{"id":30620,"date":"2022-03-04T16:14:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T21:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=30620"},"modified":"2022-03-05T11:16:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T16:16:20","slug":"mens-hockey-bu-finishes-off-regular-season-with-a-two-game-set-at-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2022\/03\/04\/mens-hockey-bu-finishes-off-regular-season-with-a-two-game-set-at-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Hockey: BU finishes off regular season with a two game set at Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bobby Serafin<\/em><\/p>\n

As the Hockey East regular season comes to a close this weekend, Boston University (18-11-3, 12-7-3 HE) still has a lot of work to do. Not only is the team trying to secure a top five seed in Hockey East to avoid the play-in round of the conference\u2019s postseason tournament, they\u2019re also hoping to crawl their way into the NCAA tournament after a sluggish start to the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to finish as high as you can. You want to finish strong,\u201d said BU head coach Albie O\u2019Connell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the loss to Boston College set the Terriers back a little bit, Northeastern\u2019s loss to Vermont on Tuesday gave the Terriers a boost in the PairWise and standings. BU\u2019s playoff hopes will be defined this weekend as they head to Alfond Arena for a two game set at the University of Maine (6-20-4, 4-16-2 HE).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the Black Bears sitting at the bottom of the conference\u2019s standings, history shows that this matchup will be a battle. Overall, BU is 39-33-10 against Maine, slightly above .500, but the away record is even scarier. In 40 games on the road, the Terriers are 16-18-6, with their last win coming all the way back in 2017. O\u2019Connell knows all about the troubles the Maine home crowd presents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve always been a team that poses a problem at home,\u201d said O\u2019Connell during his midweek press release. On the season, five of Maine\u2019s six wins have come at home, and are winners of three of their last four games at Alfond.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers are an average road team on the season with a 7-5-1 record, but that hasn\u2019t mattered as of late. BU is still one of the hottest teams in hockey, and have built momentum from the past two months.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not worried about our opponents. We\u2019re worried about how we\u2019re playing,\u201d said O\u2019Connell. BU\u2019s loss against BC marked the first regular loss for the university since Nov. 27, and the group is playing with a lot of confidence following their Beanpot title.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the theme of injuries continues to feature in the Terriers\u2019 season. With Case McCarthy and Ethan Phillips both being out of the lineup against BC last Sunday, their availability is now up in the air for the final series of the year and the playoffs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey both didn\u2019t skate [Tuesday]. … I think they should be fine [for this weekend], but time will tell,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With their statuses up in the air, BU may have to shuffle their lines around again and rely on production from their top guys to carry them through these two games against the Black Bears. One source of offense for the Terriers is Defenseman Dom Fensore, who leads the team in points with 29 following a big weekend against BU\u2019s rival from Chestnut Hill where he picked up three assists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fensore was also recently named Hockey East Defender of the Month, but he wasn\u2019t the only Terrier featured for February. After his incredible run as starter, sophomore Vinny Duplessis took home Hockey East Goalie of the Month. Even though the Quebec City native has been a rock in net recently, he will likely return to his role as backup now that Drew Commesso is up and running again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Commesso on the season has a 12-9-3 record to go with a .915 save percentage and a 2.46 GAA, both which rank in the top 30 of NCAA. Maine will most likely go with Victor Ostman, who\u2019s performance has gone under-appreciated this season. The sophomore\u2019s 5-13-1 doesn\u2019t represent the fact that he still has a save percentage over .900 on the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Black Bears\u2019 attack is spearheaded by two sophomores, which gives the program hope to improve next season. Their leading point scorer has been Lynden Breen, who has 20 in 30 games. Maine is led in goal-scoring by Donavan Villanueve-Houle with 10.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the optimism for the future, Maine sits second to last in scoring in Hockey East and while also having a bottom three power play and penalty kill. One area that the Black Bears don\u2019t have issues with is their physicality, ranking in the top 10 in the NCAA in average player weight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey play a man\u2019s game,” O\u2019Connell said. “They\u2019re very hard in all three zones. They\u2019re well coached and have great goaltending. It\u2019s going to be very difficult. BU will have to stay disciplined to keep this game simple, and if they\u2019re able to do so, it will allow their talented forward group to get going. The Terriers are top 25 in both goals per game and power play percentage.<\/span><\/p>\n

With puck drop just a couple hours away, the Terriers will need a fully focused 60 minute effort to come away with a win. The Friday and Saturday contests both have the same 7:30 p.m. start time and will be apart of a wild weekend in Hockey East as teams gear up for postseason play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Featured Image by Carolyn Mooney<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bobby Serafin As the Hockey East regular season comes to a close this weekend, Boston University (18-11-3, 12-7-3 HE) still has a lot of work to do. Not only is the team trying to secure a top five seed in Hockey East to avoid the play-in round of the conference\u2019s postseason tournament, they\u2019re also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19883,"featured_media":29935,"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\/30620"}],"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\/19883"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30621,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30620\/revisions\/30621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}