Battle With An Unbeaten

Well here comes a test. Tonight, BU plays their last game before semester break against the best team in the nation, in their barn, nonetheless. The Terriers take on Quinnipiac for the first ever match up between the two schools.

Coming into the weekend, if the NCAA tournament was to have been selected this past week, BU and QU would have been a first round matchup. That has since gone by the wayside after the BU loss last night dropped them out of the top 16 in the PWR.

Qpac is not only undefeated, but they have played and beaten some of the best teams in the nation. They swept St. Cloud State at home (5-2 and 4-1), dropped Harvard 4-1 at home, and blanked Yale 3-0 at the whale last weekend. QU is hot, but they are also rested. They did not have to travel and play a game last night, but instead were idle. BU is banged up, missing two players to injury and one to WJC camp and had to play last night. It's not a good combination when having to face the top team in the county.

Quinnipiac is trying to become the second team this year to go into the holiday break with an undefeated record. Providence has already accomplished the feat, going 12-0-3 and becoming the first team since Colorado College in 1996. CC lost the national title game in overtime to Michigan, that year.

Scouting the Bobcats
The Q is led by Sam Anas, who has nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in 17 games played. Travis St. Denis is right behind him with 17 points. Honestly, I haven't seen Quinnipiac play nearly enough games to say who is a standout player on their roster. I know Anas is a skilled forward, but they also have eight other players who have double digit point totals. It seems that depth has been their greatest strength, so far.

I have watched two QU hockey games in my life: the 2013 national championship game and last year's regional semi with North Dakota. Not much to go off of there.

In goal, Michael Garteig has been out of his mind good this year. He is 15-0-2 with a .952 save percentage and a 1.13 goals against average. He has only allowed 19 goals total on the season.