By: Dan Shulman<\/p>\n
BU Men\u2019s Ice Hockey vs. UMass-Lowell (Hockey East) February 10, 2017<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n ABOUT THE OPPONENT<\/p>\n Location \u2013 Lowell, Massachusetts; Mascot \u2013 Riverhawks; This Year\u2019s Record \u2013 17-9-3 (9-7-1 HEA), 6-4-2 at home, BU leads all-time series 73-28-9; Fun Fact \u2013 Lowell is looking to secure a top-four finish in league play for the sixth consecutive season.<\/p>\n PREVIEW<\/p>\n Boston University, after securing a berth in the Beanpot Final this past Monday, will have one final obstacle in its way before a date with Harvard at TD Garden. On Friday night, BU will make its way to Northern Massacusetts for a showdown with league-rival UMass-Lowell.<\/p>\n The Terriers earned their third victory of the year over Boston College on Monday night by a final score of 3-1. BU opened the scoring early as Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson pounced on a rebound in front of the net to put the Terriers ahead. The teams traded goals early in the second period when BC earned a power play and a chance to tie the game. But Clayton Keller\u2019s fourth shorthanded goal of the season ended any chance for a tie and ultimately sealed the win for BU.<\/p>\n The Riverhawks last played Saturday night, earning an impressive 8-2 win over New Hampshire a night after beating Northeastern 6-4. Jake Kamrass scored three times on the weekend for Lowell as the Riverhawks earned four valuable league points in a 14-goal offensive outburst.<\/p>\n BU and Lowell met once already this season, back on January 28 at Agganis Arena in Boston. The Terriers scored thrice in the third period, with Bobo Carpenter getting two, to earn a 4-2 victory over the Riverhawks.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re literally like an American Hockey League team,\u201d said BU Head Coach David Quinn. \u201cThey\u2019re well coached, they\u2019ve got older players and good players. I\u2019m very impressed with their talent, their strength, and they\u2019re very structured.\u201d<\/p>\n UMass-Lowell has a real balance of players among all different classes. Forwards C.J. Smith and Ryan Lohin have been instrumental to Lowell\u2019s offensive success this season. Smith, a junior, leads the team in goals this season with 16 tallies. Lohin, a talented freshman who scored against BU earlier this season, has 18 points in his rookie season including three power play goals.<\/p>\n On defense, senior Michael Kapla has just one goal this season but his 21 assists are second on the team. 12 of those helpers have come on the power play. Kapla has also blocked 23 shots this season and earned a +1 rating.<\/p>\n In net for UMass-Lowell, coach Norm Bazin has been known to be sporadic as all four goaltenders have gotten at least one full game in goal this season. Getting the majority of the time, however, is freshman Tyler Wall. The New York Rangers draft choice has a .914 SV% and a 2.22 GAA.<\/p>\n For the Terriers, freshman Clayton Keller remains red hot, going fifteen straight games with a point. Keller scored his fourth shorthanded goal of the year on Monday, tied for the national lead and one shy of a BU single-season record. His 30 points (14G, 16A) leads the team, an impressive feat for a player who missed eight games due to a leg injury earlier this season.<\/p>\n On Monday night, BU restructured their forward lines again, shifting senior Nick Roberto onto the top line with Patrick Harper and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson. According to Coach Quinn, the adjustment from Monday will remain intact for Friday night.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re always trying to find combinations,\u201d said Coach Quinn. \u201cI just thought that the way Nick was playing he deserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n Defensively, newly appointed assistant captains Brandon Hickey and Charlie McAvoy have been huge assets for BU this season. McAvoy leads all Terrier defensemen with 16 points (3G, 13A). Meanwhile, Hickey has a team-high 53 blocked shots.<\/p>\n In net for BU will be freshman Jake Oettinger. In 24 games this season, Oettinger has posted a .937 SV%, on par for a single-season record at BU. The freshman has also recorded four shutouts and a 1.75 GAA, a figure good enough for fourth nationally.<\/p>\n Puck drop is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. and can be heard live on mixlr.com\/wtbusports.<\/p>\n PREDICTION \u2013 Terriers Win<\/p>\n After securing a third win of the season over Boston College on Monday, BU is looking to carry momentum into a Monday night meeting with Harvard. A great way to do that is with a win over Lowell. The way BU played UML back in late January showed that the Terriers are the better team. And returning to the place where Lowell ended BU\u2019s hopes at repeating as Hockey East Champs is still on the Terriers\u2019 minds. Tom Brady\u2019s revenge tour is over, now it\u2019s time for BU to exact some revenge of their own.<\/p>\n BU\u2019s THREE KEYS TO THE GAME<\/p>\n UMass-Lowell has the nation\u2019s third-best power play unit, operating at 27.3%. Over its last eight games, Lowell is 11-33 on the power play (33.3%) and has scored a goal on the man-advantage in each of its last seven games. The Terriers need to lower the amount of penalties they take against a team like UML which makes opponents pay for their mistakes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best way to kill it is to not take penalties,\u201d said Coach Quinn.<\/p>\n BU has been solid in the first period over its last few games, tallying in the opening frame in each of its last six games and outscoring opponents 7-3 over that span. UMass-Lowell is a remarkable +20 in first period scoring and the Riverhawks have scored a first period goal in their last 12 games and in all but four contests this season. BU will have to lock in defensively to keep the Riverhawks off the board early.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always nice to play with the lead,\u201d said Coach Quinn. \u201cIt\u2019ll be nice to play with the lead and take the crowd out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n UMass-Lowell has had a bit of a musical chairs situation in goal following the graduation of star net-minder Kevin Boyle. All four Riverhawk goalies have seen time in the blue paint this season, with each having varied success. Regardless of who is in the cage Friday, BU will need to set screens and occupy space in front of the net to make Lowell defenders work and goalies frustrated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Dan Shulman BU Men\u2019s Ice Hockey vs. UMass-Lowell (Hockey East) February 10, 2017 ABOUT THE OPPONENT Location \u2013 Lowell, Massachusetts; Mascot \u2013 Riverhawks; This Year\u2019s Record \u2013 17-9-3 (9-7-1 HEA), 6-4-2 at home, BU leads all-time series 73-28-9; Fun Fact \u2013 Lowell is looking to secure a top-four finish in league play for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17192,"featured_media":7934,"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\/7933"}],"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=7933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22145,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7933\/revisions\/22145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n