NCAA Game Day: BU vs. Yale in the NCAA Northeast Regional--UPDATED

Game Day

With the Hockey East championship—the eighth in program history—in the books, the #2 Terriers are the top seed in the NCAA Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H., where they’ll take on Yale today at 2:00 p.m. The contest will air live on ESPNU and TSN2 with Dan Parkhurst and Billy Jaffe behind the mikes.

 
The game shapes up as a contest between the irresistible force—BU’s nation’s best offense—and the immoveable object—Yale’s top-ranked defense.  The Elis also are the least penalized team in the nation.

Yale goalie Alex Lyon brings the nation’s best goals-against average (1.58) and save percentage (.939). On offense, the Elis are led by Frank DiChiara (8G, 13A) and blueliner Rob O’Gara (6G, 15A).

"We have faced teams like Yale before," Coach David Quinn said. "We have the ability to score some highlight-reel goals, but I think we also have a little bit of a grit element to our game as well. We will roll the sleeves up to get in between the dots and fight for space at the net front. The [kind of] goals you have to score this time of year."

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, GameTracker, Terrier Sports Radio Network webcast.

● Boston Hockey Blog live in-game blog

● BU NCAA Tournament Central  and Hockey Tradition video

● Daily Free Press preview

● USCHO Northeast Regional preview

● College Hockey News Northeast Regional preview, Tale of the Tape, Danny O'Regan feature
● ESPN: John Buccigross's Everything You Need to Know

● NHL.com preview and Jack Eichel interview

● Boston Herald: Brandon Hickey a steady force

● TSN Players to Watch and coverage of NCAA games

● New Haven Register preview

● Hockey East Online weekend preview
● HockeysFuture.com NCAA preview
● BU Today preview
● Boston Herald preview  
● SB Nation: Players to watch at the Northeast Regional

Episode 24 of Inside BU Hockey features Bernie Corbett’s interview with head coach David Quinn, freshman Jack Eichel and former Harvard standout Ben Smith, later a BU assistant throughout the 1980s.  Eichel, who leads Division 1 in scoring with 66 points, was recently named Hockey East’s Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, joining Paul Kariya and Brian Leetch as the only players to earn both honors as freshmen.

Smith joined BU Coach Jack Parker’s staff after turns as an assistant at UMass-Amherst and Yale.  Leaving BU in 1990, he became head coach at Dartmouth for a season and then head coach at Northeastern for five seasons. In 1998, he coached the U.S. Women’s Olympic team to its first ever gold medal at the Nagano Games. 

Women’s Team

Terrier captain and Hockey East Player of the Year—and two-time Olympic gold medalist— Marie Philip Poulin has been named Team Canada’s captain for the IIHF Women’s World Championships