Pre-season Preview, St. Francis Xavier at BU

Finally an actual hockey game to cover. Its been exactly 200 days since BU lost to Northeastern in the Hockey East quarterfinals. Since then, there has not been much to talk about over the past 6 months. I, along with the rest of the BU hockey community, should be looking forward to tomorrow's game. Granted it is an exhibition game, but it is a game none the less.

Millan will likely get the start in net and then be relived by Grant Rollihiser either in the middle of the second period or at the end of it.

Yasin Cisse will miss the game with a concussion and defenseman Ryan Ruikka will be out with a hair-line fracture in his right foot.

Run Down On the X-Men
Unlike BU, St. Francis Xavier has already played two games this season winning both games decisively against other Canadian schools. The Nova Scotia located college, finished last season ranked 8th in Canada's equivalent of the NCAA, the CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) with a 17-10-1 record.

Chris Hulit was SFX leading scorer with 15 goals, 16 assists in 26 games for a total of 31 points in the regular season. Xavier also has an incredible goalie in Joseph Perricone, who stopped 50 shots against BU back in October 2009. Perricone only allowed two goals that night, but the effort was only good for a 2-2 draw with BU. My guess is that he will be in goal tomorrow, though I honestly can't say for sure.

** Note that Canadian college teams wear half shields and not full face mask like American colleges, also most of the SFX roster (along with every other CIS team) is made up of older players who have dropped out of the Canadian Major Junior Leagues.**