Game Day: Red Hot Hockey 5--BU vs. Cornell

#11/12 BU renews its rivalry with #15/16 Cornell in the fifth edition of Red Hot Hockey at Madison Square Garden in New York. Game time is 8:00 and Terrier fans will gather at 6 p.m. for a pep rally in MSG’s ice-level Delta 360 Room. TerrierTV will provide a free live stream of the game with Bernie Corbett and former BU coach Jack Parker calling the game. This will be the 45^th meeting in the series that began with outdoor games in Ithaca in 1925 and 1926.

The Terriers have won three of the four previous Red Hot Hockey match-ups, with a tie in the 2009 game. The teams play for the Kelley-Harkness trophy, named for the legendary coaches of both schools following BU’s 3-2 win in the 2013 contest.

Senior Danny O’Regan (17 points), senior Ahti Oksanen (13) and freshman Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (13) power the Terrier attack, which hopes to welcome back captain Matt Grzelcyk, who missed the last game with an injury. Sophomore Connor LaCouvee, who started seven of BU’s past eight games, has a 5-2-2 record and a 2.63 GAA.

Off to a 6-1-1 start, the Big Red’s balanced offense is led by junior Jeff Kubiak with nine points and freshman Anthony Angello with four goals and seven points. Cornell boasts the NCAA’s fifth-best defense with junior Mitch Gilliam owning the nation’s seventh best GAA (1.59).

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Game Tracker, TerrierTV (free live stream), Terrier Sports Radio Network Webcast, @BUGameDay  

● Boston Hockey Blog live in-game blog 
● HFB feature: Red Hot Hockey Since 1925

● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape

● USCHO Hockey East Picks and Predictions

● Cornell game notes
● Ithaca Journal preview

Freshman Charlie McAvoy will be the youngest skater playing in Red Hot Hockey 2015; but it won’t be his first time competing on the Madison Square Garden ice.  Newsday traces his path from a studio rink in Long Beach, New York through local junior programs and the NTDP before arriving at BU.

Terriers will reprise their 2013 visit to New York’s Central Park and practice with the Pee Wee players of Ice Hockey in Harlem. The clinic at Lasker Rink begins at 11:30 a.m. and will feature talks by Coach David Quinn and BU Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist Mike Eruzione.

● GoTerriers.com report

● 2013 photo gallery

● Ice Hockey in Harlem

Sports Illustrated explores the decisions by Charlestown-friends-since-childhood Matt Grzelcyk and Harvard’s Jimmy Vesey, two first-team All-Americans, to put off professional hockey and play their senior years in college.

Looking ahead 

2016 recruit Kieffer Bellows’ goal early in the third period was the game-winner in the NTDP U18s’ 3-1 win over Youngstown. Bellows, who converted a one-touch pass from linemate Clayton Keller, later assisted on an empty-net goal. The left wing from Edina, Minnesota earned first-star honors and now has a team-leading 18 goals in 22 games.

Fellow 2016 recruit Jake Oettinger stopped 24 of 25 shots to earn his 10^th win of the season. In USHL games, the 6'4" netminder from Lakeville, Minn., has won all five starts with a 1.64 GAA and a .936 save percentage.

● USHL.com box score

2016 recruit Dante Fabbro assisted on two goals, including the overtime game-winner as Penticton rallied from two goals down to defeat Vernon, 4-3. The 6’1”, right-shot defenseman has 34 points (7G, 27A) in 21games, tops among BCHL blueliners and tied for sixth among all skaters.  Fabbro has been invited to skate for Canada West in the World Junior A Challenge beginning Dec. 13 in Ontario.

● Penticton recap

● BCHL box score

Looking back

Jack Eichel’s unassisted second-period goal proved to be the game-winner in the Sabres’ 4-1 win against Carolina. For last year’s Hobey Baker Award winner, it was his eighth goal of the season, tying him for the league lead among rookies with several players including his former NTDP teammate Dylan Larkin. 

● NHL.com recap and video

Former Terrier standout Chris Higgins, now playing for the Belfast Giants, provided the color/analysis for NESN's broadcast of the Lowell-Northeastern game (video highlights) in the Friendship Four Tournament, organized and hosted by the Giants. Higgins, a member of the 2009 national championship team, scored 133 points in his four-year BU career.

Women’s Team

Terriers travel to Burlington, Vermont for the inaugural Winjammer Classic this weekend. BU will face Cornell on Saturday and Ohio State on Sunday. BU, on a four-game winning streak, is led by sophomore Rebecca Leslie and senior Rebecca Russo with 21 and 19 points respectively. Both games begin at 1 p.m.

GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats

CatamountTV: BU-Cornell, BU-Ohio State

Former Terriers bring college hockey to Belfast

While the Terriers and Cornell are preparing for the fifth edition of Red Hot Hockey, four other Eastern teams are across the pond in Boston’s sister city, Belfast, playing in the inaugural Friendship Four Tournament, today and Saturday. In the opening round, Northeastern plays UMass-Lowell and Colgate takes on Brown in games that count in their respective conference races.

The event was organized and is being hosted by the Belfast Giants of the UKs Elite Ice Hockey League. Specifically, the organizers are a pair former Terriers, Steve Thornton and Shane Johnson, both of whom played for the Giants and are now members of the team’s management group.

Johnson, who is the Giants’ Project Director, noting the emphasis on “friendship,” says that ice hockey in Ireland is different than other sports that often lead to religious battles ending in violence. He explains: “When the Giants came here, there was still a lot of tension between religious groups. It [hockey] was a sport that wasn’t tied to either religion like rugby or football.”

Thornton, who is the team’s Director of Hockey Operations and formerly a player-coach, points out the tournament’s impact on encouraging home-grown hockey talent, adding: “But if we can open the doors for some of the kids here to go back and get a $250,000 education, it’d be great.”

Both Thornton and Johnson, who ended their on-ice careers with the Giants in 2010, were members of BU’s 1995 national championship team. Johnson was a shutdown defenseman who played in the Frozen Four each of his four seasons in Scarlet. Thornton was voted the MVP of the 1995 squad, which included Mike Grier, Shawn Bates, Chris Drury and Chris O’Sullivan.

Hockey on Campus, hosted by Bernie Corbett, interviewed Thornton about the tournament for its weekly program airing this weekend on SiriusXM (8:00 AM. Saturday, 7:00 AM Sunday ET). It will be available as an archive on the College Hockey News Web site.

● Boston Herald report

● U.TV interview with Thornton (video)

● Thornton goal in 1995 national championship game (video)

►Happy sixth birthday to College Hockey Inc

Looking back

There is still an on-ice Terrier connection with the Giants; as former BU wing Chris Higgins, a high-scoring member of the 2009 national championship team, is in his second season with Belfast. In 2013-14, Higgins, known to local fans as the “Belfast Datsyuk," led the Giants to the Elite League championship with 61 points in 55 games.

 

Looking ahead

SB Nation’s Jeff Cox profiles the New England prep players on the recent NHL Central Scouting Players to Watch list, including 2017 recruit Patrick Harper, who led Avon Old  Farms in scoring last season with 47 points in 22 games.

NHL.com talked with 2016 recruit Dante Fabbro and his Penticton teammate and roommate  Tyler Jost, a North Dakota commit, both projected as early first round picks in next June's draft.

2018 recruit Tyler Weiss scored his seventh goal in nine games as the Don Mills Flyers AAA defeated the London Jr. Knights, 5-1, in the Silver Stick Tournament.