Game day--On the road at UMass

With just two weeks left before the Hockey East playoffs, the Terriers, who trail first-place Northeastern by a point in the conference standings, face yet another critical series. The opponent is UMass-Amherst. The Minutemen, though currently tied with BC for 6th place, are the only team to have beaten BU this season by more than a pair of goals. When the teams met in Amherst this past November, UMass earned a decisive 5-1 win. The Mullins Center has proven to be a difficult venue for the Terriers in recent years as Coach Jack Parker explained to The Daily Free Press, BU will look to reverse that trend in a 7:30 p.m. start tonight with the game airing on NESN. Tomorrow’s rematch at Agganis Arena starts at 8 p.m.

We have game and conference previews and links from GoTerriers.com, USCHO, HockeyEast Online, UMass , NESN and The Republican, as well as College Hockey News’ “Tale of the Tape” matchup.

►Contrary to yesterday’s post, senior forward Chris Higgins (photo), who suffered a hand injury against Northeastern, will return to the lineup, as will sophomore forward Joe Pereira and freshman center Corey Trivino. Kieran Millan is scheduled to make the start in goal.

►Senior forward Brandon Yip was interviewed by Bernie Corbett on the BU All-Access program yesterday, talking about the team's determination to turn things up a notch, following three straight ties and the coincidence of how well he has played whenever his parents fly in from British Columbia.

►In addition to the team matchups, the two games feature Hockey East's top two scorers, Colin Wilson (41 points) and James Marcou (40).

► Don “Toot” Cahoon is the winningest coach in UMass history with 127 wins. Before taking the top job in Amherst, he was head coach at Princeton, where he led the Tigers to an ECAC championship in 1998, and was an assistant coach for Jack Parker in 1974-79, 1987-88 and 1990-91. As a player at BU, he scored 96 points in three varsity season and was a top forward on the 1971 and 1972 national championship teams.

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