Game Day: BU vs. Merrimack

SB Nation Photo by John Corneau

#1/2 Terriers head up to North Andover for their first meeting of the season with Merrimack. Game time at Lawler Rink is 7 p.m. and a pay-per-view live stream is available from MerrimackAthletics.com .

BU has ridden a nation’s best eight-game winning streak to its first #1 ranking in the USCHO poll since December 15th 2014.

BU Coach David Quinn and three seniors—captain Doyle Somerby, Tommy Kelley and Nick Roberto—will be looking for their first win at Merrimack, having gone 0-2-1 on the last three visits. Last season, the Warriors scored twice in a 63-second span en route to a 4-3 win.

The Warriors, coming off a weekend sweep at the hands of Northeastern, are 8-13-3 overall and 2-7-3 in Hockey East.  However, they own wins against three teams currently in the top 20—Notre Dame, Providence and Cornell.  Merrimack’s top scorers are forwards Brett Seney (6G, 12A) and Hampus Gustafsson (9G, 8A). Goaltending has been split between Drew Vogler (2.85) and Collin Delia (2.35).

For BU, Connor LaCouvee is scheduled to get his first start in goal since the January 5th overtime win against Union. The junior from Qualicum Beach, British Columbia has a perfect 3-0 record and a 2.57 GAA. Patrick Harper, BU’s second leading scorer, has recovered from the injury that kept him out of the third period of Saturday’s win against Maine.

TONIGHT’S BU LINE-UP

Curry-JFK- Carpenter

Greenway-Keller- Harper

Bellows-Cloonan-Roberto

Phelps-Chabot- Kelley

Krys-McAvoy

Hickey-Fabbro

Somerby-MacLeod

LaCouvee

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, Terrier Sports Radio Network, BU Game Day

● Boston Hockey Blog live in-game blog

● Daily Free Press preview

● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape

● MerrimackAthletics.com preview

● Eagle Tribune preview

► With BU two-thirds of the way through the regular season, SB Nation’s Jeff Cox assesses the progress of Division 1’s second youngest team and says that the Terriers appear to be “Maturing into a Championship Team.”

Looking back

Matt Gilroy bribed Igor Bobkov with a cookie in the KHL All-Star shootout. Gilroy has 37 pts in 52 games w/ Moscow Spartak this season pic.twitter.com/Hm6kz9SnEj

— Shayne Pasquino (@shaynepasquino) January 21, 2017

● Bluelinestation.com report