BC Took Care Of Us Powerful Easily

Well Game 1 didn't go exactly as I had hoped it would. Of course, that doesn't come as a shock. We're a 7 seed playing one of the best teams in all of college hockey at a time when they're playing their best hockey of the season. The keys to this series, I thought, would be slowing down BC senior forward Brian Boyle and our own freshman goalie, Brad Thiessen, stepping up big. Thiessen wasn't bad tonight, nor was he particularly good, saving 26 of 29 shots (3 goals allowed), but it wouldn't have mattered if he was great anyway. We nearly matched BC shot for shot (25-29), but Eagles goalie Cory Schneider simply wasn't going to allow anything by. Well earned shutout, indeed.


a for effort. l for loss.

Sopohomore right winger Brock Bradford put the biggest dent in Thiessen, going for two goals, while fellow sophomore Nathan Gerbe was involved in all three of the teams goals, getting three assists on the night. As it turns out, Schneider also set the BC school record for shutouts, his 14th in three years.


dude was good.

The loss, of course, puts us in a rather imposing hole, as we now have to beat the Eagles in two straight games in order to keep the season alive and advance to the Hockey East semis. If Schneider's anything like he was tonight in the next two games, well, we'll just have to wait til next year.


Anyway, you know what they always say....


FUCK EM UP
FUCK EM UP
BC SUCKS

(hey, you have to draw solace from somewhere, right?)




-On a side note, Vermont topped (Sucks To) BU 3-2 while New Hampshire had their way with Providence, 4-0. If these were 1 game playoffs, my picks would be 3-3. We'll see if that holds up. (At least in the case of NU, I hope not.)

We've Got BC In The Hockey East Playoffs

I guess it's better than playing BU. For those of you unfamiliar with the ways of college hockey (everyone) and Hockey East, in particular (everyone), the top 8 teams (out of 10) in Hockey East head for three game playoff series at the end of every season for their conference tourney, to decide the champion of the conference. I'm not positive, but I don't think the winner gets an automatic bid into the NCAA tourney (a la basketball. The NCAA hockey tourney, it should be noted, consists of just 16 teams, which boils down to the Frozen Four, and then, of course, the national championship game.) So even if, say, we pulled off a miracle and won this thing, we wouldn't be among the 16, I think. I'm sorta new to college hockey myself.

Anyway, as noted in the title, we've drawn Boston College for our first round weekend series. All three games will be played at Chestnut Hill, and, suffice it to say, we've got quite a task sitting before us. The Eagles were 22-11-1 overall on the year, and went 18-8-1 in Hockey East play. They boast Hockey East points leader Brian Boyle, a senior forward, junior goalie Cory Schneider, who's had a pretty solid season, and sophomore Benn Ferriero, who was seventh in the conference in scoring. As a point of reference, our top scorer, freshman Chad Costello, tied for 27th. BC is also playing some of their best hockey of the season, coming off a sweep of the 3rd ranked (nationally) New Hampshire Wildcats.


they're probably better than us. maybe.

Don't take this to mean Northeastern has no shot, though. Our freshman goalie Brad Thiessen has played as well as any other goalie in Hockey East at times, and the rest of our stable of producing freshmen (Costello, this week's HE Rookie of the Week Kyle Kraemer, defenseman Jim Driscoll, defenseman David Stratham, and forward Randy Guzior) have played rather well lately, playing a rather large role in our resurgence from our 2-8-2 start, finishing the season on a 11-8-3 run, a run that includes wins over BU, BC, and Maine, and ties against Vermont and BU again. On top of that, in our three meetings with BC this season, we've gone 1-1-1, which is to say we've played them as equally well as they've played us. We'll also rely heavily on the play of sophomore Joe Vitale and senior Brian Esner who have been doing particularly well as of late.


we tied and beat bc at matthews this year

The key to this series, for NU, anyway, would seem to be slowing down the aformentioned scoring prowess of Boyle. In the 5-2 loss at the beginning of the season, he managed 5 shots and posted a +3 on the night. In the subsequent two matchups he went for a 0 and -1. Thiessen will play a big role as well. In the loss, he allowed 5 goals, equal to that of what he allowed in the latter two matchups.


All things given, I'd say we have a shot. We've proven on more than one occasion this season that we can beat elite-level teams. Whether we can do that twice in the span of just three games remains to be seen, but I wouldn't count us out. We did, after all, pull out one of the more miraculous moments of the season when we tied BC, as evidenced by:





My Own Personal Hockey East Playoff Predictions


1. New Hampshire
8. Providence
winner: New Hampshire

4. UMass
5. Maine
winner: Maine

3. Boston University
6. Vermont
winner: Vermont

2. Boston College
7. Northeastern
winner: Boston College


1. New Hampshire
5. Maine
winner: Maine

2. Boston College
6. Vermont
winner: Boston College


2. Boston College
5. Maine
winner: Boston College

BU smacked the hell out of us

-BU 4, Northeastern 0- Yikes. Guess we won't be winning our first Beanpot since 1988. On the night when apparently Northeastern alum Dave O'Brien was inducted into the Beanpot Hall of Fame (an annual four team tournament has its own hall of fame? Really?) we just lost. Flat. Out. Lost. It's not that we played bad. We outplayed them in the first period even. We just couldn't get anything past BU goalie John Curry, who had an outstanding game, making 27 saves and throwing a shutout. We only managed to so much as hit the post once, and failed to make a dent during a 5 on 3 situation late in the 2nd period. Which, again, isn't to say we played poorly, just not as well as a much better BU team, ranked 8th in the country apparently for a reason. Sometimes you can't overcome talent with determination. Poor Brad Thiessen also managed a (pretty irrelevant) own goal late in the third (quite the accomplishment for a goalie, nonetheless), which won't look too good on the hilight reels. Hopefully it doesn't turn up on Sportscenter's Not Top 10 or something like that, and hopefully it doesn't lead people to think he had a bad game, because for the most part he did a pretty great job given the circumstances.



-The Super Bowl was boring. Not enough Devin Hester absurdity.

D League Deliciousness:

Tulsa 66ers 112 @ Dakota Wizards 105
Former USC standout Desmon Farmer scored 30 while UConn product and relegated Sonic Denham Brown added 22 of his own. On the Dakota side, Jonnyray favorite (and Cal product) Too Much Rod Benson poured in 20 with 8 rebounds. Renaldo Major didn't play as he finds himself back in the D-League after a brief and uninspiring stint with the Warriors. In losing, Dakota fell to 1.5 games back of Fort Worth in the East.

Bakersfield Jam 80 @ Austin Toros 83
The Toros improved to 12-16 in taking advantage of the league-worst Jam. Amazingly enough, after starting out 0-12, they've gone 12-4 since, thanks in large part to BJ Elder who's now averaging 19 a game. Loren Woods' 19 points and 16 boards led them in this matchup, and Kevinn Pinkney threw up 32 in a losing effort. It should be pointed out that Gerry McNamara was the second leading scorer for Bakersfield in the effort, with 13......on 1-11 shooting from the field and 11-11 shooting from the free throw line. Wow. Patrick O'Bryant also had 6 points and 9 rebounds. Why did we draft him.


actually, yes, gerry. yes.

Anaheim Arsenal 90 @ Sioux Falls Skyforfce 84
Ha Seung Jin played 13 minutes and didn't score a single point. Guess being tall doesn't help as much as one would think. He only even added 3 rebounds. Jawad Williams did most of the damage, scoring 26. He's averaging 19.1 on the season. Jared Reiner put up a nice line for Sioux Falls, who lost their fourth in a row, with 21 points and 16 rebounds.

Albuquerque Thunderbirds 103 @ Fort Worth Flyers 113
Kevin Burleson and Pops Mensah Bonsu both scored 22 to lead Forth Worth, who improved to a league second best 18-8. The talented Albuquerque squad, featuring My Favorite Cal Basketball Player Of All Time Joe Shipp, who led the team with 20, fresh from the NBA Dijon Thompson, who had 17, and former UCLA wingman Cedric Bozeman, who had 13, are 4-12 in their last 16.

Arkansas RimRockers 129 @ Colorado 14ers 137.
Not much defense in this one, huh? Colorado scored at least 30 in every quarter, spurred by 3 20 point scorers in Von Wafer (27), Louis Amundson (20), and Elton Brown (21). Arkansas has nobody I've ever heard of, except former Stanford Cardinal Matt Haryasz (lol hairy ass), but shot back with 3 20 point guys (Clay Tucker, Roger Powell, and.....Olu Famutimi. Apparently he went to Arkasnas) of their own in the losing effort. Colorado stays one and a half head of Idaho with their league leading 19-8 record.

Los Angeles D-Fenders 71 @ Idaho Stampede 83
In a cakewalk for Idaho, Former Lottery Pick Luke Jackson had 14 points and 5 rebounds on 6-12 shooting while former Kansas Jayhawk Jeff Graves led the team with 18. The win helped them keep pace with Colorado for first in the West.

Here and there and everywhere except nowhere

Where?

Anyway, for lack of anything, yknow, interesting, here's some stuff that strikes me on this day:

-A's sign Ricky Ledee to minor league contract: Finally. You have no idea how long I've waited to see Ricky Ledee grace the hallowed green and gold. As one commenter poignantly put it on AthleticsNation, "Ledee was my #1 off season target. I love what he did with the Mets last year." Amen, brother. In Ledee's defense though, he did have a nifty season in 2005 (in Dodger Stadium no less) and probably can't be worse than Ryan Goleski or Hiram Bocachica. Though on the other hand simply having a Bocachica on the bench at all times probably has to count for something.


yes, yes. ricky ledee is a superstar

-UCLA 69, Oregon 57. I'm kind of a Pac 10 basketball fan in general, especially when the Bears suck, as they more or less do now, so this matchup in particular excited me. It sorta dissapointed, as UCLA took a lead early and kept it throughout the game. Aaron Brooks, who I've been really impressed with so far this season, shot just 5-13. Aaron Afflalo had 17 points, and despite still being considered a fringe 1st round draft prospect, is a guy who continues to strike me as someone who will have a solid NBA game. Strong defender, able scorer, lengthy, quick. He's not gonna light the league on fire or anything, but he could make a very good sixth man. The Pac 10 could make some noise in the NCAA tourney this year, too. The top 8 are all above .500 at the moment, and you could argue that if the season ended today, at least five (UCLA, Oregon, Washington State, Arizona, USC) should be in the tournament. Kudos, Pac 10.

-Northeastern plays Merrimack tonight in hockey as we play our last game before facing off against (Sucks To) BU in the Beanpot opener Monday night. We've been playing fantastic hockey as of late, the last three weekends producing a win against BC, a tie against BU, a weekend sweep of UMass Lowell, and finishing with a weekend split against UMaine last week, so Merrimack shouldn't prove too troublesome. We haven't won a Beanpot since 1988, so it'd be nice if a team that has looked pretty solid this year could do some damage.

D League Deliciousness Returns (I promise)-

-Joe Wolf of Colorado and Sidney Moncrief of Forth Worth have been selected to be the coaches in the D League All Star Game. I'm pleased that Sidney Moncrief is still relavent. You go, Sid.

-As the All Star Break approaches, Fort Worth and Dakota battle for first in the East as they are separated by a half game, and you find the same in the West with Colorado and Idaho.

-Northeastern (whoop whoop) grad and appropriated Dallas Maverick Jose Juan Barea has lit the D League on fire in his first 8 games. 27.3 PPG and 7.8 APG while shooting 53.2% from the field and 43.8% from three. THASS, M'BOY.


this picture is less about jose juan barea and more about the expressions on the faces of the guys he's jumping past for a layup.

-Two more GATORADE CALLUPS since I last posted about the D League, as Fort Worth's Jeremy Richardson has joined the Hawks and Tulsa's Will Conroy has joined the Grizzlies.