BOSTON - After a four-week break for finals and the holidays, the Boston University men's ice hockey team returns to action on Saturday (Jan. 6) when it hosts Maine at Agganis Arena. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
The Terriers (8-10-1, 6-6-1 HEA) and Black Bears (10-7-1, 4-4-1 HEA) are meeting for the third time this season as they split a weekend series in Maine back on Nov. 17-18. BU suffered a 5-2 loss in the opener in Orono before rebounding with a resounding 7-0 shutout victory the following night in Portland. Freshman Logan Cockerill broke out when the teams faced off, scoring his first four collegiate points with a goal and assist in each contest, and sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger recorded a 30-save shutout in the weekend finale.
Despite the long hiatus from the schedule, the Terriers will try to carry over the momentum from its most recent game, a 9-3 home victory over UMass Lowell on Dec. 9.
Maine enters Saturday on a seven-game unbeaten streak (6-0-1) and has won its past five contests, the fourth-longest current win streak in the country. The Black Bears are halfway through an eight-game road stretch that included sweeps over Quinnipiac and, most recently, Rensselaer last weekend.
The Terriers and Black Bears have played 129 times since first meeting in the 1923-24 season, and BU holds a 65-51-13 edge (.554), including a 25-9-5 advantage since the beginning of the 2005-06 season. BU has won seven of the past eight meetings and is 13-3-2 (.778) versus the Black Bears at Agganis Arena.
Tim Doherty, Hockey East's Rookie of the Month for December, has scored at least one point in every game during the Black Bears' current unbeaten streak. He now has 15 points (7g, 8a) which ties him with sophomore Mitchell Fossier (6g, 9a) for the team lead. Freshman Eduards Tralmaks (7g, 7a) and sophomore Patrick Holway (5g, 9a) have each added 14 points in Maine's balanced offensive attack. Rookie defenseman Alexis Binner has a Hockey East-best plus-13 rating.
Freshman Jeremy Swayman was one of the three goalies on U.S. World Junior team and has developed into the Black Bears' primary netminder this season. He has a 7-3-1 record to go along with a .927 save percentage, which ranks second in Hockey East, and a 2.58 goals-against average.
Three Terriers - Patrick Harper, Jake Oettinger and Brady Tkachuk - earned bronze medals with Swayman at World Juniors on Friday and will be arriving in Boston in time for Saturday's game along with sophomore Dante Fabbro, who served as an assistant captain for Canada and helped them capture the gold medal.
Harper scored a team-best 21 points (8g, 13a) in the first half and currently ranks fourth in the league in points. Classmate Chad Krys leads all Hockey East defensemen in scoring with 18 points on five goals and 13 assists, tying him for second on the team with junior Bobo Carpenter, who had a team-high nine goals to go along with nine assists.
Junior Jordan Greenway has 17 points (7g, 10a) and finished the first half strong with a career-high four points, including his first career hat trick, in the Dec. 9 win over UMass Lowell. Tkachuk scored his first collegiate goal against Maine on Nov. 18 and has added a goal in three of BU's past four games.
