BU Battles UNH in the Hockey East Quarterfinals

Since 2005 when Agganis Arena opened, BU has hosted the Hockey East Quarterfinals (HEQF) every year. This weekend, the building and the Terriers will host New Hampshire, the eighth different Hockey East team to play a series in Agganis.

The only team BU has not played in the HEQF's at Agganis is Boston College. In 2005, the year the building opened, the Terriers hosted Providence. The Terriers then hosted in the following years (in order) UMass, Vermont, Lowell, Maine, Merrimack, and Northeastern. All but the 2006 series have gone three games.

From The Vault
Chris Connolly battles in the corner against UNH earlier this
season.

On to this year's series with UNH: The Wildcats come into this weekend losers of their last two games. UNH was just plain terrible at the beginning of the season and did not even score a goal until their third game of the year. The Cat's first win of the year didn't come until october 28th when they beat Union College 2-1 in overtime. Following that win, UNH went on a six game unbeaten streak in which they beat Lowell 5-0 at home. The streak came to an abrupt end though, as BU beat them 4-1 at Agganis. Following that loss, UNH slumped back into the their losing ways and only won one more game before the holiday break. The lone win was against arguably the nation's worst team in Alabama Huntsville 9-1. 

Following an awful first half of the season, UNH decided to change things up in goal. Senior and preseason-ranked number one goalie in the country by USCHO, Matt Di Girolamo had been struggling. So, in the team's last game of the first semester (against BU) the Wildcats started Freshman Casey DeSmith. UNH ended up losing that game 2-1, but ever since, DeSmith has played very well in goal... and so have the Wildcats as a team. They currently have a record of 14-17-3 and somehow are in the PairWise rankings.

Scouting the Wildcats

Stevie Moses leads the team in total points with 34. In 34 games played the Senior forward from Leominster, MA has 21 goals and 13 assists. A pair of Sophomores are nipping at the heals of Moses for the points race. Nick Sorkin has 33 (8g, 25a) and Kevin Goumas has 31 (8g, 23 a).

In goal

Like I said before, DeSmith took over the starting job midway through the year and never looked back. This season, DeSmith has a 8-8-1 record with a .929 save percentage and a 2.21 goals against average. 

The Last Time They Met...

was back on December 8th. BU won 2-1 on the game winning goal scored by Corey Trivino, Chris Connolly tallied his 100th career point as a Terrier. 

BU and UNH have only met once in HEQF's. That was back in 1986 and BU won the series.