Weekend With The Wildcats

This weekend, BU and UNH square off in a rematch of last year's Hockey East semifinal game at TD Garden. Game one will be at 8:30 (thank you ASN TV!) in Durham on Friday night and game two will be at a normal hour back in Boston on Saturday. Both teams are fighting for playoff position. BU is looking to get into the top four and pick up a first round bye and UNH sits in eighth. The eight seed is the last team to host a first round (octo-finals) series at home. The Wildcats are one point ahead of ninth place UConn and two points behind seventh place Vermont. 

From The Vault
Matt Lane leads a rush up ice in a game at the Whittemore
Center early in his freshman year. UNH won this game 4-1.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

UNH has won just two of their last 12 games and that includes a seven game losing streak from January 2nd to the 29th. Their last win came two weeks ago at Lowell. At 10-15-5, the Wildcats record may not be the greatest, but they have played teams very tight. In some recent losses, they fell 1-0 to Lowell, 4-3 to BC and 3-2 to Notre Dame. 

Last year, the two teams split a weekend series in mid February. BU won the first game at Agganis and then fell behind 4-0 the next night at the Whitt before storming back in the third. The comeback came up one goal short and UNH won 4-3. 

Scouting The Wildcats
Sophomore Andrew Poturalski not only leads the team in scoring with 22 goals and 25 assists, but his 47 points are good for second in the nation. Michigan's Kyle Connor has just a one point lead on him. His line mate Tyler Kelleher has also put up impressive numbers, registering 8 goals and 34 assists. That point total is fourth best in the country. Other players to watch include: Dan Correale, Maxim Gaudreault and Matias Cleland.

Last year Daniel Tirone was a mid-season addition and really helped stabilize the UNH goaltending situation. This year, he has decent numbers. In 27 appearances, the sophomore from Trumbull, Connecticut has an 8-14-5 record and a 3.31 goals against average to go along with a .900 save percentage. Last year, he was 14-6-0 with a 2.14 goals against and a .924sv%.

Out of Conference Common Opponents
Union 
BU 3, @ Union 5 (October 10)
UNH 5, @ Union 2 (October 24)

Bentley
Bentley 0, @ BU 3 (November 24)
Bentley 4, @ UNH 5 (November 28)

BU Notes

Would not not surprised if the lines got shaken up this weekend, but I have not seen anything yet.