The No. 13 Boston University men’s hockey team is hot right now – so scalding, in fact, that the Icedogs’ five-game winning streak is the second-longest current run in Division I.
The only team with a longer streak? No. 1 Boston College, which has won seven straight and is 9-0-1 in its last 10 since the Eagles’ 6-2 loss at Agganis Arena Dec. 3.
Ah, the Eagles. Over the past four years, it seems like every time you turn around for a second, BC’s back to No. 1 in the country. Even if, like this year, very few people expect it.
“I think everybody thought that this might be a down year for them because they were playing so many younger kids, but they’re getting fabulous goaltending and their upperclassmen are playing very well,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “They’ve had a terrific run.”
Last year’s Hockey East champions, currently 16-4-2 (14-2-1 Hockey East) have also opened up an eight-point lead in the league standings, ahead of BU, the University of New Hampshire and Providence College, who are currently tied for second. The Terriers will try to chip into that lead tonight at Conte Forum (7 p.m.).
“I really didn’t expect them to be this far in front of everyone in our league at this point in the season, but they work hard and they get good goaltending,” said BU senior defenseman Dan Spang. “So much of their game is played in the offensive zone. They don’t have to rely too much on their defensive zone. They have a young defense – they don’t have to rely on them to play that well.”
But their formula’s been a little different this year. Where in the past the Eagles rarely allowed 20 shots in a game and tilted the ice toward their opponents with four forward lines full of blazing speed, this year BC has had to place a little more weight in back, mostly on the shoulders of sophomore goalie Cory Schneider.
Schneider, since returning from the World Junior Championships, has allowed two goals in five games. He’s also shut out his opponent the last three times out for a current shutout streak of 217:49. Over the five-game stretch – including a 43-save performance against Providence and 37- and 33-save shutouts of Merrimack College and the University of Vermont, respectively — Schneider has 152 saves for a .987 save percentage.
Last weekend, as previous No. 1 Wisconsin was swept at home by Denver, the Eagles were right there to swoop into the spot with a squeaky-clean pair of shutouts over the Catamounts.
“Everyone in the country expects them to be good, and I think more importantly they expect to be good,” said BU sophomore center Pete MacArthur. “They deserve it every year. You can’t really say too many negative things about them.”
This year, though, the Eagles might not be as deep and offensively scary as they have been the past few times around. Completely Eavesless, BC has been getting most of its scoring from one line – the top line of Chris Collins (20-14-34 to lead Hockey East), Brian Boyle and Stephen Gionta. The trio scored all five goals in the Vermont sweep.
Meanwhile, the Terriers (12-8-2, 10-6-1) seem to be getting goals from everywhere. BU actually leads the league in goals scored in conference play with 54, behind personal recent hot streaks from Kenny Roche, Pete MacArthur and Brandon Yip (each with 9 points in the last five games). Of course, something’s gonna have to give – BC has given up a league-low 24 goals in Hockey East play.
A quarter of those goals came that one Saturday night in early December at Agganis, when the Terriers broke a 2-2 tie in the third period with a four-goal explosion.
“They always bring out the best in us,” MacArthur said. “That was definitely a fun game.”
This time, the Terriers will have David Van der Gulik, but they’ll be without his linemate John Laliberte, who is out for at least another week with a sprained knee.
“Hopefully he’ll be back by Beanpot time,” Parker said. “It’s too bad, because we just got our first line back together with Van der Gulik and they were playing so well.”
BU also won’t have Craig Sanders, and unless Ryan Weston is unexpectedly back from a shoulder injury, Eric Thomassian will join co-captains Van der Gulik and Brad Zancanaro on the first line.
Thomassian hasn’t played since Dec. 10 at Dartmouth, but two of his four career goals are against BC. Parker didn’t want to break up the other three lines, which have all been clicking recently.
“Both games are huge for us,” Parker said. “We’ve kind of climbed out of the back seat and into the driver’s seat a little bit as far as home-ice advantage is concerned in our league, and a chance to make the national tournament on our own merits. This will make a big statement for us.”
As you’d expect from Parker, he’s stressing Saturday night’s home contest against UMass-Amherst is just as important – BU will be looking for revenge for a 4-2 November loss.
But if you ask most people, one of the games this weekend will carry a little more weight – whatever the Terriers tell themselves.
“We don’t get afraid of BC. We don’t care that it’s BC,” MacArthur said. “It’s just another team. We know that they have the same fears playing against us as we would against them. It’s just another game.”
Yeah, right.
KIBBLES AND BITS
The Terriers are 7-14-1 against BC in the regular season since 1998, and they haven’t won a season series against the Eagles since 2001-02. With a win tonight, they’d do just that. Last year, BC won two of three games, while the two years before that were both BC sweeps. “That’s happened quite a bit over the years,” Parker said. “If we’re gonna go 2-2 against them, I’d rather win the Beanpot.” … Sophomore defenseman Kevin Kielt has been “suspended from the team for disciplinary reasons indefinitely,” according to Parker.