Massachusetts was named Hockey East Co-Team of the Week today for their 3 point week, sharing the honor with fellow Fenway winner Maine. Mike Marcou and Danny Hobbs were named Top Performers.
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Boston College will come into the Mullins Center Friday as the fourth ranked team in the USCHO poll after they tied Merrimack yesterday afternoon. The Warriors remained at #7 despite the tie to BC and a loss earlier in the week to Boston University, who jumped four spots to #6. Lowell only played an exhibition game last week but still moved up a spot to #11. The River Hawks do crack the top ten in the USA Hockey/USA Today poll.
Since we’re officially in the second half of the season and standings become more important here’s a rundown of the current standings. Comm Ave owns the top of the standings with BU and BC tied for 1st, both playing 14 games so far. Only gaining one point means Merrimack is in third with 16 points, three behind the leaders but with two games in hand. Maine has ahold of the last home ice spot with 15 points. The Black Bears are followed by Lowell with 14 points and Providence in 6th place with 13 points, both those teams have played the least league games so far with 11. UMass and Northeastern are tied for 7th, 3 points behind the Friars, both having played 13 games. New Hampshire finds itself in the unfamiliar spot of being outside the playoff picture, one point behind the Huskies and Minutemen in 9th place. Vermont still just has a win and tie to their name in Hockey East and are 6 points behind the Wildcats.
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The Salem News has North Shore native Toot Cahoon’s take on the Frozen Fenway experience.
Just like the game time temperatures on Saturday, USCHO says the Minutemen are heating up.
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According to the Herald college hockey could have four on four overtimes soon, mimicking what is seen in the NHL. FTT reader “Will” recently started a discussion in the comments section regarding overtime, advocating the four on four and shootouts. I think the four on four is a good idea and would add some excitement to overtime and hopefully decide more games than the current format. Luckily the article says nothing about shootouts, which I am dead set against. The idea of the outcome of a team game coming down to what amounts to an individual skills competition is bad for the game. I always like to compare it to a home run derby being played after the 10th inning is baseball or NFL teams resorting to quarterbacks throwing a football through a tire to settle ties. Hell, why not just bring out the radar gun and see which team has the hardest slapshot to win? Are ties the ideal outcome? Of course not. But I’ll take a team effort resulting in a tie over some kind of individual showcase to settle who wins and loses.
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Lastly, I knew I got the full “Hockey At Fenway” experience as soon as I got to my seat Saturday afternoon and found this to be my view of the ice:
Would’ve been a great view if I didn’t insist on seeing both nets and at least three of the four faceoff circles. Luckily the rest of the Section U crew and I found some decent standing room spots directly behind the net.
Fear The Triangle - UMass Hockey Blog 
Anonymous
/ January 9, 2012Haha. Those seats were brutal!! Just rewatched the game on nesn. The power kill at end of 3rd period and OT was best it has looked all season. Gonna need to repeat that effort this Friday night!! Does tegs get the start?
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rocks22
/ January 9, 2012My money is on Boyle. After all, he already beat BC once.
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Anonymous
/ January 9, 2012He did but tegs won that game for them. Love to see him have chance to do it again
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Anonymous
/ January 9, 2012Huge fan of boyles by the way. Just was impressed with tegs sat
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Sam M
/ January 9, 2012We gave up on our terrible $40 seats after the first period and ended up in the standing room only section behind home plate. I love the fact that the cheapest seats there ended up being pretty much the best ground-level seats there.
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Will
/ January 9, 2012Our seats were in the outfield and were pretty bad, so we found some vacant seats to use for a couple periods before some Maine fans showed up and found us in their seats.
I think that an “ask and you shall receive” quote is due after talking about OT the other day. 4v4 sounds great to me. UMass has way too many ties this year.
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rocks22
/ January 10, 2012I found that article shortly after you brought up the subject and thought it was worth continuing it as a full post.
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Bullmoose
/ January 10, 2012jjmc85 and I used this website to pick our seats in the grandstand: http://www.preciseseating.com/ We did well in Section 25. I recommend this site to anyone who is looking for tickets at Fenway for baseball (or hockey, for that matter) — it’s very accurate and tremendously useful.
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012TEGLIA LOOKED AWESOME SAT…QUICK PADS; AGGRESSIVE AND TREMENDOUS STICK
CLEARING OUTLET PASSES ETC.
DID NOT ALLOW ANY SOFT GOALS FOR SURE
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012Notice other three teams had their bands there.So sad Umass band did not make the trip. Don’t understand why they do not support hockey. I am sure it would have been a fun experience for them as well.
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012UMass band was too busy playing to the 349 people that attended the women’s hoops game at Mullins that afternoon. Between the lack of gamewear apparel available to purchase to a band that shows up to an athletic event with 349 people versus 38,000 at a high profile venue that same day its amazing that the university even has a varsity athletics program. Its coordination and marketing like this is what has driven alumns like myself up the wall for over a decade.
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Mark
/ January 10, 2012Wait are you serious with those comparisons? Home run derby’s and tire throwing are in no way comparable to a shootout. While a shootout might be an “individuals” skills they still are very necessary to the game of hockey and you are still facing a goalie. In a homerun derby someone just lobs the ball at you so you can nail it. Its not that easy for the skater. Also should we remove penalty shots from hockey because they are essentially individual skills? I don’t love the shootout but I think everyone reasoning against it is a bit ridiculous. Personally I’d like to see a 4 on 4 OT followed by a 3 on 3 OT. If you can’t break the tie after that have a 5 person shootout. Ties suck though. No game should ever end in a tie.
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Alan
/ January 10, 2012Penalty shots are awarded when the skater has a breakaway and is fouled. The penalty shot accurately recreates the situation that was on the ice.
Playing 65 minutes of a team sport and then depending on a 1 on 1 skills competition is fun, but not a good way to decide which team is better. If the game is really that even, let it end in a tie. I say keep the system we have now, or at least make the 5 minute OT 4 on 4.
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012I would love to see
The 4 on 4 as well
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012anybody listen to the radio show tonite? next year we play dartmouth,colgate, quinnipiac, uconn,yale and bimidgi….never get the credibility with that out of conference schedule.
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012No Christmas road trip??
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rocks22
/ January 10, 2012I didn’t have a chance. I usually end up listening to the podcast the next day. But I don’t disagree with your sentiment. Though if true I hope Colgate is away. Only time I was ever in Hamilton was for that blizzard football playoff game back in 2003. I hope the drive there is easier if that’s the case.
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George
/ January 10, 2012Two home vs. Colgate, Bemidji State–UNH/Dart tourney, vs.UConn, vs. Quinnipiac, @Yale as announced on the coaches show. There is your non conference schedule gentlemen for 12-13.
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012holiday tourney is at Dartmouth. Umass, Bimidgi and UNH are the teams
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012colgate is two at home
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rocks22
/ January 10, 2012Damn.
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Anonymous
/ January 10, 2012Any idea when the Frozen Fenway jerseys will be available for sale I would love to get one
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rocks22
/ January 10, 2012Check out today’s post for what I’ve heard regarding jerseys.
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