The team may be made up of mostly out-of-towners, but there must be more than the seven Massachusetts Terriers paying taxes in the Bay State.
Because the Boston University hockey team owns the University of Massachusetts.
It has since the teams first faced off in 1920, with the Icedogs winning 31 of 33 all-time matchups. Massachusetts took the opener, 10-2, before BU put together a 20-game winning streak spanning seven decades and ending in 1999.
The Terriers enter this weekend’s home-and-home series winners of the last 11 games in the series, but with a better-than-expected group of Minutemen riding a dangerous first line to an 8-5 record, the Terriers are hoping the streak doesn’t end with a quick ‘WAM’-bam-thank-you-ma’am compliments of Massachusetts’ top trio.
The WAM line comprised of Stephen Werner, Matt Anderson and Greg Mauldin have combined for nine goals and 12 assists in three games together, combining for 39 points throughout the season, with Werner’s seven goals and seven assists good for a team-high 14 points.
The Minutemen haven’t lost since coach Toot Cahoon assembled the line, beating the University of Vermont, Dartmouth College and Princeton University. Overall, Massachusetts has won six of seven, the only blemish coming against Hockey East heavyweight the University of New Hampshire.
Mauldin has been the hottest of the Minutemen, emerging from a sluggish start with a six-point weekend that included a three-goal game against Dartmouth, the first Massachusetts hat trick since 1996. The team’s leading scorer last season, Mauldin has eight goals on the season and is the current Hockey East player of the week.
Picked before the season to finish eighth in Hockey East, Massachusetts’ 3-4 mark in the conference puts them in the conference’s lower third, but the Minutemen have made their mark outside of Hockey East. Outside of the league they are 5-1, beating a host of ECAC entries including Dartmouth, which dethroned then-No. 1 Boston College last week.
Freshman Gabe Winer has handled the bulk of the work between the pipes, compiling six wins and sporting a middle-of-the-pack 2.66 goals against average. Ten of the 26 goals he’s surrendered have come on the power play, which could make this weekend just the antidote needed to better the ailing BU specialty teams.
The Minutemen are the only Hockey East team that kills penalties worse than the Terriers, who possess the league’s second-worst power play. Massachusetts doesn’t commit many penalties (averaging less than 13 minutes per game compared to BU’s 20 minutes), and thus doesn’t allow its opponents many power play chances (57 in 13 games), but if BU can take advantage of its opportunities, it could provide a big boost to the Icedogs’ confidence with the man advantage.
The series could also suck the frustrating venom from the stick of snake-bitten Brian Collins. The senior center scored his first goal of the season last week against Harvard University, and with 5-4-9 in 11 career games against Massachusetts, the Shrewsbury native is primed for a big weekend.