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.