No. 1 Icedogs meet pair of ranked foes

With the No. 20 University of Massachusetts-Amherst (4-2-1, 2-1-1 Hockey East) and No. 7 Northeastern University (6-1-2, 4-1-1) on tap this weekend for the No. 1 Boston University men’s hockey team (6-1-0, 3-1-0), the Terriers will have to weather two drastically different styles of play to preserve their top ranking.

Traveling to Amherst tonight for the first of three regular-season matchups against the Minutemen, BU will have to rediscover the fast-paced, quick-passing rhythm that it introduced to the University of Michigan and the University of Vermont in back-to-back 7-2 wins.

Tripped up against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell last weekend, the Terriers worked extensively this week in practice to get back the crisp passing, cycling offense that has brought them to the top of Hockey East in goals this season.

‘[Tuesday’s] practice was very good. [Wednesday] was pretty good, but [yesterday] was great,’ BU coach Jack Parker said. ‘We moved the puck much better [yesterday] than we did last week. We were too casual with the puck against Lowell.’

During a game in which the Terriers coughed up the puck a number of times, BU got caught chasing Lowell’s speed through the neutral zone.

With UMass-Amherst, a team with similar speed to Lowell, on the horizon, losing the puck this evening could be costly. The Minutemen like to switch things up, as they also trap at times.

‘I think we’ll have a difficult time with this team because they trap,’ Parker said after practice yesterday. ‘They can slow the game down and you have to make indirect passes. We’re going to turn some pucks over ‘-‘- there’s no question about that.’

Working against BU this evening will be UMass-Amherst’s varied attack.

Pairing aggressive forechecking with a poised defense, the Minutemen survive off challenging opponents for an extended period of time before relaxing their coverage.

‘This team plays a very deceptive game where they come after you for a while, then two seconds later they’re backing off, then they come at you again. So it’s not an easy team to read. We have to be extra careful with the puck,’ Parker said.

UMass-Amherst boasts the best penalty kill in the conference, allowing two goals in its last 33 man-down stints.

Holding the top spot in Hockey East in man-up conversions, BU will have to maintain its cycle in the offensive zone to re-open the passing lanes.

While it will be equally as important to control the puck in Sunday’s contest against Northeastern at Agganis Arena, that game will be more physical than tonight’s matchup in Amherst. Regardless of the pace in front of the net, Parker has the utmost confidence in goaltenders Kieran Millan and Grant Rollheiser, the latter of whom will start tonight.

‘I like the fact that both of them are playing well,’ Parker said. ‘I would prefer that they both make it very easy to stay in the rotation. I think the team knows that if we get down a couple of goals, it won’t be four because we have some pretty solid defense and we’re getting solid goaltending.’