No. 11/12 Terriers Visit New Hampshire on Thursday
December 7, 2011 | Men's Ice Hockey
Dec. 7, 2011
Watch | Listen | Live Stats | Game Notes
The No. 11/12 Boston University men's ice hockey team (8-5-1, 6-4-1 Hockey East) will aim for a season sweep of New Hampshire when it visits the Wildcats (6-8-2, 4-6-1 HE) on Thursday (Dec. 8) for a 7 p.m. contest at the Whittemore Center.
WBIN-TV will televise Thursday's contest in a UNH-produced broadcast. In the Boston area, WBIN is Channel 18 (811 in HD) on Comcast, Channel 6 (506 in HD) on Verizon Fios and 50 on DirecTV.
BU posted 5-0 and 4-1 home victories over UNH earlier this season and has now won its last four meetings against its conference rival. It's the longest win streak for the Terriers in the series since claiming six straight wins versus the Wildcats from Nov. 11, 1996, to March 15, 1997. Within that stretch was a season sweep during the 1996-97 campaign. That was the last time any team swept a Hockey East regular-season series from UNH.
The Terriers and Wildcats have played 163 times since first meeting in the 1924-25 season, and BU holds a decided advantage, 98-46-19 (.660). The league rivals are an even 7-7-1 since the start of the 2007-08 season.
No team has had more success as an opponent at the Whittemore Center than BU, which holds an 10-8-5 (.543) record in the facility.
New Hampshire has truly had an up-and-down season, losing its first four contests before embarking on a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2). BU snapped the streak on Nov. 19 and started the Wildcats' current stretch of four losses in their last five games.
The Wildcats are coming off a weekend in which they were swept by UMass Lowell in a home-and-home series by scores of 3-2 and 5-3.
UNH is paced offensively by senior Stevie Moses (11g, 8a) and sophomore Nick Sorkin (5g, 14a), as they are tied for the team lead in points with 19. Sophomore Kevin Goumas (4g, 11a) has added 15 points. Senior goaltender Matt Di Girolamo has started 15 contests this season and has a 3.36 goals-against average to go along with an .885 save percentage.
Dick Umile is in his 22nd season as head coach at his alma mater and boasts an impressive career record of 490-253-86 (.645). He now has 305 career victories in Hockey East play to join Jack Parker as the only 300-win members.
Two goals in a span of 36 seconds in the third period broke a 1-1 tie and helped push BU past New Hampshire, 4-1, in Boston on Nov. 19. Backed by a 35-save shutout from senior Kieran Millan, the Terriers opened their 2011-12 campaign with a 5-0 victory over then-No. 12 UNH on Oct. 8 at Agganis Arena.
BU is coming off a home-and-home weekend split against archrival Boston College. The road team won each contest and the Terriers claimed the season series with the Eagles thanks to a win in their first meeting in November. Saturday's 6-1 loss to the Eagles snapped a five-game win streak by BU.
Senior Corey Trivino has goal in seven of his last eight contests and has added two assists during the stretch. He has 14 points on the strength of a team-high 10 goals and sits two points behind sophomore Matt Nieto (8g, 8a).
Senior captain Chris Connolly is one point away from becoming the 78th player to score 100 points at BU. He has recorded 30 goals and 69 assists during his time with the Terriers and his younger brother, Jack, is a senior at Minnesota-Duluth and leads all active Division I players in career points with 162 (57g, 105a).
