2019 type team, so we have to be ready.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Minutemen did not lose a single game after that series en route to the program\u2019s first national championship, and after stumbling out of the gates against Minnesota State to open the season, have looked strong ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers, meanwhile, are being outscored 3.5-2.5 on average through 10 games. Juniors Wilmer Skoog (4g-5a-9p), Robert Mastrosimone (5g-3a-8p) and Domenick Fensore (2g-5a-7p) top the scoring leaderboard so far this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coming off a rough weekend in Marquette, in which the Terriers allowed four goals on the first six shots in the Friday game, then allowed four power play goals on Saturday, O\u2019Connell and his staff worked in defensive changes this week at practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a not a good enough job last week as a coaching staff. I think there was confusion in a couple of situations,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers will have to fix those misunderstandings if they want any chance against a red-hot Minutemen team. The puck drops Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Agganis Arena before the series shifts to Amherst for a 7 p.m. start on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joe Pohoryles Following sweeps at the hands of UMass Lowell and Northern Michigan, the Boston University men\u2019s ice hockey team sits at 3-7-0 (2-4-0 HE) on a season beginning to spiral out of control. Already struggling to pick up wins in the early stages, a gauntlet of northeast hockey powers lie ahead of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20928,"featured_media":28573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1028,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20928"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28926"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28929,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28926\/revisions\/28929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}