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Tickets from ticket master
Time stops at Boston University on Saturday.
All the hot, sweaty summer days finally freeze into the ice of Walter Brown Arena, and six months of anticipation disappear at the sound of Jim Prior's voice.
At that first hour
after noon on the 4th of October, Boston University hockey is back.
It may just be an exhibition game against the University of Toronto, but the
first-time appearance of the Terriers in a game situation since last March is
enough reason to get the blood of any BU fan pumping. Ticketmaster
Even though Saturday's game does not factor into the standings, the Terrier faithful will be out in full force, as they were last weekend for Midnight Mania.
"Personally, I was just excited last weekend," said junior forward Matt Radoslovich. "Just having the crowd there -- we're just ready for a game when we can get the crowd going and everything."
The game will not necessarily be an example of the Terrier team fans can expect to see regularly cruising around the rink this year. As the team's only tuneup before its first regular season game Oct. 11 against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, BU coach Jack Parker said he will be looking to see which players work well together and on what his team needs to work. Ticketmaster
"We'll try to get a feel for what we want to work on and what our plusses and minuses are," Parker said. "More than anything else we're going to be interested in how everybody reacts to being in uniform for the first time this year as a team, and see how they come together and see how they react to the crowd and everything."
The game will also be the first look at BU's freshman class, which includes three highly touted defensemen and two forwards with high expectations.
First-year blue-liners Sean Sullivan, Kevin Schaeffer and Tom Morrow (a 6-foot-6 presence on the ice) will try and fill the void left by three graduating starting defensemen, including first team All-American and captain Freddy Meyer.
Meanwhile, freshman forwards Eric Thomassian and Kenny Roche are sure to see plenty of ice time to help bolster the scoring units, who failed to consistently put the puck in the net a year ago.
"We'll have some upperclassmen sitting out to make sure all the freshmen get a chance to play," Parker said.
Morrow did not hide his feelings going into his first collegiate game.
"[We're not nervous] right now, but we will be," Morrow said. "We'll be excited, nervous, a little bit of everything, you know. Hopefully get a little experience for the freshmen and everyone else can get their feet wet again."
"Everyone else" is coming off a season that started off slow but got on the right track come January. The home stretch included a Beanpot Championship, an appearance in overtime of the Hockey East Championship game and coming one win within the Frozen Four.
In this the final full season at Walter Brown Arena before the Terriers invade Harry Agganis Arena, the ultimate goal is again the Frozen Four -- but this time it will be a little closer to home, at the FleetCenter. Ticketmaster
But no one is thinking about that yet, as Saturday is just an early October exhibition game, where the final score will not even find its way into the standings.
"We might not be so worried about the win-loss or how many points you score, but we definitely take it seriously," Radoslovich said. "We're obviously going out there in front of everybody so we want to do our best and we want to work on some of the parts of our game. I think we're all excited about it and just ready for it and want to get the season started off on the right foot."
Toronto -- another Canadian opponent for the Terriers' exhibition game (BU beat Montreal's Concordia University 2-0 last year) -- brings a squad with an impressive track record on the Canadian college hockey scene. The Varsity Blues finished No. 9 in the nation to the north last year.
The Blues were led up front a year ago by Ian Malcolm, who poured in 38 points on 17 goals and 21 assists. Their anchor on defense was goaltender Jamie Bruno, who posted a 2.77 goals-against average.
For BU, there is no telling what combinations will be seen on Saturday.
"Coach is going to take a look at how guys work with each other as far as lines," Radoslovich said. "And maybe if we get some power plays, penalty kills, throw some guys out there and see how everything works with that."
One thing Terrier fans can count on, despite the lack of significance of Saturday's game in the standings, is the all-out effort of their skaters.
"I think we are [really excited]," Radoslovich said. "Everybody's excited that preseason is over and everybody's excited to start practicing and to get into games and start working hard -- even harder than we did in preseason."