Following a week in which the Boston University men’s hockey team lost to higher-ranked conference opponents Merrimack College and Boston College in consecutive 3-2 games before pulling out a 2-1 road win over a No. 7 team in University of New Hampshire, it’d be easy to justify any movement – upward, downward or none at all – in the national polls this week for the Terriers.
The answer to just how the national pollsters would view a 1-2 week against ranked rivals came Monday, when BU (11-7-6, 8-5-4 Hockey East) dropped one spot to No. 16 in the USCHO.com poll and remained unranked in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, which only gives rankings to teams in its top 15 spots.
In the PairWise rankings – a system similar to the one used by the NCAA Selection Committee – the Terriers stand tied for 17th with Colorado College and the University of Maine, BU’s opponent for a pair of road games this weekend.
BC rose to No. 2 in both polls following its Friday win over BU and 5-3 win over University of Massachusetts-Lowell the next evening. The Eagles’ four first-place votes in the USCHO.com poll were the only things keeping No. 1 Yale University from being a unanimous selection at the top.
The remaining ranked teams in Hockey East were No. 7/8 UNH – who dropped one spot in the USA Today poll following its loss to BU – No. 12/11 Maine and No. 14 Merrimack.
Take your time, get it right
On three separate occasions in BU’s win on Saturday, the refereeing tandem of Tim Benedetto and Chris Federico had to go to the video replay to review potential goals.
The first happened after BU freshman forward Sahir Gill batted a puck out of the air with a stick that may or may not have been illegally above the crossbar of the net in the first period. The second came on a shot by UNH left winger Paul Thompson from near the goal line that he believed had trickled by junior goalie Kieran Millan on the right post. As for the third, a large scrum in front of the UNH net led to the puck crossing the line and the net coming loose with an ensuing argument over which happened first.
All three potential goals were waved off.
Despite the lengthy delays that came with all three reviews – not to mention the two no-goals for the Terriers that could have given the squad a little more breathing room down the stretch – BU coach Jack Parker expressed that he had no problem with the number or length of the reviews in Saturday’s affair, or any other for that matter.
“As far as I’m concerned, they can replay every single goal if they want to,” Parker said. “There’s not many goals scored in a hockey game. You want to make sure they’re legal. You want to make sure they’re correct. So if there’s time to be taken, there’s time to be taken.”
Both Parker and BU sophomore forward Ross Gaudet noted after the game that the referees expressed a level of concern over the lackluster replay system at the Whittemore Center. Parker hinted that improvements to that particular system may be discussed with the league.
Keep the ball rolling
Saturday’s win, as big as it was in clinching the season series with the Wildcats, was just the midpoint of what could certainly be seen as BU’s toughest five-game stretch of the season. After last week’s 1-2 showing, the Terriers will travel to Orono, Maine for a two-game series at Alfond Arena with the Black Bears.
On paper, those games could be just as hard as any other on the schedule. The Black Bears are 8-1-1 when playing at home this season.
With that in mind, the Terriers will be looking to draw all the momentum they can out of the win at UNH in order to repeat that success going forward as they hit the northern roads again this weekend.
“It’s huge,” Millan said of the road win at the Whittemore Center.
“We lost two close games to Boston College and Merrimack, and being able to pull this one out on the road gives us a lot of confidence for next weekend. Those games are huge if we want to capture home-ice for the playoffs. So knowing we can win on the road against good teams is definitely a big step for next weekend.”
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