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.