Archive for October, 2011

31
Oct
11

The dog days: not entirely over.

By bittym87 1 Comment
Categories: Hockey
Tags: , , , ,

This weekend, pinned against its back, a Hockey East team desperately in need of a turnaround got its act together when it mattered the most and got three big points against a reeling opponent.

That opening sentence should have referred to the Minutemen, making a giant statement about its chances in Hockey East this year, about its vast improvement over last year’s debacle. Instead, Jack Parker’s Terriers laughed in the face of certain doom and found themselves back on track after rallying from a combined five-goal deficit over the course of two games. Both teams needed these points. BU needed them that much more.

Now, for those interesting in silver linings, UMass was arguably the better team on the ice for the entire weekend save for overtime of game one and the fateful second period Saturday. Particularly on Friday night, they dominated play for large stretches and seemed to have put their awful performance at Conte in the rear-view mirror. But we’ve seen this show before. The past few years, especially last season, this team accelerates quickly in the wrong direction when things start to get bad. We see this air of inevitability as fans, and I’m beginning to wonder if the sense of dread is shared by the team and the coaching staff. It was especially clear Saturday from our vantage point two rows behind the UMass bench at Agganis. You could almost feel the helplessness set in after the abortion of a 5 on 3. I’m fairly sure BU controlled the puck for 99% of the period from that point on, and then it was only a matter of time. Honestly, it was a shooting gallery on Tegs for the last few minutes of the period, and that UMass actually still had the lead in the intermission is a minor miracle. It easily could have been 7-3 BU going into the 3rd, and I’m actually being generous. And this isn’t just a Mike Marcou Show Starring Mike Marcou problem (he wasn’t any better than the rest of the gang, but I won’t pin the ending on him because the call was weak-sauce, and shame on the BU radio guys for, as Derek who was listening put it, “acting like Mike killed a guy” even after the replay showed it was clearly a weak call). True, Mikey’s actually-pretty-good performance Friday night will go forgotten after Saturday. But really, none of the guys Toot put on the ice seemed capable of even coming close to controlling the puck, let alone clearing it, once BU got going.

Major props, by the way, to Teglia for even keeping it close despite his defense literally giving up for the entire second half of the game. I mean, completely giving up. They couldn’t clear the puck to save their lives. The entire. Second. Half. I know BU has a high-octane offense, but they’re not that good. There just looked to be nothing left in the tank, and it’s way too early to be saying that. But I can’t stress enough how ugly this was. Consider the phrase “Teg Stand” coined and minted after that performance. He gets my Kubbie Point for the game despite allowing five goals, because I don’t think there was a single one you couldn’t pin on the defense.

Honestly, I don’t feel like sitting here and bitching and moaning about how bad this game was. I witnessed it with my own two eyes, and that was enough. I would be happier talking about Friday, which ended in an unfortunate tie but in which UMass played three complete periods and just couldn’t bounce in that third, clinching goal, taking a point from a top-15 team and positioning well for the road ahead. But after this loss, pessimism is the only logical course of action. The offense was sharp early and, to its credit, fought back to tie the game when all seemed lost. Alas, it was just delaying the inevitable. The Minutemen have their hands full with another daunting weekend against UNH (which seems to have righted the ship somewhat) and then another bout with BC at the Bill.

Let’s face facts. Since the end of the Jimmy/Casey era, UMass has played 32 Hockey East games and won five of them. And those five are against Vermont and Lowell. While it’s great that UMass has hung around in every game since the 11-2 disaster at Lawler last year, they still have yet to take that “next step” of, you know, actually winning some of those games. Something needs to change with the attitude of this team. It’s a tired story to hear but we’re going to keep harping on it until the worm turns: this team does NOT hold leads as presently constituted, and until that changes, the “coulda been” games will keep ending up in the loss and tie columns. This team SHOULD be 3-2-0 in Hockey East, and COULD easily be 4-1-0 (with a goaltender in Providence instead of a cardboard cutout of Kevin Boyle). They’ve been definitively outplayed once this year, at Chestnut Hill, by the #1 team in the land. What a shame, then, that they’ve played themselves out of their potential when it’s counted.

The road gets less bumpy after next weekend. But anything less than 2 points is going to make that road a hell of a lot longer.

- Max

—–

Various Observations:

- Attendance: great turnout by the students, but WHERE THE HELL were the locals? Y’all are lettin’ me down this year so far. Although I’d rather the side that’s near-full be loud and into the game. It was like a bizarro basketball crowd.

- Speaking of which, this nugget from Matt on Twitter: “Sluts have a postman-like ability to ignore weather.” Snowtober Presented by Amway did not keep Halloween any classier. I have to say, Josh Brown as the Ghostbuster won the night for me.

- One criticism of the home crowd: this weekend showed us just how big the divide is between UMass and BU in terms of fan awareness. Scores of BU kids brought signs referencing Mike Pereira’s “snob” comments earlier in the week. Virtually nobody in the UMass crowd had any idea about this controversy. Then again, half of them probably don’t even know who Mike Pereira is. Baby steps. To the crowd’s credit, there was only a smattering of attempts at “Fuck BU” (and a “Fuck Boston?!” lol wut?). We’re getting there, guys. Forward progress.

- And NO MATTY G. I like how his replacement (let’s call him “some guy with an actual PA announcing voice”) deadpanned the cheesy Matty G staples he was forced to do. It’s almost as if he knows that it is never, in fact, time for a noise meter. Sadly, it’ll be back to the groan-worthy stylings of Mr. Goldstein next weekend. It was a good run, other guy.

- Scoops Mazurik: Not a bad fellow, as it turns out. Fight Mass: Making Friends In Hockey East Wherever We Go! (TM) Seriously, though, classiest group of visiting BU fans I’ve encountered yet. Too bad the older home fans in our section at Agganis were so obnoxious on Saturday. (To be fair, I figure rooting for a Jack Parker team probably would skew your opinion on what is and isn’t a penalty in the game of hockey.)

- As sucky as Saturday’s game was, those new road uniforms are fucking awesome. I want to see them more, in spite of the outcome. Although I’m not as enthused about the white helmets, either at home or on the road.

- Baz-kett-a-ball starts in just 11 days! I know, I can’t believe it either. Rumor has it the Minutemen may or may not have beaten Drexel in a controlled scrimmage! Matt and I said hi to Coach Kellogg at ABC after the hockey game on Friday. He is very tall and very politician-like, but I was honest when I said I believe this team is gonna surprise some people this year. I might have more on that later this week…

- …but probably not. Merrimack, NH is still without power for the most part, and my office just got power back so it’s back to work tomorrow. I’ll try to get something up before the season opener, but I make no promises. NONE.

27
Oct
11

You want the scars, but you don’t want the war

By heavydrexler 3 Comments
Categories: Hockey
Tags: , , ,

#13 Boston University Terriers (2-2-0, 1-1-0 Hockey East)

vs.

Massachusetts Minutemen (1-2-1, 0-2-1 Hockey East)

The BU Terriers come stumbling into Amherst this Friday to start a home-and-home weekend series with the Minutemen. After managing to fell Denver, that’s number two in the nation Denver, two weekends ago, the Terriers were stunned by a huge upset loss to Holy Cross at home last Saturday. Starring in this loss was senior BU goalie Kieran Millan. Starring for the Crusaders, that is. Millan gave up five goals to the Crusaders last weekend. His up and down performance thus far this season has been a bit of a microcosm of his entire career at Boston University. His stats this year (2-2-0, 3.28 GAA, .903 save%) have been pretty terrible. Unfortunately for the Minutemen, the Terriers can still score goals and they have been scoring them at a rate of four a game. The team is still packed with talented offensive forwards, with guys from Alex Chiasson (4G/3A/+7) to Matt Nieto (4G/1A/+5) to Corey Trevino (3G/2A/+1) to Sahir Gil (1G/4A/Even) to Wade Megan (2G/1A/-1). The team is packed with 10 NHL draft picks, six of them forwards. The Terriers have yet to score less than three goals in any single game this season and have scored four or more in all but one.

The key to beating the Terriers is to contain their offense. Let’s face it, on the defensive side of the puck there are not nearly as many recognizable names. Gone is David Warsofsky and the only really impressive D-men the Terriers have left are Adam Clendening and Garret Noonan. That leaves four defensemen for the Mass Attack to pick on. Hopefully, Toot will go back to the star-studded top line of TJ Syner (1G/6A/+1), Danny Hobbs (3G/2A/+1), and Franchise Pereira (3G/2A/+1) this weekend and stop fucking with an offense that has been great, minus the BC game where he did fuck with the lines. If the offense has its chemistry right, it should be able to exploit some of the lesser BU defensemen and put a few past Millan, who will hopefully continue to be iffy.

Now to the real question. If the offense does play up to its ability, the game can certainly be won with some solid, fundamental defensive play. Unfortunately, this is a defense featuring The Mike Marcou Show Starring Mike Marcou and that can be problematic. Minus the aforementioned Show and some lapses in discipline from Mountain Man Олэг Евэнко, I think the defense has been okay. The issue has been that okay defense only clears rebounds away some of the time when goalies leave them in the slot. We have to assume that Tegs will be in net for at least one (hopefully both) of these games, so the rebound issue shouldn’t be too bad. The defense just has to deny BU any golden opportunities and hopefully Teglia will be able to stop the shots he’s supposed to and won’t leave any juicy rebounds. Denying BU golden opportunities is definitely easier said than done, given how strong the Terriers’ offense has been this year, but if the Minutemen stay disciplined and stick to the fundamentals it should not be a particularly difficult task.

That’s really it. These two games could certainly be high scoring shootouts. If that’s the case, I don’t know how I feel about the Mass Attack’s chances this weekend. The keys are to minimize the damage the high octane Terrier offense does and put a decent amount of shots on Millan and hope they find their way through screens or drop in front of the net for easy rebound opportunities. I think it’s really key that the Minutemen compete in both these games and come out of this weekend with AT LEAST two points. If the Minutemen do that, it’s a weekend we can all feel good about. If they don’t, well we’re going to start seeing some fan apathy and a lot more questions about how strong this team, and its coaching staff, really is.

On a personal note, I’m quite excited. This Friday will mark my first return to the Bill as an alumnus, which will be quite a bittersweet experience for me. Hopefully the result will make it more sweet than bitter. I say this with the utmost joy and anticipation. Is it Friday yet?

-Derek

27
Oct
11

Contributor’s Corner: “Off the Glass”

By bittym87 Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey
Tags: , ,

Welcome to the second installment of my new weekly feature, “Max Outsources The Labor of Writing of His Blog to his Readers.” In today’s episode, Jarod gives his own account of the student section experience from the Bentley game, which I thought was a solid crowd but nothing compared to what it’ll look like Friday. There’s also some actual hockey talk sprinkled in there, along with a few of my own italicized thoughts. Give it a read and start getting amped for a weekend with Scoops Mazurik’s Jack Parker’s Terriers.

Off the Glass – by Jarod Hendrickson

It’s a privilege to now be a contributor to a blog I’ve read religiously since freshmen year. My main focus is hockey, as football is in CAA purgatory for a year while we undergo the transition to D1, and I will refuse to acknowledge the clusterfuck that is UMass basketball. [Editor's note: But...but...there's no more dribble drive!!!1 - Max] I’ll try and keep this column updated on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, while dealing with the “sack up and raise your GPA this year” period, which is also referred to as junior year in college. Anywho, down to my recap of the first four games and some thoughts (rants).

Well so much for that eh? Just when this team offers you a small glimmer of hope, they quickly piss it away less than 24 hours later. Maybe this is just a drunk, knee jerk reaction, but seriously. I’ve always been a glass half full of whiskey kind of guy, and Friday’s home opener, “good enough for 2 points and a W” performance was enough to offer me hope that this team was headed in the right direction. Sure freshmen backstop Kevin Boyle let in a couple of questionable goals, but keep in mind he’s a freshmen and would hopefully learn the ropes sooner than later. On Saturday however, he took a step back from that development, and was chased from the game in favor of sophomore Jeff Teglia after giving up 5 bad goals. Why it took Toot so long to pull him nobody knows, the kid obviously didn’t have it from the opening drop. UMass then gave us the usual “valiant effort but still falling short in the end” comeback that we’ve become accustomed to, and dropped 2 points to (lowly?) Providence in the empty cavern that is Schneider Arena. [Also dark. It's very dark. - MB] In two games against Northeastern and Providence, UMass has only come away with 1 point. Honestly, that sucks. We really needed those points against two lower tier Hockey East teams. The following weekend, UMass dropped a 4-2 loss to #1 BC. Teglia got the start, and stood on his head and played extremely well, despite the score (which could have easily been 34-2). UMass now sits at (1-2-1), good for 7th in Hockey East.

Friday’s home opener vs. the high flying Falcons of Bentley has been well recapped and is old news, so I’ll point out what I saw from the student section from halfway up section R (due to a sober driver who missed the exit on rt. 116, thanks bro). Fans were loud and supportive, but some of the chants died off way too early. Remember kids, we do the whole “fuck ‘em up fuck ‘em” routine again after the faceoff after a goal. I’m kind of glad we got stuck up a ways in the seats, as everyone soon followed along after they saw our group chanting again. No worries, the new faces in the stands will learn soon enough. During intermissions (which I’m pretty sure are primarily for cigarettes and Yukon Jack outside while avoiding eye contact with security) some people left early and others were still showing up. The thing that really got me were the loud cheers after a Bentley goal. Cheers for Bentley? No. Cheers for some douchebag in a Hawaiian shirt who couldn’t hold his alcohol and was slumped in his seat for half the game, then finally dragged out by his friend? Yes. Pathetic. Fuck him and watch the game. We’ve all had those nights, but there are much better things to focus on than the lightweight. Overall, I’ll give the student section a B- for the night, because I’m nice and it was Bentley after all.

Back to the road ahead…a home and home with #12 Boston University this weekend. This Friday should easily be a sell out. A big name like BU coming to town, a NESN telecast, Halloween weekend, no excuses. The campus is buzzing over the upcoming weekend, and what better way to start it than with everyone’s beloved UMass hockey. So get there early (doors open at 5:30), be loud, and stay for the whole game. You’ve got all night for Halloween weekend shenanigans, what’s a couple of hours? [No, but seriously kids...get there early. Even if the game doesn't sell out, there's only so much room in the student section, and at some point they cut that off and make students buy general admission tix. Even if your friends are saving your seats, don't expect to get in if you stroll up to the Bill after 6:30 or so. - Max]

Grabbing two points this weekend would be out-fucking-standing. Hopefully they can look back at this start of the season and call it a “character building experience” and say these first four games proved to be a shot of reality that shoved them in the direction that we’d like to call progress and success. You can see the potential is there. It’s no doubt they could hang with the top teams in Hockey East. The offense (primarily the first line) is lighting it up, defense is solid, the question now is between the pipes, something we’re not used to saying. This team is on the cusp of something, and they are starting to gel right before our eyes. But we can only use this excuse for so long before they have to take the ice night in and night out and get the wins. There are no moral victories anymore. Last year was rebuilding, this year needs to translate into a higher seed in the hockey east tournament and maybe a key upset and advancement into the second round. But we’re not there yet, no not even close. It’s only October..much more hockey to be played, and the toughest stretch of the season coming up. This team needs a couple of good; solid wins under their belt. With the confidence from said wins, who knows what can happen. What better place to start than against BU? Oh and is it Friday yet?

- Jarod

 ——-

Alright kids, there you have it. I will stress one more time for those newbies out there: get there early. BU and BC games are always near-sellouts, and like I said, the student section has a maximum capacity that normally gets reached before the ticketed seats go, and likewise, the cheaper general admission seats go before the assigned (and more expensive) seats do. UMass has been playing Providence for Halloween weekend for several years now, so to be playing a much better draw of an opponent means expect chaos. Oh, and enjoy – Halloween (with the costumes and such) is one of my favorite times of year in Amherst. I’m excited to get to return after spending the holiday in Orlando last year. See you all at the Bill.

- Max

23
Oct
11

This isn’t where I parked my car…

By bittym87 Leave a Comment
Categories: Football and Hockey
Tags: , , ,

Winless weekends are never truly fun, especially when we UMass fans have been treated to so many of them over the past year and a half. The Minutemen came up 0 for 2 in a big hockey/football weekend against front-running BC and soon-to-be-former CAA archrival New Hampshire. There’s a little bit of silver lining to each loss, enough to make me hesitate to use “shit sandwich” to describe the weekend as a whole. I think the somewhat less-pessimistic “less than stellar” will suffice.

Friday, the Minutemen lost for the 926th straight time to BC, 4-2. Not a lot to say about this other than BC is good and we are not as good at hockey. In fact, it really sucks to admit this, but the Eagles actually look better this year in spite of their losses on offense and in goal. On top of all that, it doesn’t even look like we can make fun of their fan apathy this year – Conte Forum had golden-clad spoiled brats filling both endzones AND an entire side of the arena, something we haven’t seen in our Conte visits in recent years. You know, good for them, it’s about time they come out to support this runaway powerhouse of a hockey program. (Then again, their basketball team has been picked to finish dead last in the ACC, and their football team is on its way to a winless season against teams that aren’t in the middle of transitioning from FCS. So I guess they have to have something.)

It was good to see Teglia perform his best Dainton impression in net (complete with trying to play the puck at any and all opportunities, to the detriment of our heartrates) and props to Andrew Tegeler, who scored his first collegiate goal and earns my Kubbie Point for the game (Matt’s, I believe, goes to Teglia). But barely scratching to within 2 goals of BC is not going to cut it. It just isn’t. Papa Triangle is starting to question if this team has made any improvement at all over last year’s. I can’t say I blame him, but let’s wait and see how they handle BU (who just lost to Holy Cross!!!1 and also who UMass played better against last year than they did against BC) before we start jumping off the library.

Of course, if Toot keeps the HoPS line separated again like he inexplicably did in this game, we’ll probably lose both games by 10 goals. Not really, but yeah, let’s not be doing that anymore, k? K. (I will leave ample opportunity for Derek to rant about this, because hoooooh boy was he steamed about this.)

—-

Saturday, Matt and I joined the Section U guys and gals for the second and final annual Colonial Clash at Gillette against the Wildcats of Villanova wait that’s next week… New Hampshire. It was the very definition of a mixed bag for me, though as a short-term event I thought it was a great experience. Here are some observations:

- We lost the game, in case you didn’t hear. Now, as far as this season is concerned, it is (Rob Lowe) lit-rally (/Rob Lowe) irrelevant. In the long run…I’d actually argue that losing this game HELPS the Minutemen. I don’t really feel like talking about Kevin Morris any more, but rest assured, the “fire Morris” sentiment is getting stronger every day. There’s absolutely nothing about this guy that gives any of us confidence that he’s the direction the University needs to be moving in. None. Zero. Yesterday’s game was classic Morris mismanagement – Pagel finally signs of figuring out this offense, so let’s keep running with Hernandez against a good run defense. The special teams looked completely unprepared for this game on every single kickoff. You can’t blame Morris for things like turnovers, Levengood’s inability to kick, umm, anything, or the refs’ inability to understand concepts like “pass interference” and “the clock stops when the ball-carrier goes out of bounds.” You can blame Morris for “getting outcoached by an FCS coach.” Which he does, week in and week out, and when it does, the losses won’t be as close as this one was.

More troublesome to me, seeing as how the game was for all intents and purposes an exhibition, was the game presentation itself. Gillette Stadium, for all its daddy’s charge-style excess (fireplaces?!!!) and sterile reputation by NFL standards, was home to some of the most amateurish in-game presentation I’ve ever seen at a sporting event. We here at Fight Mass like to laugh at things like this – like that game we went to in Lowell, pre-renovations, where the announcer called out “30 seconds to play in the period,” Ke$ha randomly came on during the game, and they spent every stoppage on some Rowdy the River Hawk cornball storyline. Yesterday at Gillette felt an awful lot like that, only it was our team, and…wait, what’s that? Why, that’s Matty G’s music…nooooooooooooooooo!

It will be a glorious, glorious day when Matty G and his noise meters and over-the-top, trying-WAY-too-hard-and-failing-miserably delivery are no longer associated with our university. (Nothing personal.) For the time being, can we at least quarantine him to PA duties at hockey games and lineups at basketball? There is NO reason, in a football game, we should have a pre-recorded video of Matty G, being COMPLETELY serious, looking like a Tim and Eric Awesome Show sketch – only, again, not a joke. On top of all that, the clips would freeze halfway through. It was hilarious at first, then you remember “hey, remember how this whole MAC thing relies heavily on getting people in Eastern MA to come to games and want to come back?” If you’re not going to wow folks on the field, could we at least invest a dollar or two in the game presentation?

I don’t know a single person who enjoys Matty G who finds “NOOOOOOOISE MEEEETERS!” cool. We tolerate it at hockey because there’s so much else to the presentation and because we’re more concerned about the action on the ice anyway. I just think if we’re gonna have Gillette Motherfucking Stadium as our home field, we can at least try with the presentation. No Matty G. Let the POWER AND CLASS OF NEW ENGLAND lead the students in cheering. Hell, pump their music over the loudspeakers if you have to (BC sure does that with their hockey band). And for the love of Cosby, can we please get a copy of Jock Jams 2 that doesn’t skip? Please tell me they fired the intern who thought “hey, well, this recording of ‘Y’all Ready for This’ skips badly every time we play it, but let’s keep playing it every five minutes.” I’m guessing no, since we’re talking about a school that still doesn’t realize that the recording of “Fight Mass” that plays at hockey games has a nasty skip in it that throws the whole “Go! U! Mass!” chant off for everyone. Mind you, this has been the case for AT LEAST SIX YEARS NOW. (We could, of course, fix this with a hockey band.)

Okay, so that rant went in a lot of directions. Long story short: Gillette good, Teglia good, HoPS line good, Matty G bad, splitting up HoPS line bad. But you get your choice of toppings! That’s good. The toppings are also cursed. That’s bad. Can I go now?

Sorry I’ve been so scattershot this past week or so, what with my whole moving up to New Hampshire business. I have another article from contributor extraordinaire Jarod that I failed to post regarding UMass’s student section from the home opener and a semi-preview of the road ahead for hockey. Since most of it is relevant (especially regarding the student section, as we prepare for what had better be a sellout with the Halloweekend Hockey East home opener against BU) I will post it this week, along with hopefully the Kubbie Kounter page and maybe one or two other goodies.

Take care, and remember that a seven nation army couldn’t hold me down. AGH DAMNIT BC

-Max

21
Oct
11

Matt’s Pregame notes slash inane babbling Week 3: Escape From Daddy’s Charge

By blindspots88 Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

So, game is in 90 minutes, lets make this quick

  • Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I was lazy, Max is moving in to a new place and Walsh writes a preview and postgame analysis and how dare you expect more
  • Teglia please. If I walk in to Conte and see anyone but Tegs I’m going to immediately walk out and demand a refund.
  • This BC team is good, but why am I more optimistic tonight than I have for any other game I’ve seen vs BC? UMass should lose tonight, and probably will, but I absolutely think this team could shock BC, something I didn’t think last year /cut to UMass losing 23-1
  • Kind of a sleepy week for UMass. All eyes on football (for good reason, tomorrow will be fun) and with Hockey playing a team that is clearly better, everyone has eyes on next week against BU. Hopefully BC will be overlooking us as well.
  • RIP Eddie Olczyk =(
  • Olczyk isn’t a valid words with friends word. Make note.
  • Here’s to Oleg making him way into the crowd
BC Sucks. See you on the other side
-Matt
21
Oct
11

10/22 Weekend Preview

By heavydrexler Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey
Tags: , , ,

Massachusetts Minutemen (1-1-1, 0-1-1 Hockey East)

vs.

#2 Boston College Eagles (3-1-0, 1-0-0 Hockey East)

The Minutemen take on one of the best teams in the nation on Friday as they will do battle with the Eagles from Boston College. BC is a perennial Hockey East powerhouse and it looks like this year won’t be any different. The Eagles’ offense has been scoring at an impressive 4.50 clip while they have been giving up 2.25 goals a game, a figure that is deceptively high due to their one loss which included an empty net goal. In their three wins, the Eagles have amassed 16 goals while only allowing five. BC’s goal scoring is well distributed amongst the team; junior forward Chris Kreider leads the team with three goals and five other Eagles (Bill Arnold, Johnny Gaudreau, Barry Almeida, Pat Mullane, and Stephen Whitney) are tied for second on the team with two goals apiece. The offense is fueled by the forwards, who account for the top eight point scorers on the team. The defensive corps is only responsible for seven of the Eagles forty eight points thus far (two goals and four assists).

Boston College’s defense is led by a solid core of upperclassmen who know what it takes to get things done on the defensive side of the game. Senior captain Tommy Cross is the only defenseman on the team with an official leadership role but these guys clearly all know how to lead by example. Not only are there no minus players in the top six group of Cross, four juniors, and one sophomore, but there aren’t even any defensemen with even plus/minus ratings. Brian Dumoulin leads the team in plus/minus rating with a +5. Other than sophomore Isaac MacLeod, who I have not seen very much of, I can say that I have not seen a single defenseman on the Eagles who is anything less than outstanding. Junior Parker Milner finally has a chance at being the go-to guy between the pipes for the Eagles, and he is not squandering that opportunity so far. His stats are simply fantastic (3-1-0, 2.01 GAA, .923 save%). Those of us who had hoped that he wasn’t good enough to fill John Muse’s jockstrap are certainly disappointed.

While the Mass Attack cannot claim to have the kind of suffocating defense that the Eagles have right now, they can claim to have the kind of offensive firepower that rivals Boston College’s. The Minutemen are averaging 4.00 goals a game and the Syner-Pereira-Hobbs line has been mind-numbingly good since the return of Danny Hobbs. In those two games, they’ve accounted for six goals and ten assists. What’s concerning is that they have provided almost all of the offense. Although the Mass Attack certainly has other offensive talent to fall back on, so far only four players not from the top line (Colin Shea, Conor Sheary, Brendan Gracel, and Adam Phillips) have lit the lamp this year. Two of the five goals not produced by the top line have come on the powerplay, which is another exciting part of the 2011-2012 edition of the Mass Attack. So far in this early season, the Minutemen are converting powerplays at a very proficient clip of 21.1%.

What is not as exciting about this year’s Minutemen is the defensive side of the puck. On the whole, the team has played relatively well on defense. No one has played poorly, but the momentary lapses the team has seem to come at the worst possible moments. Despite outshooting their opponents by a wide margin, the Minutemen have given up as many goals as they have scored this year. A big part of the problem is the penalty kill, which has been successful a dismal 75.0% of the time. The penalty kill is all about fundamentals. Body positioning, stick positioning, denying passing lanes, keeping the puck to the outside, clearing bodies from the front of the net, clearing rebounds from the front of the net. That last one has been a killer. Freshman goalie Kevin Boyle has given it his all so far this season, but where he most clearly needs work is on his rebound control and his recovery and positioning for the second shot. College hockey goalies deny the first shot and rely on their defensemen to get to rebounds before the opposing forwards do; Hockey East goalies deny the first shot and prevent a second chance, either by allowing no rebound or by steering one out of harms way. I would expect to see Jeff Teglia’s first start of the year tonight. Boyle looked out of his element last Saturday and gave up some really ugly goals before he was finally (Yes, finally, Toot left him in WAY too long against the Friars on a night where he clearly just didn’t have it.) yanked for Teglia. Tegs stopped all eight shots he faced and looked rock solid in his first action of the year. Hopefully his great play in relief last weekend carries into this weekend; the Minutemen will need a huge performance from him if they want a chance to steal one from the Eagles at Conte.

This one should be exciting, folks! No more excuses. Our number one goalie should be in net, our offense is firing on all cylinders, our defense is playing well enough to pull out wins as long as Tegs helps ‘em out a little. Everyone should be excited because this is a game where we can see how our lineup matches up with one of the best out there. I expect they will matchup quite well and I expect a tight game tonight. I can’t tell you who’s gonna win this one, but I can tell you this is the most positive I’ve felt about the potential result of a UMass-BC game in a long, long time.

19
Oct
11

10/14 Weekend Recap Appendix

By heavydrexler Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey

Hockey East Awards

  • Player of the Week: Myles Harvey, Providence
  • Rookie of the Week: Terrence Wallin, UMass Lowell
  • Defensive Player of the Week: Chris Rawlings, Northeastern
  • Team of the Week: Providence Friars

In other news, UMass Lowell inexplicably played a Tuesday night game in New Hampshire against UConn and lost in overtime, 3-2. The River Hawks really dominated play, especially in the second and third periods, and outshot the Huskies 41-21 but poor decision making caused UML to drop the game. Riley Wetmore and Michael Budd scored the River Hawk goals.

Look for our game preview tomorrow as the Mass Attack has a big game coming up against #2 Boston College this weekend!

-Derek

17
Oct
11

10/14 Weekend Recap: Whiny Edition

By heavydrexler Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey
Tags: , , , ,

Friday: Bentley 3 – Massachusetts 5

The return of Danny Hobbs clearly sparked the first line in Friday night’s game as Hobbs, Pereira, and Syner combined for four goals and 10 points. Hobbs’s first goal of the season came after the Minutemen had given up an early goal to Bentley’s Aaron Stonacek. It came courtesy of a slick feed from linemate Franchise Pereira. UMass went down 2-1 on a powerplay goal scored by Alex Grieve and trailed to end the first period. The Mass Attack then scored three consecutive goals, two by the Franchise and one by Branden Gracel, before giving up another powerplay tally. The score stood at 4-3 until Pereira scored on an empty net to complete his hat trick.

The offense played well and the Mass Attack really controlled the flow of play from the second period on. After outshooting the Falcons 12-10 in the first period, the Minutemen went on to outshoot them by a much wider margin, 35-14, in the final two periods. The first line looked like gods and no one skater looked particularly bad, although The Mike Marcou Show Starring Mike Marcou was on the ice for all three goals against. The penalty kill was somewhat suspect, but so was freshman goaltender Kevin Boyle, who allowed too many rebounds and didn’t recover quickly enough to challenge second shots.

Douglas F. Kublin Memorial Player of the Game

Derek: Danny Hobbs

Yes, yes, Pereira had a hat trick, but one of those three goals was an empty netter and the other two were set up by Hobbs, one fantastically so. Hobbs’s one goal of the night was a timely one, scored shortly after Bentley took an early 1-0 lead, and it was not a coincidence that the first line, as a whole, had a breakout game on the same night he returned to the lineup.

~

Saturday: Massachusetts 4 – Providence 6

If you were there, you would know that the real first star of Saturday night’s game was Don Cahoon. For the Providence Friars. Listen, I’m not gonna blame Kevin Boyle. He had an off night, and it happens to all goalies. But I most certainly will blame Toot for leaving Boyle in to give up five bad goals. The first two weren’t absolutely terrible, they were rebound goals, one on the powerplay, pretty standard Kevin Boyle M.O. goals. However, the final three goals were all softies, two of which were literally give-up shots that were lobbed at the goalie to get a line change. I cannot fathom why Toot would leave in a goalie, who by most accounts is currently the number two goalie on the team, who clearly didn’t have anything when the number one goalie is sitting on the bench just waiting to go. Teglia stopped all eight shots he faced once he was finally put in net late in the second period.

I cannot complain about the way any of the skaters played on Friday night. To a man, they played hard, they played smart, and they played with skill. They earned almost twice as many powerplays as they gave up (9-5). They scored twice on the powerplay and held the Friars off the board on four of their five PP chances. Other than the first half of the third period, where they had issues possessing the puck, they played just about as well as anyone could hope they would play. I can’t single out any skater for the Minutemen who played poorly, only some who played exceptionally well. Danny Hobbs scored twice, once on the powerplay. TJ Syner had three assists. Conor Sheary made good on my promise that he would score, delivering on the powerplay. Conor Allen looked good on the back end. The list goes on. It’s just a shame that these guys weren’t given a decent shot at winning.

Douglas F. Kublin Memorial Player of the Game

Derek: Danny Hobbs

For the second night in a row, Hobbs delivered. Two goals, one on the powerplay, four shots on goal, and he threw the body around like an absolute beast. He was the Mass Attack’s best scoring threat AND the Mass Attack’s best forechecker on Saturday night. Kid’s playing like his hair’s on fire right now.

~

Other Games/Top Performers

Friday

 

  • Boston University 3 – Providence 5
    • BU comes out flat against the Friars, who get goals from five first time goal scorers, including four freshmen, to pull off the huge upset.
      • Providence – Stefan Demopoulos: 1 Goal, 1 Assist, +2 Rating, 5 Shots
      • BU – Matt Nieto: 1 Goal, 3 Shots
  • New Hampshire 0 –Northeastern 4
    • The Wildcats are shutout again as Chris Rawlings rebounds from a tough start against Maine. Matt DiGirolamo’s slump continues.
      • Northeastern – Chris Rawlings: Shutout, 27 Saves
      • Northeastern – Luke Eibler: 2 Assists, +2 Rating
  • Denver 4 – Boston College 2
    • The top team in the nation falls as Denver takes advantage of less than stellar goaltending
      • Denver – Jason Zucker: 1 Goal, 1 Assist, +1 Rating, 5 Shots
      • BC – Kevin Hayes: 1 Goal, 1 Assist (PP), 3 Shot
  • Maine 1 – North Dakota 3
    • Maine outshoots ND but Brad Eidsness stands tall in net for the Fighting Sioux.
      • ND – Brad Eidsness: 30 Saves, 1 Goal Allowed
      • ND – Ben Blood: 1 Goal, 1 Assist, +2 Rating
  • UMass Lowell 4 – Minnesota State 2
    • Lowell controls the flow of play and blasts 37 shots on net to become the only Hockey East team to win a non-conference game on Friday
      • UML – Riley Wetmore: 2 Goals, +1 Rating, 3 Shots
      • UML – Terrence Wallin: 1 Goal, 2 Assists, +3 Rating\
  • Exhibition USA Under-18 2 – Vermont 1
    • Lol, rly?
      • Vermont – No one.

Saturday

  • Boston College 5 – New Hampshire 1
    • UNH’s scoring offense and goaltending both continue to stink as BC rolls over the once vaunted Wildcats.
      • BC – Parker Milner: 39 Saves, 1 Goal Allowed
      • BC – Paul Carey: 1 Goal, 1 Assist, +2 Rating, 6 Shots
  • Army 2 – Merrimack 3
    • Merrimack’s offense almost doubles up Army’s shots on goal, but Cannata gives up two and the Warriors barely eek out a win at home.
      • Merrimack – John Heffernan: 1 Goal, 1 Assist +2 Rating, 3 Shots
      • Army – Rob Tadazak: 37 Saves, 3 Goals Allowed
  • Denver 3 – Boston University 4
    • Denver’s third period surge is not quite enough to complete the east coast sweep.
      • BU – Matt Nieto: 1 Goal (SH), +1 Rating
      • BU – Kieran Millan: 35 Saves, 3 Goals allowed
  • Maine 3 – North Dakota 3
    • Maine goes up 2-0 early but needs to score last to earn the 3-3 tie.
      • ND – Danny Kristo: 2 Goals (2 PP), 1 Assist, 5 Shots
      • Maine – Spencer Abbot: 3 Assists (2 PP), +1 Rating, 4 Shots
  • UMass Lowell 4 – Minnesota State 1
    • The River Hawks control the game from late in the first period on to sweep the weekend series with Minnesota State.
      • UML – Derek Arnold: 2 Goals (1 PP), 1 Assist (PP), +1 Rating, 5 Shots
      • UML – Doug Carr: 24 Saves, 1 Goal Allowed

~

Hockey East Awards

Hockey East has yet to post their weekly awards. I’m not sure if they’re waiting for the UConn-UML game to be played on Tuesday night to release them or if they’re just being slow. One way or another, there will be a supplement to this post once the weekly awards are up.

~

Hockey East Standings

Rank Team HE Games Played (Record) Points
1 Providence 2 (2-0-0) 4
2 Northeastern 3 (1-1-1) 3
3 Boston College 1 (1-0-0) 2
Merrimack 1 (1-0-0) 2
Boston University 2 (1-1-0) 2
Maine 2 (1-1-0) 2
7 Massachusetts 2 (0-1-1) 1
8 UMass Lowell 0 0
Vermont 0 0
New Hampshire 3 (0-3-0) 0

~

Hockey East Teams in the USCHO.com Poll

Ranked: #2 Boston College, #7 Boston University, #13 Merrimack, #18 Maine

Receiving Votes: Providence (69), UMass Lowell (12), Northeastern (3)

-Derek

15
Oct
11

Weekend Preview Part II, this is not a joke so please stop smiling

By heavydrexler Leave a Comment
Categories: Hockey
Tags: , ,

Massachusetts Minutemen (1-0-1, 0-0-1 Hockey East)

vs.

Providence Friars (1-0-0, 1-0-0 Hockey East)

Last night, the eighth-ranked Boston University Terriers discovered that the Providence Friars are no joke. Or at least they weren’t for one game. Yes those lowly basement dwellers, that team that was so bad it inspired this to be written about it near the end of the 2009-2010 season, the pushovers of yesteryear (pretty much every yesteryear) proved they could play some puck last night. Much to my amusement, Kieran Millan was forced to fish the biscuit out of the back of his own net five times. The Terriers were outshot in every period, except the third where both teams recorded 11 shots on net. The most impressive part of last night’s Friar win was that it was a full team effort. The five goals were put in by five different guys (Drew Brown, Matt Montesano, Stefan Demopoulos, Myles Harvey, and Ross Mauermann) and eleven skaters picked up points. Only three Friars were on the wrong side of the plus/minus rating for the night. Even when the team’s former best player, goalie Alex Beaudry, tried to blow the game by letting a 3-0 advantage slip away, the Friars found away to recompose themselves and put two more behind Millan to earn the W.

If last night’s game is any indicator, this is a much stronger squad under new head coach Nate Leaman than it was under Tim Army. We do, however, have to consider the possibility that this game was an aberration. Last year’s team went 4-16-7 in Hockey East play earning it ninth place (one point behind your beloved Minutemen). The Friars have not reached the postseason since my freshman year, the 2007-08 season. Last year’s top three scorers, who were not exactly setting the hockey world on fire anyway, have graduated. The team’s top returning point scorer, Tim Schaller, had all of five goals last season. Providence’s most remarkable returning freshman is Derek Army, son of the former coach. He managed to put up six goals and 13 points last year. Last year’s Friars scored just 1.96 goals per game in conference, and netminder Beaudry’s .901 save% was nowhere near good enough to carry the team.

In fact, if we’re talking about the Friars, we might as well forget about the upper class altogether. It’s all about the youth movement now in Providence. Four of last night’s five Friar goals were scored by freshmen. The exception was Myles Harvey’s powerplay game-winner. Harvey is a junior defenseman. It was his first career goal. That means that Providence had five first-time goal scorers last night. Pretty nifty feat there. Still, one game is a very small sample size and the Minutemen are unlikely to overlook the Friars as the Huskies may have. The Friars are a bit of an enigma right now. If nor overlooked, can the freshmen really continue to carry this team? And will Alex Beaudry return to his sophomore form (he posted a solid .914 save% that year without much help from the rest of the team) or will he be the reason the Friar’s lose games instead of the reason they eek out wins?

familyguy-deathisabitch_1217532992_1219345445

Okay, so let’s not forget this is Providence, the college whose only notable accomplishment is having Death as an alumnus. They grabbed a win last night but so did the Minutemen. The top line looked PHENOMENAL out there and Danny Hobbs, Franchise Pereira, and TJ Syner managed to rack up 10 points between themselves. The Mass Attack blasted 46 shots on Bentley goalie Branden Komm, plus one on an empty net. What was a slightly bit concerning was that such a high percentage of the production came from the top. Other than a goal scored by Brendan Gracel on a fantastical feed from Troy Power, the goals came exclusively from the top line. Also concerning was the penalty kill, which let in two goals on five chances. Although, to be fair, one of those goals came on a five minute opportunity after Adam Phillips received a five-and-game for contact to the head midway through the third period. (Thankfully, no further discipline will be imposed on Phillips for the hit.) Freshman Kevin Boyle… did not have his best night in net. Although Boyle is good on the first shot, it is becoming apparent that his rebound control and recovery are not up to par, at least not yet. I expect to see Jeff Teglia make his first start of the year in net tonight, but, honestly, he was probably already penciled into the lineup anyway.

As usual, tonight’s game will come down to who plays harder and smarter. The Friars were playing a nationally-ranked team (who probably was overlooking them) last night and it was their home and opener with a brand new coach. Plenty of motivation there to start off on the right foot and Providence clearly outworked the Huskies in pretty much every facet of the game. It’s unlikely that UMass will come out tonight expecting the Friars to just roll over for them. The top line has the firepower back at full force. Brendan Gracel is playing out of his mind right now. And pretty soon teams are going to start playing Conor Sheary as a pass-only guy. They will be making a mistake when they do cuz that kid’s got a wicked wrister. In fact, I think two games without a goal is quite enough for Sheary. I expect him to net one tonight. And, yes, I do think the Minutemen will pull off the win. But, I will admit that I’m A LOT more worried about this matchup than I was yesterday. It just goes to show you, there are no easy games in Hockey East.

-Derek

14
Oct
11

Matt’s half assed pregame notes slash inane babbling: Home Opener Edition

By blindspots88 Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand welcome back Minutefans. We are around 3 hours from puck drop of the first home game of the 2011-2012 UMass hockey season and god damn it feels good. If you haven’t already, Walsh’s game preview is a must read for specifics on this matchup, and while you are devouring good information you might as well read Triangle’s pregame as well.

This is a big weekend for UMass. Last weekend showed up that this team does have the talent to take games, but clearly there is going to be a struggle closing them out all year. The next two days will be important in setting the tone for the rest of the year. Northeastern was both a surprise and a disappointment, but winning out both games this weekend, vehemently winnable games might I add, will let our beloved minutemen head out to a string of tough games with some degree of confidence, hopefully enough to perhaps steal a game or two.

Boyle is getting the start, as far as I know. “O’BOYLE RULES!” seems to be the frontrunner of things yelled after big saves, but lets see where this goes.

It all starts tonight. Bentley is a cupcake. They will fight but if this team plays their game a win should be a gimme. But if watching this team for a few years has taught is anything, gimmes are the hardest games. We can’t see a repeat of the early home game against Army, where a young Minuteman team was absolutely manhandled in a way i neither want to ask nor tell about. Tonight is where a matured team needs to set the tone. Lets hope our outlook on the season isn’t radically changed by tomorrow

To all the Mullins Virgins out there, Scoops Bitter’s into to UMass fandom is a must read so you don’t look like an ignorant drunk asshole, instead of the preferred drunk asshole.

Also, we have just received word that Matty G will be saying de nada after the 1 minute thank you tonight, per my suggestion. It is imperative  that you and your friends yell “Gracias” instead of Thank you. I am of the opinion that this is awesome, but even if you think it sucks do it anyways so I can be happy, okay?

See you all at the Bill, lets rally around the flag kids

-Matt

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...a UMass sports (primarily hockey) blog created by, and written for, UMass students, alumni, and fans.

About the Author

Max Bitter (Communication/Journalism '10) created Fight Mass during his junior year. Born in Concord and raised in Leominster, he currently works and resides in Merrimack, NH. He is an avid Boston sports fan, plays guitar in his spare time, and is a fitness and nutrition enthusiast. Never try to tell him Shipyard Pumpkinhead is quality beer.

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The views and opinions of Fight Mass, while right, are not affiliated with anyone but ourselves. This includes the University of Massachusetts, the hockey team or anyone directly associated with it, any of UMass's media outlets, or your mother. If you're easily offended by cussing (read: uptight), we're all adults here, so consider yourself warned, and don't bring little Timmy or Grandma to the party. Unless she's THAT kind of Grandma after a couple gin and tonics. Eh, even still.

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