I don't know if these were on TV or not, but UNH buried Union and North Dakota did the same to Yale, twice. UNH has a tough weekend coming up; they play Maine on Saturdy after the BU game on Friday.
BC is up 3-1 on UMass-Lowell at the 2nd intermission. I left early because I wanted to go lift before the gym closed (which I thought was at 9:45 but turns out it's 10:45 so here I am dicking around on BigSoccer) and it was a fairly boring game--BC's completely dominating, Lowell shows no signs of life. BC scored with less than a minute left in both the 1st and 2nd periods. Tonight saw the debut of my big foam shocker hand, as well as an intermission game featuring 5 lucky fans attempting to push a puck from one blue line to the other using only their face, with the winner getting a free sweatshirt...guess who was one of the lucky contestants tonight...yeah, I sucked, it's not as easy as it sounds (especially after 20 minutes of hockey when the "ice" is really snow)
the black bears are gonna be a team to be reckoned with this year. i didnt think they were good, but a very strong 5-2 (or maybe 4-2) win against Merrimack, and then beating BU has got me thinking differently. Shields and Moore are putting the pucks in the net, and goaltending is strong, especially with jimmy howard (jimmy, not timmy for Man. Utd). should be a very exciting year indeed.
Other Hockey East results- At Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA: New Hampshire 4, Boston University 0. At Lawler Rink, Andover, MA: Massachusetts 2, Merrimack 0. At Matthews Arena, Boston, MA: Providence 2, Northeastern 2. So, it kicked off at the Heights last night, did it, Alex? Nice article on Yost but I think I'd cap myself before listening to the Michigan band for any more than 30 seconds.
UNH-Maine Just finished watching this one. What a lost weekend for the Mainiacs! Less than 5 minutes in they were leading 3-1 but wound up losing 6-3. Since this is the first time I've seen the Wildcats this year, some thoughts. Eddie Caron (transferred to Yale last year; changed his mind; came back, and won his eligibility for this semester on appeal) is a load with skills. He's on a line with 2 frosh that averages 6-3, 230. Overall, UNH had either 4 or 5 freshmen on the 4 lines tonight, but they blended right in. Maine looked like they got sloppy after taking the early lead. 2 Wildcat goals involved the scorer carrying the puck from his own blue line. One of them Justin Aikins took the puck behind his own goal, all the way down ice, split two defenders and sent the goalie the wrong way. Ayers was massive, as usual. Between last night and tonight, he stopped 70 of 73 shots he faced.
About 28,000 people for the two game series at the Kohl Center in Madison for Wisconsin/Minnesota this weekend. UW tied 3-3 and won 4-3. Minnesota was a bit down, but they will turn it around and be in the chase at the end of the year.
A bit late to respond, but with around 35 seconds left Prestin Ryan (who had been gooning it up all game) goes off on Pat Eaves, and before long 5 separate fights are going. I was amazed that all the players from both teams had the discipline not to clear the bench, but aside from them and the goalies everyone was going at it. Here's the penalty summary from the last minute of the game: 3rd Patrick Eaves BC 2 HIGH STICKING 19:30 3rd Patrick Eaves BC 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Patrick Eaves BC 10 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Ryan Murphy BC 2 HIT AFTER WHISTLE 19:30 3rd Ned Havern BC 2 HIT AFTER WHISTLE 19:30 3rd Andrew Alberts BC 2 HIT AFTER WHISTLE 19:30 3rd Ryan Murphy BC 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Ned Havern BC 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Andrew Alberts BC 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Prestin Ryan ME 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Ben Murphy ME 2 HIT AFTER WHISTLE 19:30 3rd Ben Murphy ME 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Keith Johnson ME 2 HIT AFTER WHISTLE 19:30 3rd Keith Johnson ME 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Brent Shepheard ME 2 HIT AFTER WHISTLE 19:30 3rd Brent Shepheard ME 2 ROUGHING 19:30 3rd Prestin Ryan ME 2 LC 19:30 3rd Prestin Ryan ME 10 PU 19:30 Another big Eagles win Friday night, 4-1 at UMass. In other news, UNH's loses 7-4 at Providence (!), and NoDak only manages a split in a home series against St. Cloud St. Hard for me to imagine BC isn't #1 in the upcoming polls. My prediction: 1.BC 2.Maine 3.NoDak 4.Michigan 5.UNH 6.St. Cloud St. 7.Denver 8.CC 9.BU 10.Cornell 11.Ohio St. 12.UMass 13.Minn-Duluth 14.Michigan St. 15.Providence HE - 6 WCHA - 5 CCHA - 3 ECAC - 1
Minny struggled last year too until about early February. I think I saw the last game they lost actually, 6-2 to Colorado College down in Springs. It may take them a while to find a #1 G and their overall game. I never ever figured they'd be 1-6-1 in the WCHA, 2-7-1 overall though. Isn't Wisconsin supposed to be improved by quite a bit?
wisconsin is very young, but with lots of energy. and the crowds are slowly coming back. last year was a terrible year but they were still pulling in 10k people a game. I guess that they will finish around 4-6 in the league.
If ever a thread needed a bump... UMass brushed themselves off after getting schooled by BC (7,100 at the Mullins Center for that; not bad) and beat Providence the next night on PC's manor. What's this BC tying with Merrimack crap, Alex? UMass. #9 two weeks in a row. Alex, I think you'll see the UMass-BU games have some juice, if you know what I mean.
From the story in the paper, it sounded very typical of when BC drops points unexpectedly. From all I've heard, Guenther of Merrimack is a worthy successor to Joe Exter, whereas BC's freshman goalie let in 3 goals on something like a dozen shots. UNH has a home & home with Northeastern this weekend, and according to USCHO.com both games are on TV, CN8 tonight and NHPTV tomorrow. Did they have the 'TV' link last year?
Wish I could tell you. I would've held off on Pearce until the Dartmouth game, let him get his legs out of the conference. The thing about Hockey East is that there are no terrible teams--even Merrimack and Northeastern and Mass-Lowell can pull off an upset on a given day. Plus, we usually melt down against Merrimack once a year, so we'll rebound against Providence. BU is going to be the bust of the season IMO...even Minnesota will recover and will likely be in the NCAA tournament, BU is going to simply collapse, they remind me of Notre Dame football, with nothing to go on but their reputation. They lost way too much talent (and thuggery--I hope to God that Freddie Meyer never wears the orange and black so I won't be forced to cheer for that bastard) last summer and haven't been able to replace it from all I hear.
Just as Alex suggested... Anoche en Hockey East- At Walter Brown Arena, Boston, MA: Massachusetts-Lowell 3, Boston University 1. At Kelley Rink, Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College 7, Providence College 4. (Att. 7,884) At Matthews Arena, Boston, MA: New Hampshire 3, Northeastern 2. At Mullins Center, Amherst, MA: Massachusetts 1, Maine 1. (Att. 6,064) Good win for BC. BU are terrible. NU no pushover. UMass is for real.
just finally came across this thread. Being an avid Badger hockey fan I'll throw my two cents worth in. Yea the badgers have a young squad. They'll still be good this year and hopefully this squad can build into a championship group. I'm not convinced on our goalie. Bruckler does not have any reaction time. And he always goes behind his net to get the puck when he shouldn't. Also we have Dany Heatley's brother on our team. But it is clear all the talent in the family went to Dany, cause all this guy does is take up space. He's big, but he never hits anyone cause he's too slow. Definitly got on the team cause of his brother. But we do have Robbie Earl....who could be one of the best all around players I've seen! He reminds me of when Heatley was tearing it up at the Kohl Center. He's a freshman and he's got great passing ability, and good puck control. But the thing that impresses me the most is that he busts his ass everywhere on the ice. Wherever the puck is, Earl is there. He plays def just as good as he does off! At the Minnesota series, the Badgers showed what they are capable of. I hope they can play like that all year. One major plus so far, is that the Badgers are taking between 30-50 shots a game, which is a lot better than the 10 shots per game crap they did a few years ago.
Remember the John Sabo incident on Comm Ave last fall? Acquittal: http://www.uscho.com/news/2003/11/20_007322.php Back to the on-ice stuff: RPI beat St. Cloud State again tonight, this time 2-1. I'm not real familiar with either team, is this a sign that Cloud had zero business being ranked #5? Tonight, Denver's down 1-0 to North Dakota at home. Last night was ludicrous. 8-2 Sioux, DU must have had 40 turnovers in their own end. Brandt, ND goalie and a big question mark heading in to the season, made saves when he had to, played well overall. Other action, UNH rolls over Northeastern 9-3, BU and Mass Lowell tied 3-3, and Maine took a 3-2 decision at Providence. We may find out how good 4-0-3 Dartmouth really is on Tuesday when they travel to BC.
Hey, Jeff: BU is terrible. I like Jackie and everything but he has a bunch of thugs playing for him. BTW, I'll be going to the Central-Andover game on Thursday. I'll tell Father Mike that you say "Hi". Or should I?
If he remembers me, pass the word along. Good hearing from you. I wonder how loud BU's fans are crowing. Wait a minute, they're losing hence nowhere to be found.
That was my first thought too. I am pretty sure no one was expecting RPI to compete in the ECAC this year, and they've already lost to St. Lawrence and tied UConn. On the other hand, SCSU did better in Grand Franks against North Dakota than Denver did at home. A let down maybe? I got to watch both UNH-NU games this weekend, and the take aways are that 6 of 8 UNH goals were scored by freshmen and that NU seems to be scaling new heights of offensive inefficiency. Ten more shots and half as many goals over the 2 games.
Badgers Continue Nation's Longest Unbeaten Streak With Win on Road The Wisconsin men’s hockey team made No. 5/6 Michigan its fourth non-conference foe of the 2003-04 season by beating the U-M 3-1 Friday night at the College Hockey Showcase in Ann Arbor Mich. http://www.uwbadgers.com/sport_news/mhky/headlines/full_story.aspx?story_id=2003_11_28_23_29_47_mhky
The Badgers are on a tear!!! They have a decent team this year...and they're playing a new philosophy of actually shooting the puck a lot. Finally a coach has taught them that you can only score when you shoot! Plus Robbie Earl is damn good. I wish we could clone him.....he busts his ass all night on both sides of the ice!
I know, still #2. Thank *#*#*#*#. We've been saying that for years. Uhhh, can we say Nebraska-Omaha? MAROON & GOLD FOREVER