Weekend With The Wildcats

BU enters this weekend’s series with the UNH Wildcats looking to right the ship after a less than stellar outing in the Beanpot Final against Harvard on Monday night. The Terriers currently sit alone in second place in Hockey east, but only one point clear of both Notre Dame and Lowell. BU is still three points behind first place BC with just four games to play.

From the Vault
Former Terrier goalie Grant Rollheiser stops one of 41 UNH
shots in a 4-2 BU win on November 20th, 2010.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

New Hampshire on the other hand, is tied with Merrimack for 7th with 17 points. Remember, the top four teams in the league get a bye to the quarterfinals, while the bottom eight play a “play-in round.” Seeds 5-8 will get home ice in round one and UNH is right on that line.

The Wildcats are 12-14-4 on the year, but have won just one of their last nine games. The sole win came last weekend, a 4-2 decision at Vermont on Friday night. Prior to that win, you have to go all the way back to January 12th to find the last UNH win. In that span of futility, New Hampshire was shutout 3-0 by both Notre Dame and Providence, and steam rolled 6-4 and 8-2 by BC and Lowell, respectively.

Last year, BU took three points from UNH via a 3-3 tie in Durham and a 3-2 win on Comm Ave.

Scouting the Wildcats
Unsurprisingly, Tyler Kelleher is dominating the score sheet for UNH. The sophomore from Longmeadow, who racked up 46 points a year ago, has already surpassed that amount. Coming into this weekend, Kelleher has 51 points, 20 more than anyone else on the roster. In 30 games played, Kelleher has notched 18 goals and 33 assists, good for second in the nation behind only Northeastern's Zach Aston-Reese. His 33 assists are the most in the county, three ahead of Union's Spence Foo. Michael McNicholas is second on the team with 31 points by way of 10 goals and 21 assists. Look for defenseman Matias Cleland to get involved with the offense this weekend. The senior defenseman is third on the team in scoring with 30 points, 28 of those being assists.

In goal, Danny Tirone is 12-12-4 with a .911 save percentage and a 2.80 goals against. He has played 92% of the minutes in the UNH net this year and will almost certainly start both games this weekend.

BU Notes
The Daily Free Press reported earlier today that Brandon Hickey will be out on Friday with a “lower body injury on his right leg.”

Jake Oettinger will start in net.