Being a two seed might be the best thing for BC. At least in terms of not having to go to beautiful Toledo or Grand Rapids. This is, of course, assuming UNH doesn't go and pull a UNH again.
College Hockey Thread
- Thread starter sachmoney
- Start date
Going to tonight's Quinnipiac game at Brown. I think this could be a tougher game than people think even though Brown is under .500. They play much better at home than on the road and Quinnipiac all time on the road against some pretty weak Brown teams is a shitty 2-4-1. Throw in the fact that when Quinnipiac has their previous highest ranking of all time back in 2009 when they were 4th they then played Brown and ended up getting beat starting a downward spiral.
Looks like you caught a helluva game, albeit a less-than-desirable result for your alma mater. Brown 1, Bobcats 1.
Meanwhile UMass beats BU 5-1. All four Beanpot teams continue to struggle mightily with the tournament around the corner:
* The Terriers are 3-5-1 in their last 9 games.
* Despite a much-needed 4-1 win over Vermont tonight, BC is also 3-5-1 in their last 9.
* Since their back-to-back wins over RPI & Cornell in mid-November, Harvard is 1-12-1.
* Since sweeping Alabama-Huntsville (Nov 10-11), Northeastern is 3-9-2.
Meanwhile UMass beats BU 5-1. All four Beanpot teams continue to struggle mightily with the tournament around the corner:
* The Terriers are 3-5-1 in their last 9 games.
* Despite a much-needed 4-1 win over Vermont tonight, BC is also 3-5-1 in their last 9.
* Since their back-to-back wins over RPI & Cornell in mid-November, Harvard is 1-12-1.
* Since sweeping Alabama-Huntsville (Nov 10-11), Northeastern is 3-9-2.
Maine ties Providence 2-2. With NU's loss to UNH the Black Bears are no longer alone in the Hockey East cellar. With 11 points apiece, they're now both a point behind UVM.
Quinnipiac looked like crap at times tonight even though they outshot Brown 39-31. I don't get why they struggle on the road against that team. They are now 2-4-2 all time on the road at Brown. Very weird why they struggle there.
Good win for Yale last night over Princeton after going down 2-1 in the first 5 minutes or so and losing our goalie in the process. Dominated the rest of the game for a 4-2 win. Maricic, our back up goalie, had his best game ever in a Yale uniform, pitching a shutout after letting in the very first shot he faced. Can he do it again in the big game tonight?
Jsinger, I'm pretty sure the game is on CPTV, not NBS Sports, tonight.
Jsinger, I'm pretty sure the game is on CPTV, not NBS Sports, tonight.
Gotcha, saw "The Yale game at home" and thought that meant the upcoming game at Yale. My Yale bias showing, I guess!
2-2 at the end of 1 at Ingalls. If anyone wants to watch it I am streaming it via Yale All-Access Live Broadcast via Youtube. The announcers are jokes as they are students.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wD0le3izHM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wD0le3izHM
6-2 Quinnipiac win over Yale on the road at Ingalls. 1-0-1 this weekend and the win being over top 10 team on the road should be enough to elevate them to the #1 team in the polls.
Terrible night for Yale. All my hopes that our backup goalie might get on a hot streak are certainly gone now. He was awful (which is what he's always been) and its clear that the team and the coach have no confidence in him - once he started letting into a couple of cheap goals, the air went out of Yale's game. Word on the street is that Malcolm the starter is done for the season. That might mean our season is done too.
Credit to Quinnipiac though. Didn't panic after Yale dominated the first 10 minutes, fought back and won going away. The defense was quite impressive.
Credit to Quinnipiac though. Didn't panic after Yale dominated the first 10 minutes, fought back and won going away. The defense was quite impressive.
Philip Jeff Frye said:
Thanks....They have a great defense which is the backbone of the team led by Hartzell in net. I wish I saw this type of offensive output last night when I went to the Brown game.
Nice to see QU break out on offense last night. I think they have the talent to do that more often than they have of late, but I gather concentrating on D might be reason. Hartzell with another solid game after a bit of a slow start (saw it on TV).
I heard tix were going fo $200 from scalpers.
Alas, I will be unable to attend the rematch.
I heard tix were going fo $200 from scalpers.
Alas, I will be unable to attend the rematch.
Merrimack shouldn't be considered part of the "soft schedule" they took two out of three from UNH in the last two weekends, one from UMass-Lowell and goalie Sam Marotta is playing as well as any goalie in the league. Plus, they pulled themselves up to third place in the league.
Doug Beerabelli said:
Cheapest seats for the rematch are going for 85 on stubhub with standing room at 54 dolllars.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
Yea they have won 4 out of 5. Looking solid lately. BU on the other hand is fading in the pairwise rankings. They really need to win the Beanpot and pick up some wins over Merrimack and Lowell in the next couple of weeks while avoiding losses to Maine and Northeastern and Vermont.
Maine's Martin Ouellette named Hockey East Goalie of the Month for January after posting a 1.82 GAA and .937 S%. His full-season GAA of 2.08 leads the conference.
Beanpot starts tonight. Who's going? Who's going to watch on NESN?
EDIT: I'll be watching BC-Harvard on NESN. I suspect the better game will be BU-Northeastern.
EDIT: I'll be watching BC-Harvard on NESN. I suspect the better game will be BU-Northeastern.
The USCHO.com poll is a joke. Quinnipiac pounds a top 10 team in Yale on the road yet remains number 2 and even loses 2 votes in the poll. Yes they tied Brown on Friday night but at least Brown is closer to .500 than Alaska Anchorage who Minnesota tied earlier this. AA is a brutal 3-16-7 on the season while Brown is 8-9-5. These pollsters just don't want to drop a historic program like Minnesota for a no name program that is head and shoulders the best team in the country at this moment.
Quinnipiac is a deserving team no doubt, and they'll probably take over the spot if/when Minny trips up against a good St. Cloud squad, but head and shoulders the best team in the country right now is a little dubious. They're one of the best, but there's no team right now with the resume above all others. They've had some good non-conf wins against Neb-Omaha and Providence, but the ECAC schedule just doesn't carry that much weight right now by itself. That said, Minnesota doesn't have the best strength of schedule at the moment either, with their more challenging games ahead, but they do also have a half a goal more per game average margin of victory than QU in a tougher conference. I wouldn't consider QU a prohibitive favorite in a neutral ice game against the other top teams from other conferences, and at this point I probably wouldn't consider the rest of the teams in the top 5 a big favorite over any other team in that group right now either. There's some pretty good parity up there, every team has one question or another.jsinger121 said:
There are 31 teams with RPIs of .500 or better. Quinnipiac has played 17 of them, going 12-2-3. The Gophers have played just 12, going 7-3-2. It's pretty fucking clear that the Bobcats are being kept out of the top spot due to a combination of voter idiocy, ignorance, and biased arrogance. Minnesota's still living off the residue of their home ice blowout win over BC five weeks ago. They've played 13 games since Thanksgiving, and only 3 have been on the road.
I saw on another board the other day where some Gopher fans were ridiculing the fact that Quinnipiac had lost to Robert Morris early in the season. Well, the Colonials also beat Miami-Ohio, meaning "lowly" Robert Morris -- 9-8-1 in Atlantic play -- currently owns non-conference wins over the #2 and #3 teams in the nation. Yet I don't see anyone holding the Redhawks' loss against them. And by the way Miami is 12-4-4 against those same high-RPI teams.
Minnesota should be ranked behind both of them.
I saw on another board the other day where some Gopher fans were ridiculing the fact that Quinnipiac had lost to Robert Morris early in the season. Well, the Colonials also beat Miami-Ohio, meaning "lowly" Robert Morris -- 9-8-1 in Atlantic play -- currently owns non-conference wins over the #2 and #3 teams in the nation. Yet I don't see anyone holding the Redhawks' loss against them. And by the way Miami is 12-4-4 against those same high-RPI teams.
Minnesota should be ranked behind both of them.
Agree with you on the last. I think the biggest reason Miami's loss to Robert Morris is more overlooked is because the RedHawks have a much stronger strength of schedule overall compared to Quinnipiac (4th strongest versus 18th).mabrowndog said:
Ultimately, the polls like the USCHO don't amount to much. The Pairwise rankings, which Quinnipiac tops, are more important in terms of tournament seeding/placement. And if things continue as is, all three teams are going to be #1 seeds in their respective regions.
Red(s)HawksFan said:
Yet Minnesota is 33rd. Out of 59 Division1 teams, the vaunted Gophers can't even crack the top half when it comes to challenging schedules.
It's mind-numbingly preposterous.
We swept Michigan State. It is nice to know that we are not the worst team in the conference, and it's even nicer knowing that that worst team is Michigan State. Still remains to be seen whether Michigan can sustain any momentum heading into CCHAs, but as I've said before, winning that is pretty much the only way in.
If you look at KRACH instead of RPI, then Miami's SOS jumps to 26th, Minnesota's to 27th, and QU's to 33rd. So there's other ways to look at it, but yeah it's clear Minnesota has the tougher part of their schedule still remaining.mabrowndog said:
As for QU, they do have that great record against TUC's, but it seems that a large part of that is due to teams at the back part of TUC consideration. TUC's used to be cut off at the top 25 teams in RPI, and now they go back to anyone above .5000 in RPI, which gives QU 9 (9!) extra TUC games that they would not have had in the past. They have exactly 3 games against top 18 teams in the Pairwise, with two OT wins against Dartmouth and Colgate at home, and their recent win at Yale over the Bulldogs' backup goalie. Minnesota has 8 games against top 15 teams in the Pairwise, with all 12 of their TUC games against top 22 teams. Minny's schedule isn't fantastic but I think Quinnipiac hasn't really been challenged with a top flight opponent yet. That might not be their fault but when you keep beating up decent teams but don't play any great teams people will have their doubts you can do it versus the other teams ranked around them.
Edit: Sorry, missed QU's loss against Colgate, so they have 4 games against top 18 teams. 3-1 with two OT wins.
In fairness to Minnesota, they're not trying to have a bad schedule. Their out-of-conference is Michigan State (x2), Canisius, at Vermont (x2), Air Force, BC, and Notre Dame. The main culprits are Michigan State and Vermont having uncharacteristically bad seasons, which is basically good scheduling working out poorly.mabrowndog said:
Vermont has sucked 2 years in a row. When they were good, they were still mediocre but got hot and went to the Frozen Four. They aren't a good team right now at all. Sneddon needs to go.Mr. Wednesday said:
Mr. Wednesday said:
Oh, I get that. I know I didn't word it clearly, but I'm not really blaming Minnesota. I'm blaming the poll voters for failing to account for it.
NU with a not-so-stunning 3-2 win over BU in the Beanpot opener.
Freshman Kevin Roy nets a hat trick, and the Huskies were up 3-1 until BU got a sweet play from a freshman of their own with 1:14 left to make it a one-goal game again. D Matt Grzelcyk surfed his way down the left side of the ice through a sea of NU defenders, shot it short side wide, but corralled the rebound and fed it right back in front on that same short side where it was slapped in by Gill. But that was the end of the line for the Terriers, who are 3-6-1 in their last 10.
Freshman Kevin Roy nets a hat trick, and the Huskies were up 3-1 until BU got a sweet play from a freshman of their own with 1:14 left to make it a one-goal game again. D Matt Grzelcyk surfed his way down the left side of the ice through a sea of NU defenders, shot it short side wide, but corralled the rebound and fed it right back in front on that same short side where it was slapped in by Gill. But that was the end of the line for the Terriers, who are 3-6-1 in their last 10.
Alex Faust @alex_faust
First #Beanpot game since 2008 without a power play goal.
Alex Faust @alex_faust
NU with the first win over BU since 1988.
@GoNUmhockey
Roy becomes the first Husky with a hat trick in the #Beanpot since Mike Ryan completed the feat in 2002 against Harvard
First #Beanpot game since 2008 without a power play goal.
Alex Faust @alex_faust
NU with the first win over BU since 1988.
@GoNUmhockey
Roy becomes the first Husky with a hat trick in the #Beanpot since Mike Ryan completed the feat in 2002 against Harvard
Puck drops in 3 minutes for the nightcap.
BC Hockey @BCHockeyNews
#BEANPOT HISTORY: The Eagles have a 25-13 record against Harvard in 38 #Beanpot meetings.
BC Hockey @BCHockeyNews
#BEANPOT HISTORY: The Eagles have a 25-13 record against Harvard in 38 #Beanpot meetings.
Tons of empty seats at TD Garden
https://twitter.com/SullivanHockey/status/298600980046553091/photo/1
https://twitter.com/SullivanHockey/status/298600980046553091/photo/1
Sad but true.
The Crimson are playing pretty damned well so far. They've stymied a couple of BC breakaways with good defensive recoveries, and they've had about a half-dozen solid scoring chances of their own -- one on a sweet cross-ice pass off the right blue line dasher to set up the winger onsides, and another a minute ago by Greiner who hit the post on a surprise wrist shot.
The Crimson are playing pretty damned well so far. They've stymied a couple of BC breakaways with good defensive recoveries, and they've had about a half-dozen solid scoring chances of their own -- one on a sweet cross-ice pass off the right blue line dasher to set up the winger onsides, and another a minute ago by Greiner who hit the post on a surprise wrist shot.
BC scores right off the face-off with less than 30 seconds to play in the period. Quinn Smith lights the lamp.
Smith scores again with another late goal, with the one-timer from just off Girard's right, as Harvard's goalie just couldn't slide back over in time to cover the wide-open net.
2-0 Eagles.
2-0 Eagles.
And just seconds into a BC power play, Mike Matheson scores on a one-timer rifle shot from the right point. Two goals in 61 seconds for the Eagles, and a 3-0 lead heading into the 3rd period.
I'm not one to get nutty over QU not being #1. They did beat Maine to start the year, and then tie/beat a ranked OSU squad, and swept a12th ranked Neb- Omaha team at home. The ECAC is what it is at this point, although it did have 5-6 teams ranked from 10-18 or so earlier In the year.
I've been waiting for the coach to turn into a pumpkin(not Pecknold), so the streak has been an unexpected joy. Can't really complain about things at this point.
Never would have thought they'd be ranked this much higher than BU.
I've been waiting for the coach to turn into a pumpkin(not Pecknold), so the streak has been an unexpected joy. Can't really complain about things at this point.
Never would have thought they'd be ranked this much higher than BU.
Harvard hockey is such a colossal disappointment. 20 years ago they had a model franchise and it was impossible to get tickets. At least they are still able to get top tier recruits, but Donato can't do anything with them, and it feels like they aren't even trying to drum up support for the team anymore. It's not like it takes that many students to fill Bright, they should be able to sell out good games, and they rarely do.
Saw the BU-NU game. BU's power play is just terrible. I'd be surprised if they averaged one shot per PP, they could barely even get the puck in the zone. Clearly NU is not a top tier team but they were effective on the forecheck and were able to maintain possession in the BU zone for extended periods of time. The 2nd NU goal was on a brutal pass in front of the BU net from a D when the G was in the corner, and Roy just poked it in.
Saw the BU-NU game. BU's power play is just terrible. I'd be surprised if they averaged one shot per PP, they could barely even get the puck in the zone. Clearly NU is not a top tier team but they were effective on the forecheck and were able to maintain possession in the BU zone for extended periods of time. The 2nd NU goal was on a brutal pass in front of the BU net from a D when the G was in the corner, and Roy just poked it in.
Quinnipiac sweeps the weekend. They can clinch the regular season title next Saturday if they sweep St. Lawrence and Clarkson.