Weekend With The Catamounts

From The Vault
Charlie McAvoy bodies UVM's Johnathan
Turk in last year's meeting on
December 4th, 2015. 
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

For a weekend series that really didn’t have a lot of flavor behind it when the schedule was first announced, this weekend's pair of games at Vermont could have a major impact on not only the Hockey East race, but the national tournament as well.

Vermont was a consensus pick to finish in the bottom of the league standings and well out of the top 16 in the PWR prior to the season. Add on to that the fact that they faced a hazing scandal involving the freshmen, which led to some of the players from last year’s roster being cut for “athletic reasons” (they over recruited), and the outlook for the season was bleak.

Well, UVM has been anything but dull so far. The Cats are 9-3-2, tied with Harvard for fourth in the PairWise (yeah, it’s about time to start looking at that, I guess), and sit in third place in Hockey East with nine points.

UVM is currently riding a six game unbeaten streak, in which they picked up four points over UMass, three points from Maine and, trounced Quinnipiac 5-1 in Belfast in the Friendship Four championship game. Other notable wins include a 3-0 blanking of Michigan at home and a 5-2 win at Clarkson to open the season.

BU has dominated Vermont in recent competition. The Terriers are 11-3-1 dating back to February 28, 2010, the last time UVM won two straight games against the Terriers. Last year the two teams split a two game series at Agganis in December, with Vermont winning 4-2 on Friday and BU scoring a 5-3 win on Saturday.

Scouting The Catamounts
Freshman Ross Colton leads the team in scoring with twelve points by way of a balanced six goals and six assists. Senior Captain Mario Puskarich, who was suspended five games in the hazing scandal, is second, coming in with five goals and five assists. Craig Puffer also has ten points, posting six goals and four assists.

Other players to watch include Jarid Privitera, Rob Darrar and Brady Shaw.

In goal, freshman Stefanos Lekkas has stolen the starting job from senior Mike Santaguida. In 11 games played, Lekkas is 8-1-2 with a 1.72 goals against average and a .940 save percentage. Satnaguida, on the other hand, is 1-2-0 and has registered a 3.66 GAA to go along with a .889 goals against.

BU Notes
- Clayton Keller could potentially be back this weekend. The Boston Hockey Blog reports he is “day to day”

- Tommy Kelley will be done for the rest of the semester with a lower body injury. He was walking around the rink on Friday in Providence with a boot on his foot.