By: Dan Shulman<\/p>\n
BU Men\u2019s Ice Hockey vs. Massachusetts (Hockey East) February 3, 2017<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n ABOUT THE OPPONENT<\/p>\n Location \u2013 Amherst, Massachusettss; Mascot \u2013 Minutemen; This Year\u2019s Record \u2013 5-20-2 (2-12-1), 1-8-0 on the road, BU leads All-Time Series 60-11-6; Fun Fact \u2013 Last loss for BU against Massachusetts came on February 1, 2013 (5-1).<\/p>\n PREVIEW<\/p>\n The Boston University Terriers are getting ready for the annual Beanpot Tournament beginning this coming Monday. However, before BU hits the TD Garden ice, the Terriers must tackle an important league match-up against the Massachusetts Minutemen.<\/p>\n BU and Massachusetts met first back in January for the first Hockey East game in the 2017 edition of Frozen Fenway. BU scored late in the first period and added two goals in each of the next two frames to take down the Minutemen, 5-3, outdoors.<\/p>\n The Terriers win at Fenway was its fourth in a row and the mid-point of an eight-game win streak snapped last week when they were swept by Merrimack. On Saturday, the Terriers rebounded against a reeling UMass-Lowell team, taking a 4-2 thriller at Agganis Arena.<\/p>\n Bobo Carpenter scored twice in the third period, including the go-ahead goal and an empty-netter to seal the two points. Freshman goaltender Jake Oettinger turned aside 33 of the 35 shots he faced Saturday, including a cross-crease stop to rob Lowell\u2019s John Edwardh of a breakaway goal.<\/p>\n Massachusetts will enter this Friday\u2019s game losing eight in a row and 13 of its last 14 contests. The Minutemen will be on short-rest following a 6-5 loss to Northeastern in Amherst on Tuesday. Massachusetts held a 3-2 lead after twenty minutes but the Huskies overwhelming offense was too much for the depleted Minutemen defense.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hoping our guys don\u2019t put any stock in that,\u201d said BU Head Coach David Quinn. \u201cThat means nothing tomorrow night. We had a hard game with them at Fenway but this is about trying to play smart, simple hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n This season, Massachusetts continues to be led offensively by captain Steven Iacobellis. The senior has a team-high seven points and nine assists. The Minutemen offense has struggled this season, only netting 55 goals in 27 games.<\/p>\n \u201cThey got some high-end forwards,\u201d said Coach Quinn. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have be careful of their high-end guys. They compete hard, they\u2019re never out of a game. It\u2019s so much more about us and not about our opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n Defensively, it hasn\u2019t been any better for Massachusetts. In all, the Minutemen have conceded 95 goals and hold the 53rd<\/sup> scoring defense in the country and worst in Hockey East. The one bright spot on the Massachusetts blue-line has been William Lagesson. The sophomore has seven points, tops among Minutemen defensemen, and a second-best -1 rating for the team.<\/p>\n Goaltending has seen an upswing this season with addition of Ryan Wischow in the rotation. The freshman has posted a .901 SV% but has a paltry 3.05 GAA. With one shutout, Wischow is the active leader among Massachusetts goalies in that category.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure we get to the net,\u201d said Coach Quinn. \u201cWe got to screen him. We\u2019ve got to get more pucks to the net. We pass up too many shots, and we\u2019ve got to understand shooting for rebounds.<\/p>\n For the Terriers, freshman Clayton Keller has upped his production in recent weeks and now leads the team in points despite missing eight games to injury. His team-leading 12 goals and nation-leading three shorthanded tallies shows that Keller is emerging as one of the top prospects in the nation.<\/p>\n Health-wise, BU lost forward Nikolas Olsson with a long-term injury after the junior assistant captain broke his leg in the first period of last Friday\u2019s game. This week, several Terriers have been battling the flu, but Coach Quinn remains hopeful that everyone will be healthy enough for tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the BU offense has stepped up this season, its defense continues to be one of the best in Division 1. The Terriers rank sixth in the nation in goals against per game, allowing opponents only 2.06 tallies. Captain Doyle Somerby has been a big part of BU\u2019s defensive success this season. The senior carries a +12 rating and has blocked 48 shots this season.<\/p>\n Despite the Minutemen\u2019s lack of success on defense, BU will need to play tough against a team that can score goals in spurts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just have to respect them as a team,\u201d said sophomore Jordan Greenway. \u201cIf we keep the puck in the offensive zone and keep good possession, we won\u2019t have to play much defense. Overall we just have to play simple, fast hockey and everything else will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n In net for BU on Friday will be Jake Oettinger. The freshman continues to be one of the top goalies in the country, ranking in fifth in the nation in both save percentage (.935) and goals against average (1.821).<\/p>\n Puck drop on Friday is slated for 7:30 p.m. and can be heard live on mixlr.com\/wtbusports.<\/p>\n PREDICTION \u2013 Terriers Win<\/p>\n BU has been dominant against Massachusetts and the trend is likely to continue on Friday. With the Minutemen on short rest, the Terriers will pounce on the visitors early and through a couple of quick tallies, hold a large advantage for much of the game. Should be a good win heading into Monday for BU.<\/p>\n BU\u2019s THREE KEYS TO THE GAME<\/p>\n BU has been known to play up or down to an opponent. A prime example would be last Tuesday at Merrimack. Despite Massachusetts\u2019 poor record and deflated stats, the Minutemen are a dangerous team. BU is going to need to be sharp defensively and treat this game like it\u2019s important because every league game is for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n Massachusetts has struggled mightily this season and has yet to win when the opponent scores first. BU will need to set the tone early, especially on home ice, in order to earn an early advantage against a talented Minutemen side.<\/p>\n With the Beanpot First Round game against BC looming on Monday, it\u2019s understandably easy to look ahead to that. But the Terriers have to focus on the task at hand Friday against Massachusetts and take care of business before turning their attention to Monday night.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to win the league championship,\u201d said Coach Quinn. \u201cWe\u2019re down to six games left in the league. We don\u2019t have much room for error.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Dan Shulman BU Men\u2019s Ice Hockey vs. Massachusetts (Hockey East) February 3, 2017 ABOUT THE OPPONENT Location \u2013 Amherst, Massachusettss; Mascot \u2013 Minutemen; This Year\u2019s Record \u2013 5-20-2 (2-12-1), 1-8-0 on the road, BU leads All-Time Series 60-11-6; Fun Fact \u2013 Last loss for BU against Massachusetts came on February 1, 2013 (5-1). PREVIEW […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17192,"featured_media":7553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1028],"tags":[1053,1248],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721"}],"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\/17192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22153,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7721\/revisions\/22153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n