Category: Boston University hockey (Page 2 of 17)

Where Are They Now? St. Nicholas Day Edition

6 December, 2010 / Kat

December 5th is the feast day of St. Nicholas (the basis for Santa Claus) in the Netherlands and other European nations. I remember this every year because 25 years ago, my preschool teacher at little St. James made us take off our shoes, line them up outside our classroom door, and twenty minutes later, they were filled with candy. To this day, I’m still confused at what happened and why, but that’s neither here or there. To celebrate this important Dutch holiday, let’s check in on some of our former Boston University Terriers playing hockey in the Netherlands.

Former BU Terrier Jason Lawrence playing in the Dutch Pro League.

Former Terrier Jason Lawrence during a October 23rd game for the Eindhoven Kemphanen. (Photo: Eindhoven Kemphanen Facebook page)

After spending the 2009-10 season in the ECHL with Charlotte and Gwinnett, former Terrier right winger Jason Lawrence took his talents to the Netherlands, and now plays for the Eindhoven Kemphanen in the Nederlandse Ijshockey Bond (the Dutch Pro League.) The league has seven teams in its Eredisvie (highest level), and they play in several tournament type rounds throughout the season. The season began in late September and ends in late February. Many of the players in the Dutch Pro League are from Europe, but each team has a handful of foreign (U.S. or Canadian born) players.

Lawrence is one of Eindhoven’s five non-European players, and the only American. The Canadian and American players tend to lead the league in points, and Lawrence is no exception. He may be 19th overall in points in the entire league with 29 (13 goals, 16 assists), but he’s been on a hot streak as of late. On November 23rd, Lawrence had two goals and an assist in a 5-4 loss to The Hague. In Eindhoven’s next game, November 27th against Turnhout, he had a goal and two assists. In the team’s eight games of the North Sea Cup thus far (this part of the season, which will stretches from the first week in November until February 20th), Lawrence has points in five of them.

Fellow former Terrier Dan McGoff plays for the Dutch Pro League’s team in Nijmegen (the Devils), and isn’t far behind Lawrence with 27 points, good for 25th overall in the league. McGoff is one of three Americans on the Devils’ roster, which includes former Colorado College forward Scott Thauwald.

Interested in following Lawrence and McGoff’s Dutch careers? Even if you have no Dutch language skills (I luck out because I spent time in The Hague during my senior year of high school, but even with that my Dutch isn’t that great), you can follow along on the following sites:

Ijshockey.com (a Dutch hockey news site)

Nederlandse IJshockey Bond (the league’s official site – it also covers youth and junior national teams, so remember that you’re focusing on the “Eredivisie”)

Eindhoven Kemphanen’s Facebook page (which posts mainly in English)

9pm Media (the league’s hockey photographers, worth a look even if you could care less about the league – the photography is just stunning, and you get a real sense of the spirit of the game overseas)

WSJPD? (What Should Jack Parker Do?)

3 December, 2010 / Kat

Tonight was hands down the weirdest hockey game I have ever experienced in my 28 years. Yes, Boston College defeated Boston University handily 9-5. Yes, Boston University has been over-ranked in the USCHO and USA Hockey polls for a few weeks. Yes, Boston College finally performed up to their talent level after a few weeks of off-play.

We had penalty shots, penalties that made no sense, goals scored mere seconds apart from each other, a change in goaltender for BU, BU players diving, BC players elbowing, shorthanded goals, power play goals – at one point, my husband said, “I think CBS College Sports ordered a smorgasbord of hockey activity for tonight’s game.”

And yes, BC’s Patch Alber has an old-timey physician’s name, BU needs to shoot the puck and realize that goals aren’t scored unless the puck physically enters the net, and BC’s goalie John Muse resembles a penguin attempting to launch off the ground when he’s making a save or counting off the last seconds of a penalty.

So if you’re BU, what do you do for Saturday night’s game at BC? What do you do for next week’s games against Northeastern and RPI? Who do you start at goaltender? Who is your first line? There is bound to be shake ups – and if there were not, fans would have the right to be livid – but how exactly does one reassemble this Terrier team?

Since I don’t even know where to begin, I leave it to you – if you were Jack Parker and Mike Bavis, what would you do?

A Former Terrier Gets A Do-Over

9 June, 2010 / Kat

Photo: BU Athletics

On June 20, Fox Sports Network will begin airing Season 2 of Replay The Series, a series focused on enabling rematches of games from participants’ younger years. This season will focus on a 1999 hockey game between Detroit Central Catholic and Trenton High School that was stopped mid-game when a Trenton player suffered a severe injury to his jugular vein.

While Central Catholic continued on that season to have a championship season, Trenton couldn’t rebound from the horrific injury. Gatorade, the series sponsor, set out to recreate the game to allow the two teams to finish – including the severely injured Trenton player.

The actual game and the rematch featured a former BU captain and his Providence College standout twin brother. Brad and Tony Zancanaro played for Trenton High in 1999, and are key players in the rematch. You’ll be able to spot them in the featured clips on the series’ website. Brad was captain of the Terriers in 2005-06, while his brother Tony was one of the key cogs of the Friars from 2003-07. Immediately following Trenton’s disappointing 1999 season, both brothers went on to play in the USHL and NAHL before beginning their collegiate careers.

Why I Can’t Help but Root for Minnesota-Duluth

18 March, 2010 / Kat

Tonight, the WCHA will kick off the Final Five with a play-in game between #11 University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and #5 University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux (or whatever they may be called these days.) The winner of Thursday night’s game will take on Denver University, the #1 team in the nation, on Friday – a game that frankily will be a hundred times better than either Hockey East matchup this weekend. (Take away my East Coast college hockey card, go ahead.)

University of Minnesota-Duluth features sophomore forward Jack Connolly, the little brother (despite being the same class year) of Boston University sophomore forward Chris Connolly. Chris is a sturdy little forward for the Terriers, currently second in the team in scoring with 10 goals and 21 assists, despite being thrown in seventy-five different line combinations this season. Jack is a powerhouse for the Bulldogs, leading the team in scoring with 18 goals and 31 assists. Jack is 7th in the nation in scoring, and his impact on the Bulldogs has been immense.

The Connolly’s have caused many BU fans to become slight UMD fans (although still many more pledge their WCHA allegiance to North Dakota), and many UMD fans to become slight BU fans (although many WCHA fans find East Coast college hockey grossly inferior). But what sealed the deal on my slight UMD fandom was the following shirt:

The one. The only. UMD Hjelle T-shirt.

The Bulldogs have a sophomore goaltender named Brady Hjelle, who played lights out last year, and found himself in a goalie rotation with junior Kenny Reiter this season. Reiter started last weekend’s quarterfinals against Colorado College, and will most likely start tonight’s game against North Dakota. Hjelle’s play last season – leading them from a seventh seed in the WCHA playoffs to the NCAA Regionals – spurred on this fan shirt, sold on the UMD fan blog Running With the Dogs.

For those of you not familiar with the reference, the shirt is based off the popular 2008 YouTube sensation, “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time.”

What can I say – I’m a sucker for a funny and punny fan shirt, and the Peanut Butter Hjelle shirt is one of my faves this year. Between this and Jack Connolly’s dominance, I have to root for UMD tonight over North Dakota.

Tales from Intermission

6 March, 2010 / Kat

Your typical Chuck-a-Puck. But if a Chuck-a-Puck takes place and no one chucks a puck... (Photo: Flickr user Travis S.)

After weeks of missing live hockey because of my upcoming wedding, I am finally in the midst of a multi-game weekend. Thank goodness, because this multi-game weekend allowed me to see two of the oddest intermission events I’ve witnessed in years of attending hockey games.

Friday night, the Boston University men’s ice hockey team hosted Northeastern University in their last regular season home game. BU beat Northeastern 4-2, which would go miles towards improving their status for the Hockey East playoffs. It was a double mites team game, with both intermissions host to a youth hockey team scrimmage. The teams usually have around five minutes to show their stuff, with the announcer and music timing their scrimmage, before the waiting Zambonis rev their engines and warn them off.

During the second intermission, I was chatting with a friend and not paying attention to the mites. Around me, I vaguely heard the announcement thanking the mites for their time and congratulating them on a scrimmage well done. Briefly after, my fiance nudged me.

“They won’t leave the ice.”