Megan's Two Goal Night Leads BU Comeback Over Northeastern

Tonight, BU once again proved they have the capability to come back and win a hockey game. They have done it a number of times this season and tonight was no different.

After a fast start by both teams, that saw several good scoring chances wiped out by impressive goaltending, Northeastern broke the ice late in the first. Alex Tuckerman's goal at the 18:38 mark of the period was a result of BU getting out worked and out played. Less than a minute later, a turnover in the high slot allowed Ludwig Karlsson to walk down central and rip a shot over Millan’s glove and in. Northeastern took a 2-0 lead to the dressing room.

Alex Chiasson and Wade Megan battle for position in front of
the Northeastern goal while on the power play.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Whatever Parker said in between periods must have really sunk into his players, as BU came out flying in the second frame and totally dominated the play. Adam Clendening put BU on the board at the 8:23 mark. Clendening made a real highly skilled move after he got the puck from Justin Courtnall at the point. An NU defender was playing the man (Clendening) and Adam took two steps towards him and then backed off two steps. That created separation, allowing him to let a shot fly that Huskies goalie Chris Rawlings never saw. The puck found its way into the upper twine, cutting NU's lead to 2-1.

Less than a minute later, Ryan Santana made a great hustle play to chase down a loose puck behind the NU net. As Santana picked up the puck behind the goal, he dished it over to Wade Megan, as he was falling down. Megan slammed home the pass, through Rawlings leg's and into the back of the net, tying the game at 2-2.

Former teammates Vinny
Saponari (white) and Chris
Connolly (red) meet at the end
of the game.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

BU had a golden opportunity to break the game wide open, when NU's Josh Manson was called for a five minute major for contact to the head roughing. It was called after he smashed Matt Nieto who was cutting back to the middle of the slot to gain a better shooting angle on Rawlings. BU was only able to convert once on the all you can eat five minute man advantage, but it did give them the lead nonetheless. Evan Rodrigues was able to get a stick on Alexx Privitera's shot from the point, tipping it past Rawlings. For reasons I still don't understand, the play went to review. After a lengthy delay, the goal stood. That closed out the scoring in the second, despite BU having a 48 second five on three power play.

Wade Megan potted his second goal of the night, less than two minutes into the third. Alex Chiasson made a nice move to cut to the front of the net, but ran out of room and passed to Megan, who picked the top corner on Rawlings, upping BU's lead to 4-2. It was Megan's 10th goal of the year and it came on the power play.

Later in the stanza, NU had a full two minutes of five on three, but could not score. With 3:07 to play, Northeasten’s Ludwig Karlsson beat Millan with Rawlings pulled. That made it 4-3, but time ran out on the Huskies and BU skated away with the victory.

BU is now in first place in Hockey East with 21 points. BU is also third in the PairWise rankings.

Dog Fight: BU travels to NU

From The Vault 
BU and NU face off in the opening
round of the 2010 Beanpot. BU won
2-1.

Tomorrow, BU will travel to crosstown foe Northeastern and take on the suddenly surging Huskies at Matthew's Arena.

After winning just one of their first ten games, Northeastern caught fire and rolled off six straight wins and are winners of seven of their last eight. Victories include a 4-1 win at Michigan, a 9-2 shellacking of Notre Dame in South Bend (they completed the sweep a night later with a 2-1 win over the Irish) and a 3-2 win over at Minnesota in the Championship game of the Mariucci Classic. Despite the 8-7-3 record, NU finds themselves tied for 16th in the PairWise. With all the non-conference success, you would think the Huskies are killing Hockey East too. Not so fast. NU is just 4-7-2 in league play this season and is currently tied with UMass for 7th.

This game has a little bit of a second story behind it, too. Former Terrier Vinny Saponari, who was kicked off the BU Hockey team in the Summer of 2010 for disciplinary reasons, is now on the Northeastern roster. Vinny had planned to play at Boston College this season, but did not get the grades to get into school there. Last season, Saponari helped lead the Dubuque Fighting Saints to the United States Hockey League Championship. This season at NU, he has just 3 goals and 10 assists in 18 games. Last year with Dubuque, Saponari was the sixth highest scorer in the USHL with 64 points (18 goals 46 assists) in 56 games.

NU Scoring Leaders 
Senior Steve Quailer leads the charge with 18 points (7g, 11a) in 16 games. Freshman Ludwig Karlsson is second in points with 15. This season, Karlsson has 6 goals and 9 assists.

Between the pipes.
Chis Rawlings is right up there in terms of the best goalies in Hockey East. The Junior netminder currently has a 2.31 goals against average. In 17 games played, he holds an 8-6-3 record and has one shutout.

The Last Time They Met...
was in last year's Hockey East Quarterfinals at Agganis Arena. NU won the first game 4-2. BU came back with an impressive 5-2 victory, before NU edged the Terriers in the final game 5-4, sending the Huskies to the Garden.

Weekend In Review: Exceeding Expectations

Player of the Week:
Alexx Privitera/Kieran Millan

I'm split this week. Millan had a

very strong game against MC.

He turned away 42 shots,

 including 20 in the third frame.

Privitera (photo), on the other 

hand, had the game winning goal in

the best game of his BU career. 

Both make a great case, so I'll go 

with co-players of the week.

(Photo by Matt Dresens)

The start to Friday's 4-2 win over Merrimack was less than favorable, as MC scored on the power play under five minutes into the game. 14 seconds later, BU answered right back with a pair of goals just 45 seconds apart. Justin Courtnall struck first and Alex Chiasson added the other. Freshman Alexx Privitera banged home a power play goal off a great pass from Matt Nieto. In the words of BU announcer Bernie Courbet, "Privitera was staring at a soccer net".

Merrimack cut the lead in the third on the power play, as Kyle Bigos beat Millan high blocker side. Sahir Gill drilled a one-timer off the post and in at the 17:23 mark, closing the scoring for the night.

The win did more than put BU in first place in the Hockey Standings. It gave hope to many fans (myself included) and even the team, that they can still play well and still win games even without Coyle and Trivino.

The most notable observation was the return of Adam Clendening. Clendening makes the defense very solid when he is out there. There is no questioning that he is 20x better than Ryan Ruikka, who was exposed on a number of accounts against Notre Dame. Clendening looks much more confident with the puck and his skill level really showed Friday night. The World Juniors made him a better player, regardless of how poorly the USA played.

At The Polls
In the USCHO rankings, BU moved up four slots from 10th to 6th. Minnesota Duluth was the overwhelming number one, receiving all 50 first place votes. Ohio State was two, Notre Dame three, Boston College four, and Minnesota rounded out the top five.

In the ever changing PairWise, BU currently finds themselves in fifth.

Around Hockey East
Wednesday Night: Maine skated past Vermont 3-1 at home.

Thursday night: UMass and Providence tied 4-4 at Schneider Rink, home of The Friars... Lowell defeated The Russian Red Stars 6-4 in an exhibition game at Tsongas Center.

Friday Night. BU slipped past Merrimack 4-2 at home.

Saturday Night. UMass upended Vermont 3-2 in the first game of Frozen Fenway part two... Maine knocked off New Hampshire 5-4 in the nightcap of the double header at Fenway Park... Northeastern fell 7-4 to the USA U18 team at Matthew's Arena.

Sunday Night: Boston College held off Merrimack to salvage a 2-2 tie at home. MC scored the game tying goal with 1:10 to go, then had a goal taken away in overtime... BU tied the USA U18 Team 3-3 at Agganis.

BU, Millan Hold Off Merrimack

Tonight, BU did more than just beat a top ten ranked team. They proved that even though Coyle and Trivino are gone, they still have a strong hockey team. BU looked like they regained some of the swagger that helped them roll through late November and into December.

Before BU took over the first period, Merrimack notched a goal less then five minutes into the game. BU came back with two quick strikes. The first from Justin Courtnall, who put his own rebound past MC goalie Joe Cannata. The lone assist went to freshman, Cason Hohmann. Less than a minute later, Alex Chiasson converted on the power play, putting BU up 2-1. All three goals were scored in a minute and one second of game time.

With little over a minute and a half to go in the first, BU picked up their second power play tally of the game. After a perfect setup, Matt Nieto found defenseman Alexx Privitera all alone on the far post. Privitera one touched the puck past Cannata, upping BU's lead to 3-1. Privitera did a great job to sneak down from the point and become an option for Nieto. Clearly it worked, as the freshman defenseman scored his second goal of the year.

Merrimack cut the lead to 3-2 on the power play of their own, nearly half way through the second stanza. Kyle Bigos netted a shot from the point as BU goalie Kieran Millan was screened.

The Terriers regained a two goal lead at the 17:23 mark of the period. Max Nicastro made a heads up play to keep the puck in the attacking zone. He then found Sahir Gill unguarded at the top of the slot. Gill one timed the pass off the posted and into the goal behind Cannata. Nicastro's keep was more of a mistake by Merrimack's Brandon Bradhag than anything else. The junior forward turned toward center ice instead of to the boards where the breakout pass was. Instead of MC breaking out cleanly, Max picked-off the pass and the rest is history.

The score of 4-2 held up throughout the third period, but not without drama. Millan made big save after big save in the closing minutes. Nieto had a chance to salt the game away after making very skilled move to cut against the grain. It left an MC defender wondering where his jock was relocated to. Cannata shut the door on the play with his leg pad though and that prevented what could have been Sport Centers top play of the night.

Since BC was idle tonight, BU is currently in first place in the Hockey East standings with 20 points. BC and MC play Sunday.

BU's next game is Sunday, an exhibition game against the USA U18 team. I will not be able to make that game, so there will be no preview or recap. Sorry.

Just Watch This

BU-MC Round Two

Ben Rosen makes a move in the
corner against Merrimack in a
games played earlier this season.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Tomorrow, BU will play their first game of the new year, as they welcome Merrimack to Agganis for the second time this season. Earlier this year, Merrimack handed BU their first Hockey East regular season loss in overtime since 2003, dropping the Terriers 3-2 in the extra session.

Merrimack was the last unbeaten team in all Division One College Hockey this season. Strangely enough, BU was the last unbeaten team a season ago. Since going 9-0-1 to start the season, MC is just 2-3-1 in their last six games. Last weekend, the Mack tied St. Lawrence 6-6 in the opening round of the Ledyard Bank Tournament, but lost the shootout and ended up in the consolation game where they topped Holy Cross 3-0 to take third place. Merrimack is currently in third place in Hockey East, just two points behind the Terriers. With a win, BU will move into first place because league leading Boston College does not play until Sunday against who, but Merrimack. So that means the top three teams in the league are all playing each other this weekend. Needless to say, this is a huge weekend for all involved..

Scouting the Warriors
Senior Ryan Flannigan leads MC in total points and goals. In 15 games, he has 6 goals and 14 points. Mike Collins comes in second for total points with 11 (5 goals, 6 assists). Between the pipes, Merrimack has a literal brick wall in Joe Cannata. The Senior from Wakefield Mass has a 10-3-3 record with a .929 save percentage. He has only allowed 31 goals all season.

Clendening To Play Against Merrimack

Adam Clendening
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Prior to the World Junior Championships, there were rumors that Adam Clendening would leave the team and join a Canadian Major Junior squad in the Ontario Hockey League, much like Charlie Coyle did. A week ago, Clendening said he was coming back, but did not know if he would be back in time for Friday's game against Merrimack. If Team USA had made the medal round, Clendening would not have been back in Boston in time to play Friday night.

Instead, Team USA is in the regulation round or the qualifying round for next year's WJC. Yesterday, Clendening picked up his first goal of the tournament in USA's 12-2 win over Latvia. Last night I asked Adam if he would be back for the MC game, even though the US have a game today (January 4th) against Switzerland. He said quote: "Yes I will. Time to get back on track. Just win baby".

With Clendening back, BU will have its entire defense back to normal and Ryan Ruikka will likely sit out. BU’s defense was just plain awful against Notre Dame. With Adam coming back, that will at least give some stability to a depleted BU roster.

Weekend Review: This Could Be Bad

Player of the Week:
Nonexistent

Wade Megan is pictured

because he scored and I

had to put someone's

photo up.

(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Saturday night BU was trampled like a piece of confetti that had fallen from the sky and landed in Times Square on New Years Eve. Notre Dame had their way with the Terriers in both teams's last game of 2011 and BU's first game without Charlie Coyle and Corey Trivino. In addition, to those two no longer being on the team, BU was also without defenseman Adam Clendening, who was in Alberta at the World Junior Hockey Championships. That made the D pairings very mixed up and it showed.

BU actually took a 1-0 lead into the dressing room, headed to the second period, as Justin Courtnall put home a rebound from Cason Hohmann's shot off a face off late in the first. In the second, BU's D showed a huge hole by Clendening not being there, as they allowed three second period goals. One was a power play strike, but the others were all results of bad turnovers and/or poor defensive coverage.

Wade Megan showed a little fight for the Terrier when he scored BU's nation leading eight shorthanded goal late in the third, but it was way to little way too late and Notre Dame claimed a 5-2 victory at the final buzzer.

The result was rather depressing, seeing how BU was completely dominated from start to finish on national television. That's besides the fact though, and the team needs to focus on Friday's game against Merrimack, where two critical points in the Hockey East standings are at stake. How BU beats MC is a major question mark. Somehow, someway, someone will have to step up and lead this team, or the remainder  of this year will be a huge struggle.

At The Polls 
BU dropped from 9th to 10th in the USCHO rankings. USA Today has BU slotted 11th, two places down from 9th. In the ever-changing Pairwise, BU fell from 4th to 7th after losing.

Around Hockey East
Thursday: Lowell ran circles around RPI at the UConn Hockey Classic winning 7-2... Maine dumped Clarkson 6-1 in the semi finals of the Florida Hockey Classic... Vermont was upended by Lake State 5-3 in the opening round of the Catamount Cup... UMass skated by Cornell 5-2, also in the Florida Hockey Classic... Michigan topped Boston College 4-2 in the first round of the Grate Lakes Invitational.

Friday: BC escaped with a 2-1 win over Michigan Tech in the GLI consolation game... Merrimack came back to tie St. Lawrence 6-6 in the opening round of the Ledyard National Bank Classic, SLU won the shootout for tournament purposes only... Northeastern tied Princeton 3-3 in the semis of the Mariucci Classic, but won the shootout in 8 rounds to advance to the Championship game... Brown topped New Hampshire 5-2... Vermont salvaged third place in the Catamount Cup by beating Ferris State 4-2 in the Consolation game... Lowell won the UConn Hockey Classic after defeating tournament host UConn 4-3 in overtime... Maine rolled past UMass in an all Hockey East final at the Florida Hockey Classic.

Saturday: Merrimack blanked Holy Cross 3-0 in the consolation game of the Ledyard National Bank Classic... Northeastern was crowed the champions of the Mariucci Classic after beating tournament host Minnesota 3-2... BU lost at Notre Dame 5-2.

Sunday: Brown defeated Providence 5-2 to claim the Mayor's Cup.

BU Falls To Notre Dame 5-2

Justin Cournall gave BU the lead in the
firs period.
(Photo By Matt Dresens)

In BU's first game back from the holiday break it is clear they they will need a few weeks to get used to the new line combinations, as they were dominated by Notre Dame on national television, last night.

Justin Courtnall scored the game's first goal, and put the Terriers on the board with just 1:34 to go in the first. BU could not hold the lead as Notre Dame scored three second period goals. Anders Lee scored his first of two on the power play, less then two minutes into the frame. Garrett Peterson tacked on another minutes later and Jeff Costello potted a goal on a two on one seven minutes into the second.

Lee added another tally in the third and Billy Maday scored on the power play to make it 5-1 before Wade Megan converted on a shorthanded break a way, late in the third. It was BU's eight shorthanded strike of the year, good for the Nation's number one spot in SH column.

Millan made 29 save including 17 in the third period in a losing effort.

Photos of the Year

Back In Action: BU Heads West To Take On Notre Dame

Finally, the strangest most unexpected Holiday break is over. In the course of five days, BU lost 22% of their total offense when Charlie Coyle and Corey Trivino departed the team for various reasons. Coyle is now absolutely lighting it up in the World Junior Championships, but remember, BU would have been without Coyle for this game no matter if he left for the Q or not. Trivino is gone, which means people have to step up. Now we all get to see what the new look Terriers are all about as the make the trip to South Bend Indiana to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Adam Clendening will also not be with the team in South Bend, as he is in the WJC, as well. Notre Dame also has two players in Alberta at the WJC. Leading scorer T.J. Tynan and a defenseman Stephen Johns are both representing they're country in the WJC.

From The Vault: Alex Chiasson (9) cuts to the front of the net 

in a game against  Notre Dame at Agganis on October 20th, 2009.

(Photo By Matt Dresens)

Notes On The Irish
Before beating Ferris State on December 10th, ND lost four in a row, including two at home against Northeastern. The Huskies actually ran Notre Dame out of their own building, defeating the Irish 9-2 in front of a sell out crowd, at the new Family Center Arena. Notable wins for the Irish include a 5-3 win at current number one, Minnesota Duluth... A 5-2 win over PairWise number one Ohio State and a 3-2 overtime victory over Boston College at home.

Scoring Leaders 
Without Tynan in the lineup, ND's leading scorer coming into this game is Anders Lee. In 20 games, Lee has 12 goals, 8 assists for a total of 20 points. Riley Sheahan, a Junior from St. Catharine's Ontario, comes in as the team's second leading scorer with 5 goals, 13 assists for 20 points in 18 games.

Between The Pipes 
Notre Dame has two pretty solid goalies. Mike Johnson has played the bulk of the games thus far and has a 7-5-3 record with a .889 save percentage. He has allowed 38 goals on 303 shots. Steven Summerhays is the back up, but has seen action in 7 games. He has a .878 save percentage and has a record of 4-1-0. BU will likely see Johnson in goal on Saturday night.

The Last Time They Met...
was October 10th of 2010 in St. Louis in the Icebreaker Invitational Championship Game. BU's Sean Escobedo found twine past Summerhays with just a minute and seven seconds left in the third period to put BU past Notre Dame 5-4.

Team USA Rolls Past Denmark

Coyle's three goals equals his goal
tally for the his entire first semester
at BU. Of course Coyle is not
coming back to BU following the
conciliation of the tournament as
he left for Juniors a week earlier,
but it's still nice to see the guy
succeed.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Tonight, after a surprisingly close first period, Team USA routed the Danish 11-3 in their first game of the 2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships (WJC). Former Terrier, Charlie Coyle lead the US attack with a hat trick, scoring his first goal just 24 seconds into the first period. Terrier defenseman, Adam Clendening picked up two assists in the win. Clendening also had some considerable time on the US power play.

Scoring:
First Period:
1. USA .24 Coyle
1. DEN 3:12 Bau-Hansen [pp]
2. USA 4:41 Jason Zucker (Denver)
3. USA 8:26 Jarred Tinordi
2. DEN 9:04 Bau-Hansen
Second Period
4. USA 1:25 Bjugstad (Minnesota)
5. USA 7:12 Coyle [pp]
6. USA 9:07 Rau (Minnesota)
7. USA 10:21 Arnold (Boston College)
8. USA 10:51 Miller
9. USA 16:01 Rau [pp] (Minnesota)
Third Period 
3. DEN 4:05 Spelling [pp]
10. USA 10:04 Coyle
11. USA 15:56 Johns (Notre Dame)

Final USA 11, Denmark 3


Around The WJC (Day One)
Canada trounced Finland 8-1... Sweden rocked Latvia 9-4... The USA steamrolled Denmark 11-3... Russia is currently up 1-0 on Switzerland.

Clendening Named To USA Junior Team

In 16 games played at BU, Clendening
has one goal and eleven assists. His
lone goal came against Cornell on a
five on three power play at Madison
Square Garden.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Today, USA Hockey released it's 2012 World Junior Championship (WJC) Final Roster, and BU Defenseman Adam Clendening will be the only current Terrier making the trip to Alberta, host region* of the WJC. Former Terrier, Charlie Coyle also was named to the team. Coyle scored a goal in the American's 7-3 win over Sweden in an exhibition game last night.

Clendening was one of the final cuts from last year's roster and after a strong Junior Camp was selected to help lead the USA back to the gold medal. Last season, the US claimed the Bronze Medal after defeating Sweden in the third place game in Buffalo, New York. Two years ago, former Terrier Dave Warsofsky and the rest of Team USA defeated team Canada in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in the Gold Medal game. It was only the second time ever the United States has won Gold. The other was in 2004, in Helsinki, Finland.

All of Team USA's games will be televised on NHL Network. The US's first game is December, 26th against Denmark, starting at 8:00ET.

*Games are being played in both Edmonton and Calgary. Calgary being the city in which the championship game will be held.

In Other News
BU picked up a walk-on player for the second semester. Jake Moscatel will now be a member of the Boston University Hockey Team. Moscatel played the first semester on the BU Club Team and spent the '09-'10 season with the University of New England, a Division Three school in Western Mass. Prior to attending UNE, he played at the Bellmont Hill School, where he was named a two time all league selection in the Independent School League, commonly known as the ISL. After Bell Hill, Jake played with the Boston Junior Bruins of the Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL). In 25 games with U of NE, Moscatel had seven goals and six assists.

(Below the page break is the entire Team USA Roster)

Midseason report Part One: Red Light District

Sahir Gill plays the puck during a game
in October against UNH.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

With Charlie Coyle and Corey Trivino no longer on the team, BU has lost 22% of its total offense. Who will make up for that gap remains to be seen, but here is a review of players who have been lighting the lamp for BU all season long.

Matt Nieto
Nieto leads the team in goals with 8, and has 8 assists. Many of his goals came in the first few games of the season where he had a five plus goal scoring streak in October. Nieto was recently denied the chance to participate in the USA World Junior Camp, so he will have something to prove. Look a Tyler Seguin of the boston Bruins. He did not make Canada's WJC team. After that, the kid exploded and look what he's doing now. If Nieto can do half of what Seguin did, he will surely put BU in good hands and that will help to close the gap with the loss of Coyle and Trivino.

Stats:
Games Played: 14... Goals: 8... Assists: 8... Points: 16

Sahir Gill
Gill will be one of the guys who Parker will look at to really step up in the absence of Coyle and Trivino. Gill has had a decent year so far and I think after scoring against UMass in late October, he has played very well. Last weekend he tipped in the game winning goal against Maine, on a shot from the point.

Stats:
Games Played: 16... Goals: 5... Assists: 9... Points: 14


Alex Chiasson 
The junior forward only trails Nieto by two points, but has three less goals. Alex has had a solid year so far, but will need to step up and find the scoring touch down the stretch, which is what got him drafted in the second round by the Dallas Stars back in 2009.

Stats:
Games Played: 15... Goals: 5... Assists: 9... Points: 14

Wade Megan 
A great second half by Wade will be huge for the teams success. He is having his most productive year as a Terrier by far, and it all started in the team's exhibition game back in October. Megan had two goals in a 6-4 loss to St. Francis Xavier. He also had a goal disallowed in the same game. Megan has had a very constant start to the season.

Stats:
Games Played: 16... Goals: 7... Assists: 1... Points: 8.

Midseason part two will be up sometime tomorrow. It will be all about the defense. 

My, How Things Have Changed

Yasin Cisse has played 10 games
this year. He has just one goal, his
lone point on the season. Don't let
the numbers fool you, this kid can
really play, and will be vital for BU
down the stretch.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

One week ago, BU throttled Maine at the Alfond and nothing could have been better in Terrier Nation. A week later, BU is without their two best offensive weapons. Clearly by now everyone should know that Corey Trivino and Charlie Coyle are no longer on the Boston University Hockey Team and that means there is a huge gap to fill.

Does anyone remember the 2006 season?

You might ask, why is he going back to 2006?  That season happened 6 years ago. Well, there is a potential huge comparison to that magical year and this season's Terriers. Prior to the '06 season, Captain David Van Der Gulik was sidelined for the entire first half of the year. BU was 6-7-2 at the break. Vandy came back and the team lost just three more games all year, en route to the Hockey East Championship in which Van Dur Gulik was named tournament MVP. BU lost the NorthEast Regional Final to Boston College 5-0 and that is where the season ended. Van der Gulik closed out the season with 11 goals and 11 assists in just 25 games. Now your probably thinking, where is he going with this?

Well, this year BU has a guy named Yasin Cisse. Since coming back from a severed tendon, BU has lost just three games. If BU can salvage this season, they're going to need a lot of guys to step up and play really well. Cisse, I think has the capability to explode in the second half and make up for a lot of what BU lost in Trivino. Cisse could be this year David Van der Gulik and really cary this team.

Now who makes up for Coyle is an entire different story. Sahir Gill and Alex Chiasson, along with Cisse could more than likely be the new first line. The second line could be Matt Netio, Chris Connolly and Freshman center Cason Hohmann. Third line may shake out to be Wade Megan and Evan Rodrigues, centered by Ben Rosen. What's left over is Ross Gaudet in between Justin Courtnall and either Kevin Gilroy or Ryan Santana, who is expected to rejoin the team after missing the first half of the year with a shoulder injury.

This was BU's line up against New Hampshire in last Thursday night's game:

Connolly-Trivino-Gill
Megan-Coyle-Chiasson
Courtnall-Hohmann-Rodrigues
Gaudet-Rosen-Cissé

The lines I just drew up could look a whole hell of a lot different, as Parker may want to put more experienced players on the top two line, which may look something like this:

Connolly-Gill-Chiasson

Cisse-Nieto-Megan

Hohmann-Gaudet-Rodrigues 

Courtnall-Rosen-Gillroy/Santana

REPORT: Coyle Gone, Will Sign With St. John

This is the first picture I ever took of
Charlie Coyle in a BU uniform. That
night, Charlie netted a hat trick
against the University of Toronto
in an exhibition game, the first
game of the 2011 season.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Yesterday, there was a huge rumor swirling around that Charlie Coyle would leave BU in favor of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Today, according to multiple sources, Coyle will leave BU and join the St. John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL. Last season, St. John won the Memorial cup, the Canadian Hockey League's championship. The Q (as the QMJHL is most commonly referred to as) is one of three divisions (the OHL and WHL being the other two) that make up the CHL. 

-------------------
The Boston Hockey Blog reports that Coyle has left School: From The Boston Hockey Blog:  "Yes, I have made my decision to leave BU becasue I'm done with being a student-athlete and I want to focus on just hockey," Coyle said via text. "I was not failing out.

-------------------

NHL.com report

College Hockey News report

My Thoughts

Well what else is there really to say? BU has lost arguably their two best scorers in one week. Charlie, though not putting up the number of goals we all though he would, has still been a major factor in the team's success this year. There is a reason that he is on a plane to Edmonton today, and it's not to sign with the Sea Dogs. It's to represent his country in the WJC.

It's Coyle's play away from the puck and what he does when he does not have possession of the black rubber disk, that make him and the guys around him so good. BU is royally screwed now. I thought they could get by when Trivino was dismissed, but without Coyle this season could be completely lost.

Coyle was the 28th pick in the 2010 NHL by the San Jose Sharks. Coyle was then traded to the Minnesota Wild over this past summer. In 16 games played, Charlie has 3 goals, 11 assists that make 14 points, good for 3rd on BU. 

The thing that baffles me the most is that Coyle is a "BU Boy". His uncle, Tony Amonte, is a BU legend. Charlie dreamed of playing at BU his whole life and now it really seams he just pissed that away. Good Luck Charlie, the Wild will someday need you.