Terriers Travel to UMass

Tonight, BU will head out to Amherst and try and get back on track and also attempt to pick up their first road win of the year. The Terriers are 0-8-0 in opponents' barns this year. The one time they have won in Red was facing Cornell at Madison Square Garden in the Red Hot Hockey Game. Lucky (looking ahead a bit here) BU won the draw and will be the home team in Monday’s Beanpot game vs. Boston College.

Evan Rodrigues scores against UMass in the season's first
 meeting.
(Photo by Matt Dresens) 

Onto tonight’s matchup… UMass (7-16-3, 3-8-2) finds themselves ahead of BU by just one point in the Hockey East standings with 8. BU won the first game of the season series back on opening night at Agganis 3-1. Matt O’Connor will be in net for BU tonight; Sean Maguire was between the pipes the last time the two teams met.

Scouting the Minutemen
UMass is led in total points by Conor Sheary, who in 26 games has posted a 4-16-20 line. The team’s leading goal scorer is a dead heat right now between freshman Steven Iacobellis and Brandon Gracel, who both have ten. Iacobellis has one more point than Gracel at 17.

In goal, UMass has seen Steve Mastalerz play the bulk of the time. In 23 appearances, the junior from North Andover has a 7-13-2 record to go along with a .913 save percentage and a 2.70 goals against average. Two freshmen, Max Haight and Alex Wakaluk have both seen time as well. Haight has a 0-1-1 record in four appearances, while Wakaluk is 0-2-0 in his two times in the cage.

History

BU has traditionally dominated the Minutemen since UMass brought back their program in the mid '90s. Overall dating back to 1920, BU leads the series 53-11-3. Since 2010 the series has been much closer, at least at the Mullens Center where the teams are 4-4-1 against each other.