October 9, 2008
Hockey East Season Preview, Part II
by Bryan Engleson/CHN Reporter
Part II of two parts, looking into Hockey East this season.
Boston College
Coach: Jerry York
2007-08 Record: 25-11-8 (11-9-7 Hockey East)
How they finished: After struggling down the stretch of the regular season, Boston College caught fire in the postseason and won nine consecutive games as the Eagles won the third national championship in school history. Boston College scored four or more goals in each of those nine games, and freshman goaltender John Muse had a 1.56 GAA during the winning streak, including 49 if 51 shots in two games at the Frozen Four.
Changes: Boston College’s senior-heavy roster has the Eagles tabbed as the preseason favorite to repeat as national championship. The Eagles have nine seniors on a team that hopes to offset the loss of Hobey Baker Finalist Nathan Gerbe, who signed with the Buffalo Sabers, by returning seven of its 10 leading scorers.
"I think it has the makings of an outstanding senior class. We have skill. We have toughness and we have leadership in our senior class. Now this is their chance to be the fourth-year guys," coach Jerry York said. "You can be leaders and real factors as freshmen, sophomores and juniors, but the seniors are the barometer of our team. I think it’s an excellent group of players. We have depth on defense and depth with our forwards."
Strengths: The Eagles appear to have it all: Experience, offense and defense. Boston College returns three other 40-plus point scorers in Joe Whitney, Ben Smith and Benn Ferriero. Muse started every game in net as a freshman, and was at his best in the postseason. A year under his belt should only help him between the pipes.
"We feel very optimistic about our year. We think we’ve got a good base. We have a good nucleus of returning players, augmented by what we perceive to be an excellent freshman class," York said. "Now we have to mold our club. We have to instill certain values in our team. We’re very excited about the possibilities this group of players brings to BC."
Weakness: It is hard to find a weakness when looking at a defending national champion that returns as much as the Eagles do. The one question mark is which Boston College team from last year will return, the one that won nine games in a row in March or the one that lost four out of its six games of the regular season to finish fourth place in the Hockey East standings.
Outlook: "The biggest thing with our club is that we’re not trying to defend the national championship. The trophy is in the case. No one can take it away," York said. "Now our goal is to earn another. That’s always been our goal. We take great pride in what happened last year and we certainly gained a lot of experience in our players. That will certainly help us this year, but this is a new team and, as always, we look to be as successful as we possibly can be."
Boston University
Head Coach: Jack Parker
2007-08 Record: 19-17-4 (15-9-3 Hockey East)
How they finished: BU finished second in the Hockey East regular season, but missed the NCAA tournament after a 3-1 loss to Vermont in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Changes: The Terriers have three major holes to fill. They must replace the leadership and scoring punch of First-Team All-Hockey East forwards Pete MacArthur and Bryan Ewing. More importantly, however, will be finding someone to step up in goal. The three goalies on BU’s roster have a combined two games of college hockey experience -- after Brett Bennett was cut from the team.
Strengths: Despite losing their two leading scorers, the Terriers shouldn’t struggle to put the puck in the net. A strong mix of seniors and sophomores lead an offense that returns six players who tallied more than 20 points last year, led by sophomore Colin Wilson with 35 points. First-Team All-Hockey East defensemen Matt Gilroy leads a defensive corps that returns four players on the blue line.
"Despite losing the top two scorers to graduation, we’ve got an awful lot going for us up front this year. We’ll be as skilled, if not more, from top to bottom," head coach Jack Parker said. "We’ve got plenty of guys that can create for us, including a solid group of four seniors (Chris Higgins, Jason Lawrence, John McCarthy, Brandon Yip) and two of the best sophomores in the country (Nick Bonino, Colin Wilson).
"On the defensive end, this is as good of a group of offensive defensemen as we’ve ever had here. But we have to keep reminding them that their position is defense. They are defense-men. The major reason why we wound up in second place in the regular season last year was because our defense came together as a group and played much better. They are all capable on the defensive end, and when they play hard, they play well. Hopefully they’ll continue to take a step up."
Weaknesses: The Terries must find a goalie or combination of goalies to provide consistent play in the net, between sophomore Adam Kraus and freshmen Kieran Millan and Grant Rollheiser.
"In goal, the position is wide open with a sophomore with just two games under his belt and two incoming freshmen," Parker said. "Despite being young, the three of them all have a good deal of maturity. There is skill there and there is competitiveness there and it will be interesting to see who evolves -- or how many evolve -- as our goaltenders of record."
Outlook: "We have the capabilities to be a very strong team, but it will only be if we act as a team. If we are a bunch of individuals, which sometimes crept up last year, we’ll never get to where we need to be," Parker said. "Our objective is to become a team - as soon as possible. Our captains have already been helping us do just that."
Massachusetts
Head Coach: Don Cahoon
2007-08 Record: 14-16-6 (9-13-5 Hockey East)
How they finished: The Minutemen finished in eighth place during the regular season and lost 4-1 and 7-2 to New Hampshire in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East playoffs.
Changes: UMass returns all but four players from last year’s team, but lost two key players in Second-Team All-Hockey East defenseman Mike Kostka and third-leading scorer P.J. Fenton. The Minutemen bring in a six-man recruiting class that includes Michael Marcou, the brother of sophomore forward James Marcou.
Strengths: The Minutemen have a pair of Hockey East’s best returning sophomores in James Marcou and goaltender Paul Dainton, who were both named to the Hockey East All-Rookie team as freshmen. Junior defensemen Justin Braun and Martin Nolet provide UMass with a solid foundation on the blue line.
"I think going into last year a big question mark for us was the goaltending. Paul solidified our situation quickly and was a very important performer to any success we had last year," head coach Dan Cohoon said. "I think he has demonstrated athletically that he can play at this level and play at a very high and competitive level. I am very optimistic about the type of goaltending we will get from Paul.
"Martin Nolet and Justin Braun have a chance to be upper echelon performers here. I think Justin will go into the season as a pre-season All-American Candidate and certainly one of the top rated defenseman in Hockey East. I think Martin has really developed over the last two years and is about to emerge as being one of the top performing defenseman. So we expect big things from both those guys, and we have a complement of younger players that are going to make our defensive core very solid."
Weaknesses: Consistency has been a problem for the Minutemen in recent years, but that can often be chalked up to the tough league they're in.
Outlook: "I am excited about the fact that we have a lot of players returning from last year’s team and there were pieces to last season that lead us to believe that we could have a good nucleus of talent," Cohoon said. "I am also excited about the prospects of working with the kids that we have been recruiting for the past several years that have finally arrived on campus. I think the mixture bodes well for us to be able to compete, and have a good team along with the other good teams in our league."
Massachusetts-Lowell
Head Coach: Blaise MacDonald
2007-08 Record: 16-17-4 (10-13-4 Hockey East)
How they Finished: After finishing the Hockey East regular season in 7th place, the River Hawks took BU to three games in the conference tournament quarterfinals before losing the rubber match 4-2.
Changes: UMass-Lowell has most of last year’s roster intact. The River Hawks lost just one senior and return their 16 top scorers from 2007-08.
Strengths: The River Hawks have a trio of juniors coming off breakout years. Forwards Kory Falite and Ben Holmstrom and defenseman Barry Goers all scored 20 points for the first time last year. Sophomores Maury Edwards and Scott Campbell are coming off strong freshman years with 19 and 18 points respectively.
"We feel very confident we can compete with anybody," head coach Blaine MacDonald said. "We still only have three seniors, but a very good core group of juniors which should lead the way as our team continues to mature."
Weaknesses: Goals were hard to come by last year, but generally speaking, the River Hawks were decidedly average in just about every way. Neither goaltender, Carter Hutton and Nevin Hamilton, could take the bull by the horns and become a No. 1 guy.
Outlook: "Our goals would like to be measurable in small increments: Shots for, shots against, save percentage, power play and penalty killing percentage," MacDonald said. "We’ve set concrete goals numerically that we can quantify in those areas. Focusing on that should lead us to the amount of victories we want to have. We want to improve upon last year’s 16 wins. If we do that we should be in a very good place to compete in this league."
Northeastern
Head Coach: Greg Cronin
2007-08 Record: 16-18-3 (12-13-2 Hockey East)
How they Finished: Northeastern ranked No. 7 in the nation on January 7, 2008 before finishing the year with just six wins in their final 21 games.
Changes: The Huskies return the bulk of last year’s squad as 20 skaters return. Northeastern also bring in a highly-touted recruiting class led by forward Steve Quailer, who was a third-round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.
Strengths: After the hot start last year, the Huskies know the level of hockey they are capable of playing. This year’s team features eight seniors, seven more than in 2007-08. The senior class is led by captain Joe Vitale, who scored a team-leading 35 points enroute to being named Second-Team All-Hockey East.
"The core group of any team will dictate the behavior of the team both on and off the ice, and we have eight seniors that have been through this progression of rebuilding," head coach Greg Cronin said. "They gained a lot of experience and wisdom in going from three wins to 13 to 16, a terrific playoff series against Vermont and No. 7 in the country. They’ve had the highs and lows as we go along building a program and that gives them wisdom when it goes to managing a locker room."
Weaknesses: Northeastern shouldn’t have trouble scoring goals, but will they be able to stop other teams from doing so? Only one team allowed more goals in Hockey East play last year. The Huskies need to improve on the penalty kill and are looking for junior goaltender Brad Thiessen to return to the form he displayed as a freshman.
"The challenge going forward, and I see it statistically represented in the standings, is we’ve got to get much better defensively. Our goals against average was too high," Cronin said. "The second thing that we need to improve on is our special teams -- we finished last in the league power play and seventh in penalty killing. It’s remarkable we finished in sixth place last year with home ice in balance in the last game of the regular season and we did it with poor defense and poor special teams."
Outlook: "We only lost two skaters, so were returning almost all of our personnel. We have more balance now than we’ve had since I’ve been here," Cronin said. "We have good team speed and our ability to generate scoring chances should be visible every night. We have the ability to sustain the success we had in the first half of last season."
