So Long From St Louis

There were many good things that came out of the past weekend of hockey. BU claimed their first tournament of the season. In the proscess, they beat two nationally ranked teams in a tournament at a neutral site, which will be huge down the road in the PareWise ranking. The PW determines the NCAA tournament.

Something that stood out was the play of freshman defenseman Adam Clendening. He did not have a goal but came very close when he took a rocket of a slap shot from CENTER ice that Notre Dame goalie Steven Summerhays had a hard time handling. He also looked very solid on defense with David Warsofsky.

Grant Rolleihiser looked sharp in his first start of the year, recording 30 saves in the championship game. This was the second time Rolliehiser got a win in the Icebreaker championship game.  He beat Michigan State 2-1 back in the 2008-2009 Icebreaker at Agganis.

The play of Sahir Gill really stood out in the championship game. He tallied three points (a goal and two assists) to help the Terriers to their second win of the season.

“Sahir Gill had a coming-out party for himself,” said BU head coach Jack Parker. “He was playing on the fourth line where he didn’t get a lot of ice time and he gets one goal and three assists. It was to the point where we had him playing on the power play a couple of times and he did a good job. We’re real proud of him.”

Ross Guadet was great on the penalty kill in both games. He really stood out in the Notre Dame game, where he blocked four or five shots by going to his knees. BU could not get the puck out of the zone for the two minute span of the power play but Guadet was the main reason that the Irish did not score.

The was some"bad", though.

After Joe Pereira scored early in the third period of the Wisconsin game, BU sat on the lead. The Badgers way out played BU but really did not get that many shots on goal. They did have a goal disallowed because it was kicked in with a skate.

BU also gave up two very quick goals to Wisconsin in the first period. Derek Lee scored the first one and the Badger's Ryan Little scored the second. The goals came within nine seconds of each other. This happened a lot last season and BU was unable to overcome it almost every time. Thankfully, they did overcome it this weekend.

BU's penalty kill looked a little shaky in the first game, giving up two power play goals in the first period to Wisconsin. The next night BU would not allow a single power play goal.

At The Polls

After the tournament win, BU moved up four slots from 14th to 10th in the USCHO poll. In the USA Today rankings they are tied for tenth with St. Cloud State.