Saturday, December 19, 2009

Yip makes NHL debut tonight



Brandon Yip, who bookended his Terrier career by scoring the gaming-winning goal in Hockey East championship game as a freshman, against BC, and again as a senior, against UMass Lowell, is going to the Big Show. The rugged winger from British Columbia was recalled by the Colorado Avs from their AHL affiliate in Lake Erie. Yip, who had a strong training camp for the Avs, had played just six games due to a broken hand, scoring two goals. The Denver Post reports he’ll be in tonight’s lineup on the fourth line when the Avs play at Columbus.

Yip will be playing for former Terrier standout Joe Sacco, who in his first season as head coach, has the Avs tied for first place with Calgary in the NHL’s Northwest Division. It won’t however be the first time a Terrier has coach another BU alum in the NHL. When Steve Stirling, captain of the 1971 National Championship team, began his tenure as head coach of the Islanders, his roster included three ex-Terriers, goalie Rick DiPietro, center Shawn Bates, and defenseman Adiran Aucoin.

In Grand Forks, Dave Warsofsky, Vinny Saponari and Max Nicastro began mini-camp for the U.S. Junior National Team which will compete in the World Junior Championships beginning next Saturday. The team plays an exhibition today against the University of North Dakota, which will be aired tomorrow at Noon E.T. on the NHL network. The final squad will be announced next Wednesday. WJC Media Guide. NHL Network will air sixteen games of the World Juniors. Click here for the schedule.

NHL Network also will air the two Sun Life Frozen Fenway games on January 8, when BU takes on BC and the women’s teams from New Hampshire and Northeastern match up. NESN also will televise the games.
Friday, Jan. 8--Northeastern vs. New Hampshire (women), 4 p.m. ET
Friday, Jan. 8--Boston College vs. Boston University. 7:30 p.m. ET

There was a long feature yesterday in one of our favorite hockey blogs (other than The Terrier Hockey Fan Blog), the the New York Times' "Morning Skate." It's about the BU-BC rivalry and the documentary film (The Battle of Commonwealth Avenue) recently aired. As always, the blog is punctuated with music videos, including the Standells' original "Dirty Water." Nicely done, except for 1) referring to BU simply as "Boston," 2) "Kelly" instead of "Kelley" for the two legendary coaches, and 3) reporting that Tim Kelleher was BC's goalie in 2008.

The first skate was held yesterday at the hockey rink at Fenway Park. Among the group of former Boston Bruin players on the ice was former BU All American Cleon Daskalakis.

USA Today has compiled a list of the top ten sports “breakouts” since 2000 and one of them is the career for Hobey Baker winner and former BU captain Matt Gilroy. The competition includes Tom Brady, A-Rod, Phil Mickelson and thoroughbred Funny Cide. You can vote for Matt at this link. Gilroy has four assists in the four games since he was sent to AHL/Hartford by the Rangers.

Looking back

Beginning with some key NHL goals by three members of the 1995 national championship team.
Chris Drury broke a 19-game goal-scoring drought with against the Islanders on Thursday in the Rangers 5-2 win. Video. Drury also tallied the Rangers’ first goal in today’s matinee matchup with the Flyers in snowy Philadelphia.

Jay Pandolfo’s goal broke a 2-2 tie in last night’s Devil’s 4-2 win against Ottawa, which marked Martin’s Brodeur’s breaking the all-time record for most appearances by a goalie. Pando, who earned the game’s 2nd star knocked in a goalmouth feed, beating former Wisconsin goalie Brian Elliott. (video)

Mike Grier’s sixth goal of the season earned first-star honors in Buffalo’s 5-2 win against Toronto (video)

Keith Tkachuk’s scored his seventh goal of the season in St. Louis’ 6-3 win against Tampa Bay.

Looking ahead
The NTDP U18s routed Cedar Rapids, 8-1, last night in USHL play and 2010 recruit Matt Nieto had a hand in half the goals. He scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season and added a pair of assists. Fellow recruit Adam Clendening added an assist. The four-point outburst made gave Nieto the scoring leadership on the the U18s with 24 points.

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