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James Hagens Joins - This Week In Hockey East · This Week in Hockey East

0:08
SPEAKER_02: Hi folks, welcome to another episode of This Week in Hockey East.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: Great to be with you once again, along with Bridget Prue.
0:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm Eric Galanti.
0:16
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna flip things and have our guests join us first today.
0:19
SPEAKER_02: And our guest today is brought to you by the Boston Harbor Hotel.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: Plan your fall getaway today at BostonHarborHotel.com and experience Boston's best waterfront views.
0:28
SPEAKER_02: We are joined by Boston College sophomore and Boston Bruins first round pick this year.
0:33
SPEAKER_02: James Hagen's nice enough to spend a minute with us.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: James, thanks so much for joining us.
0:37
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
0:39
SPEAKER_02: Let's start with, you know, just the team overall.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: You guys have won four games in a row, playing your best hockey, a nice sweep over UMass last weekend.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: What is the thing that's kind of been working here these last four games?
0:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, you know, those are two huge weekends for us.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh I think just coming together, uh, going out there, playing a full game.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: I think a huge thing was just playing the right way.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, when you play the right way, good things happen.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: So that's been something that's you know really been harped on and uh it's been helping us out recently.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: I know, James, you had a really exciting draft day uh this past summer where you got to, you know, have the Happy Gilmore video and you you got uh just kind of a whirlwind uh experience of what the NHL draft is like.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: But I was curious to to know have any of the current Bruins players that they reach out back then to welcome you to the team?
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Have you heard from them?
1:30
SPEAKER_00: How much do you keep in touch with the with your pro team while you're in hockey?
1:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, it was really cool.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: I think um, you know, it's just it's a whirlwind right away.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, when you stand up and you know you hear your name called, and after I I was gonna text from from a bunch of the players.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: I actually I I got a FaceTime um that night from from Pasta.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: So that was that was really cool.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: And then when I was able to come here, um I was able to train here in Boston for a couple weeks over the summer.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: I was able to meet a bunch of them, great guys, great human beings.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, they made it feel like home for me.
2:09
SPEAKER_02: So, James, how different has this year been knowing where you're going, your Bruins draft pick and being able to do that versus last year, where you know it's your first year of college hockey, you're dealing with the whole draft process.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: I imagine teams want to talk to you every single day.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: How have the two years been different now that you kind of you know where you're going after your college career?
2:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, it's it's definitely nice when you know you know that you're going right down the street.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: So that's something too that you know it's I wanted to go to college in Boston uh to be able to stay in Boston.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: It's something that's really special, something I'm really grateful for.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: And um just you know, being here, being in the moment, um, I think that's something that you know has really helped me.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, just being being a part of it, of of being a part of it here and you know, just being present.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: So and what's it like being now like obviously this wasn't something you dealt with your first season not being drafted yet, but now that you are drafted to the local team, what's it like being a Bruins prospect going about your your day-to-day life?
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Do guys come up to you, do fans come up to you and and talk about your future?
3:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, you just you know, you kind of go about your day.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh we have a bunch of guys on the team that are uh that are also Bruins prospects too, so that's obviously nice.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: Um but no, you don't really, you know, you don't really talk about it, you don't think about that.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, your mind, your mind set on here, you know, you're worried about what you're doing um today, and uh, you know, trying to help out to hopefully win games on the weekend here.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: So James, one of the unique things, of course, is you talked about Bruins Development Camp.
3:52
SPEAKER_02: Basically, every game you guys play is Bruins Development Camp because you guys have six Bruins prospects, Brewerin's draft picks on your roster.
3:58
SPEAKER_02: I know a couple of them are out right now, but what has that been like?
4:01
SPEAKER_02: Not that you're thinking about it every single day, obviously, but you're playing with Dean, you're playing with Will Moore and Andre and Oscar and you know and Christian as well.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: What is that dynamic like for you guys?
4:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's special.
4:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, to be able to be with a bunch of guys that are that are prospects, a part of that program.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, especially when you get to Dev Camp, it makes you feel comfortable when, you know, you know, familiar faces there and here, um, being able to play with them, to be able to, you know, practice against them every day.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: And you know, they just they raise you to be your best um day in and day out.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And for you, what's the biggest thing you're working on this year?
4:40
SPEAKER_00: I've heard a lot about you know wanting to work on your shot, but are there things that you're really focusing on this year with Boston College to uh just make improvements on last year and get ready for at the pro game?
4:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, I think you know, a huge thing I've been trying to work on.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: It's you know, to be able to be trusted in your own zone.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh you want to be able to be a guy that you know coach can trust when he puts on in the ice.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's that's a huge component of the game.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: And I think getting to the middle, um, trying to work on my shot, get shots off, uh, not pass up on opportunity.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: So those are all things that I've been trying to work on.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: James, before we get to a couple of fun questions to wrap up, you obviously have been playing with your brother at Boston College the last couple of years, but last weekend was unique in the fact that your brother, who is a defenseman, if folks don't know, was playing on your forward line last week due to some guys banged up and other things.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, what was that like?
5:34
SPEAKER_02: Was that the first time you guys had ever played forward together specifically?
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I had to imagine that uh, not that that was the ideal game plan going into the season, but it must have been special for you guys.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: Um actually when we were back on the the Long Island Royals growing up.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh we were probably at 11, 12 years old.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: We we were playing together forward then.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: So it was it was really cool being back together, especially when uh you know he's he's up on your line.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: So that was that was a cool moment um to be able to go over there and and get that win.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: It was a huge game too.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: So all right, we got some fun questions for you to finish off.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: So, first one, if you weren't a hockey player, what other profession would you be in?
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh I grew up playing lacrosse.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: I love lacrosse, so I would hopefully try to make it to the PLOL.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh and what's your go-to pump up song or even just a genre?
6:30
SPEAKER_00: What do you what are you putting on to pump yourself up?
6:34
SPEAKER_01: I love Sam Barber.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: So whatever Sam Barber song it is, um I love I think my favorite one's Man You Raised by by Sam Barber.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: It's a good song.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: So and last one, uh what's your go-to dining hall order when we talked to your teammate Dean Laterno?
6:51
SPEAKER_00: We had a really interesting answer.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: Do you have anything crazy you order when you go to the dining hall?
6:56
SPEAKER_00: You keep it simple.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, I actually I just got back from the dining hall, so I think my go-to is just two chicken cutlets, uh, just two pieces of chicklin, chicken, uh, and I get two pieces of American cheese on both.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: So, and then I throw rice on the side.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: All right.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: Well, that was that was a little bit quite as crazy as Dean.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Not quite.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: No.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: He had some random sauces on his.
7:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Dean goes a little nuts.
7:29
SPEAKER_02: Well, uh, good stuff.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: Well, we know we got you got to get to lift.
7:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh, good luck this weekend.
7:33
SPEAKER_02: We're looking forward to watching you guys against Maine here on Ness and James.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for joining us.
7:37
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
7:39
SPEAKER_02: That's James Haggins, Boston College sophomore.
7:41
SPEAKER_02: We'll continue on with this week in Hockey East coming up.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: We'll talk about that BC Main game next.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to this week in Hockey East.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: It's time to preview our Friday night Hockey East on Ness in game.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: The BC men hosting Maine and Eric BC's coming off a four-game win streak.
7:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they've really flipped things.
7:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, probably the hottest team in Hockey East right now.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: Uh sweep of Vermont on the road and then a sweep of UMass last week.
8:05
SPEAKER_02: Bostaco has outshot it, or excuse me, outscored their opponents 18 to 4 over the last four games.
8:11
SPEAKER_02: So they've been good offensively, they've good defensively.
8:14
SPEAKER_02: Their depth is really showing up.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: They've scored, as we said, 18 goals over the last four games, scored by 13 different players, and none of those are Stega, none of those are Gasso, none of those are Yelvik.
8:24
SPEAKER_02: So uh it's been pretty impressive how the depth has shown up.
8:27
SPEAKER_02: We've talked about Jake Sandria a little bit.
8:29
SPEAKER_02: It's worth diving in a little bit more.
8:31
SPEAKER_02: He's our service credit union scoring leader this week.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: He scored two goals in the game on Saturday at UMass.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: He now leads Boston College and goals with five.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: He's tied with James Haggins for first place and points.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, for as good as Dean Laterno's been, and we'll talk about him in a second, you can't talk about Dean and his jump without talking about Sandrial's jump as well, because that line has been the Eagles' best line all year.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: Sondrial, Dean Laterno, and Will Vote.
8:58
SPEAKER_02: They've played so well together.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: That's been a consistent group.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: And Sandrial playing so well, Bridget, has allowed Dean Laterno to play so well as well.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've talked about him each step of the season, right?
9:10
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about got off to a better start, and then he's built off that start, and he's maybe even gone up another level in the past two weeks.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: And he leads BC in shots, uh, over four and a half shots per game in the last seven games.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe was the best player on the ice on Friday, had a three-point weekend last weekend, and worth noting uh what he's been doing and how he's filled in for some of the other scoring with guys out of the lineup.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: You mentioned uh Gasso has been out and will continue to be out.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh Yelvik has only played three games this season, so they've really had to lean on other guys, and Dean's somebody who uh has increased his production to make up for some of that.
9:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then you combine it with guys like Will Trager scoring his first career goal at the end of the game on Friday.
9:53
SPEAKER_02: And then, even more unexpected, Paul Davy, who was playing just his eighth career game, scores his first career goal, and it was a massive one Saturday.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: It was a scoreless game, and he gave Boston College a 1-0 lead.
10:04
SPEAKER_02: Dean Laterno camped out in front.
10:06
SPEAKER_02: So you're seeing the depth a little bit.
10:07
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think the other side that's worth talking about is the Eagles' defense.
10:11
SPEAKER_02: They've only allowed 24 shots a game this year.
10:13
SPEAKER_02: This was a little bit of a trend early last season.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh, as the year went on, it didn't quite hold.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: But same thing to start this year, right?
10:20
SPEAKER_02: They're only allowing 24 shots per game.
10:22
SPEAKER_02: That's the fewest in Hockey East, and it's allowed Luca Cluchier to really settle in.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh 32 save shutout on Saturday.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: He won his second Hockey East weekly award in a row.
10:32
SPEAKER_02: Now, since the Denver game in five hockey East games, he has a 942 save percentage and a 1.42 goals against.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: So BC playing well as they take on this main team.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and to get to the main side of the matchup, just like so many other teams right now, they're just trying to find consistency in a weekend series, right?
10:50
SPEAKER_00: The last two weekends, dominant Friday performances, and then beaten on Saturday.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And made beat Vermont pretty big in the Friday game.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: It was a seven to nothing shutout win, then a two to nothing loss in the Saturday game.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And Ben Barr talked about how desperate a team is when you beat them like that in game one of the weekend series.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a challenge to do something similar to them in game two.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons why you see a lot of splits in hockey east so far this year.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And he said he actually thought the starts were similar Friday and Saturday, both a little bit slow starts, but the difference being you get the early goal in that Friday game, and momentum just builds from there.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: And you see one go in and it just starts to go up and up, and Maine builds.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: But then the Saturday game, you give up a goal goal early to Max Strand on the power play, and that changes the whole flow of the game.
11:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, certainly.
11:37
SPEAKER_02: So uh, you know, Maine, they have this nice combination of some newcomers and some really, really core culture guys, like Brandon Holt, who we talk about all the time.
11:46
SPEAKER_02: Uh, probably maybe the most underrated player in the league.
11:49
SPEAKER_02: I think we were saying that last year also.
11:51
SPEAKER_02: He had two assists Friday.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: He's got 11 points over his last eight games, now as a senior.
11:55
SPEAKER_02: Um, Josh Nadeau, Harrison Scott, Freel, Fowler, Russell, all playing really well.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: And then you combine it with the freshman, right?
12:03
SPEAKER_02: Poirier's been great from the jump this year, fourth nationally in goals.
12:07
SPEAKER_02: We've talked about him.
12:08
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it was notable to see Miguel Marcus have a really nice game on Friday.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: He had a goal, three assists.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: He was hockey's rookie of the week.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: Still trying to find his consistency within college hockey, first year guy.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: Um, so I think it's it's really important to, you know, for those guys to fill in the gaps as well.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but it should be a really good series here with Boston College and Maine.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and one last point on Maine, Alvin Boya maybe had his best weekend of the year.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh, only allowed one five on five goal this past weekend, got that seven to nothing shutout.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: So uh just quickly want to look at UVM too.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: We've we're getting this non-conference stretch that's gonna be really crucial for Hockey East to try to build up some wins in non-conference against different opponents.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just worth noting quickly here.
12:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, you have the one game this week with Vermont and Harvard.
12:56
SPEAKER_02: Harvard's played really well recently, so it's a tough game.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, Hockey East is, you know, probably trailing a little bit behind where they were in terms of their non-conference record last year.
13:05
SPEAKER_02: And folks know with the pairwise in the past, now with the NPI, that non-conference record as a league really matters how you do head-to-head against the other teams.
13:13
SPEAKER_02: So over the next two weekends, you have 15 non-conference games over the next two weekends, seven against the ECAC, two against the Big Ten, two against the NCHC.
13:23
SPEAKER_02: These games are crucial in terms of kind of it's not quite a tiebreaker, but it's just how it balances out your RPI and in this case your NPI and where the conference is gonna fall.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: So, with a bunch of teams right now, kind of around similar records, that could really matter when it comes to the bubble.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: So, this stretch of games, really important, starts with Vermont and Harvard this weekend.
13:44
SPEAKER_02: Looking forward to seeing what happens.
13:45
SPEAKER_02: And that game will talk plenty more non-conference next week on our show.
13:49
SPEAKER_02: When we get back, we're gonna go over to the women's side, take a look at the hockey standings you are watching this week in Hockey East.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to this week in Hockey East.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a good time to check in on the woman's side and the women's standings.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: We're getting to the part of the season where now you can put some stock into what you see in the standings, starting to see some trends develop.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: And Eric, Northeastern and BC have started to create some separation.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, take a look at this.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: Um, obviously, teams have played a different number of games.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: We understand that.
14:17
SPEAKER_02: But uh Northeastern at 21 points, Boston College with 20 points, they've kind of taken a little bit of a jump here, established themselves.
14:24
SPEAKER_02: And then you look at basically three, where New Hampshire is down to nine with BU, just six points separating three through nine right now.
14:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, a couple of notes on there.
14:35
SPEAKER_02: Boston College has played two more games than anyone else.
14:37
SPEAKER_02: UConn has only played four games to this point.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: So, yes, you have games in hand, but as folks like to say, you got to win those games in hand for them to matter, right?
14:45
SPEAKER_02: So a little bit of work to do for UConn.
14:47
SPEAKER_02: They played a bunch of non-conference games early, excuse me.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: So it'll be it'll be interesting to see what they do.
14:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, but let's just talk about this Northeastern thing, right?
14:56
SPEAKER_02: Because as you see at the top of the standings there, they're 7-0.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: They've outscored their opponents a ridiculous 29-7 in conference games to start.
15:05
SPEAKER_02: It's their best hockey east start in program history, believe it or not, which is kind of hard to believe.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: Um, strikers Zablocky was so good last week.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: First Northeastern freshman with a hat trick since Kendall Coyne in 2011-2012.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh, she's now up to seven goals, tied with Karan for the team lead.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: Um, but you look at Northeastern right now, Lily Shannon leads the conference in scoring with 19 points, one ahead of Ava Thomas, who we've talked a lot about.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: There are seven players in hockey east, Bridget, who are averaging a point per game.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: Four of them are on Northeastern, right?
15:36
SPEAKER_02: Zablocki, Shannon, Constantinople, and Morgan Jackson.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: So they're doing it offensively.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: We know what Lisa Yunson's doing on the other side defensively.
15:45
SPEAKER_02: Um, so Northeastern keeps on rolling here, and they'll be at Maine this week.
15:49
SPEAKER_02: The other team is Boston College, who pretty impressive weekend against Boston University.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were able to get the weekend sweep against BU and obviously a familiar comf rival.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think what was really great for them, too, was the way that it happened.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: They won two pretty close games, and the Eagles win on Saturday, came in front of a record-breaking crowd.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: The attendance was 3,965 fans, which broke the record for a Hockey East women's home game on campus.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: It beat the record by over a thousand fans.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: So that was a great crowd.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: BC gets the win there on the road, Attaganis Arena, where the BU men normally play.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it was a great game for BC grad student Emma O'Connor at the University of Minnesota transfer.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: She scored two goals, including the game-winning goal to lift BC over BU attaganis in front of that massive crowd.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: And she's our Jersey Mike's sub-above player of the week.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: She also leads hockey east in block shots.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: She's got 42 block shots this year, and that's fifth nationally as well.
16:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she's been really good.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: Grace Campbell was really good as well.
16:54
SPEAKER_02: Hockey is goaltender of the week, 74 saves in those couple of wins.
16:58
SPEAKER_02: So Boston College will have a game with Merrimack this weekend.
17:02
SPEAKER_02: Um, the other team we wanted to spend a little bit of time on was Providence.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: Um, we haven't talked as much about them the last couple of weeks.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: They are coming off two losses to Princeton, but you know, you look at Matt Kelly, what he had to say.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: He thought it was really maybe their best full 60-minute efforts of the season.
17:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, he felt like there's been discernible steps taken.
17:20
SPEAKER_02: Um, he thought their defensive game showed a lot of growth.
17:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, they're pretty young defensively, so you know it was going to take a little bit of time.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: Um, he said they're starting to squash offense and break out cleanly, was his quote earlier today.
17:34
SPEAKER_02: So um, but we do know how dynamic they can be, Bridget, right?
17:38
SPEAKER_02: That top line of Knapp and Peller and Kirchmeyer.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, there there's definitely potential there if he really feels like there's some growth happening.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that line has already been established.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Knapp and Kirchmeyer are upperclassmen that are solid and were both in the top five in scoring last season as well.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: So you're gonna see the production from them.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: But I think also uh PC has some young players that we haven't had a chance to talk about yet.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: And Bella Pellucci is someone that I wanted to bring up.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: She's a name you'll be hearing more.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: She's a freshman, she's got size, she can be physical, but she also has an offensive skill set that's really good.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: She's quarterback of PC's second power play unit, and that unit features three freshmen.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: So he's got his youth uh involved in that already.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh, freshman Molly Ferris plays on the flank on that power play unit.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Freshman Sammy Snyder plays net front on that power play unit.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: And as a whole, the PC power play has been much better this year than last year at this point.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: They're right now, they're 19.4% on the power play.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: That's second best uh in hockey east behind Northeastern.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: And Matt Kelly said he attributes the positive change in results on the power play to being more patient and having the right personnel out there, right?
18:49
SPEAKER_00: These freshmen know what they're doing on the power play and they know when to attack.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: And another uh thing that has been important for them is they got Emma Hofbauer back.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: She's healthy this season.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: She missed a majority of last year after breaking her femur in October.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: So she scores her first goal uh since her very first collegiate game last October in over a year.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And now that she's got 14 games behind her, she seems less hesitant and more confident.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, really, really excited to see if they can kind of grow off of that a little bit.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: Um, and you know, we're we're getting closer to the second half.
19:22
SPEAKER_02: Trophy season's about to start.
19:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh, women's beanpot's gonna be back at TD Garden before we know it.
19:27
SPEAKER_02: January 20th will be here for the third day in a row.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: So exciting stuff is on the horizon on the women's side.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: But it's it's hard.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: This conference is difficult.
19:35
SPEAKER_02: It's difficult on both sides.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about that specifically when we get back here on This Week in Hockey East.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: It's time to go around Hockey East presented by Boston Children's Hospital, the official children's hospital of Hockey East, Boston Children's Where the World Comes for answers.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: And Eric, not surprisingly, now that we've gotten through a few weeks of conference games, every weekend has been really competitive.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Not a whole lot of weekend sweeps for any of the teams in Hockey East.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's pretty crazy, right?
20:02
SPEAKER_02: This has kind of been the story of the year so far.
20:04
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we talked earlier about Boston College.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: We'll see them on Friday Night Hockey East on Ness, and they've swept the last two weekends, and in this case, sweep being the full six points.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: That's only happened three times all year.
20:15
SPEAKER_02: There's been 13 true two-game series between the same opponents on the weekend, but only three times has a team taken the full six points.
20:23
SPEAKER_02: And in fact, they've actually all involved BC.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: Boston College the last two weekends, sweeping Vermont and UMass, and then they got swept the prior weekend by Northeastern.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: This is something that the the voice of the Friars, Mike Logan, and I were talking about the other day.
20:36
SPEAKER_02: And you start to do the math, and it, you know, it kind of checks out, right?
20:39
SPEAKER_02: Teams who earned a full three points on night one who had a chance to sweep are just four, seven, and one with the potential to get the full six points.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: Three of those wins in regulation, and then the Yukon win in overtime against Northeastern last week.
20:53
SPEAKER_02: Um, of those games, that even crazier to me, Bridget, is that teams who had a chance to get the full six points playing that Saturday game at home are only one and four this year.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: So it it's just been so difficult to, you know, Ben Barr, you you mentioned it, Ben Barr talked about it.
21:10
SPEAKER_02: It's so difficult when you get that desperate team, the second game of the series.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, but that's kind of been the factor.
21:16
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, whether it's all the new faces, whether it's the CHN guys, there's a bunch of different reasons why.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: But, you know, even in the non-conference, right?
21:23
SPEAKER_02: UMass split with Cornell and Omaha, UConn split early with, you know, Colorado College and Ohio State.
21:28
SPEAKER_02: It's just, it's been tough to get the full six points.
21:30
SPEAKER_02: So teams that can start to do that have a chance to really move up in the hockey standings.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it'll start to be big towards their MPI at the end of the season.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we're talking about the men's side not having a lot of splits.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: The what are a lot of sweeps.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: The women's side has has seen that a little bit more, but another matchup on the men's side we did want to get to quickly, BU and Northeastern this weekend.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: Another one of those bean pot rivalry matchups.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: And BU's coming off a tough six to two loss to Quinapia last weekend.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Jay Pendolfo was not happy with what he saw.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, probably gonna see a response from his team this weekend against Northeastern, but Northeastern also coming off some losses against a ranked Yukon team as well.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: So these are two teams that are gonna be hungry for a win this weekend.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: And some other notes to keep uh track of in this series Eiserman and Rukinakis both were back in the lineup for BU last weekend, which marked the first time in the whole season that the Terrors have had their entire roster available.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be a good goalie matchup.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Mikhail Yogorov versus Lawton Zaker.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Zacher got just his second and third losses of the season uh this past weekend.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: He had only one loss and eight games played coming into that UConn series.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: And Mikhail Yagorov has had good stretches and down stretches this season.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: But we know what he's capable of doing when you look back to the kind of run he had at the end of last season that led BU to the NCAA final.
22:50
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, and on the Northeastern side, like Lawton Zacher's not going to have a 980 save percentage every game, right?
22:56
SPEAKER_02: So you have to adjust out of it.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: They did get one point against UConn on Saturday, but you know, hockey coaches like to use that word adversity, right?
23:04
SPEAKER_02: In-season adversity.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: This is kind of their first chance facing it.
23:07
SPEAKER_02: They've got off to such a good start.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: They did have it a little bit earlier against that army game that they lost, and then trying to bounce back from that.
23:13
SPEAKER_02: They did it then and went on the run they were on.
23:15
SPEAKER_02: Can they do it again against one of their rivals in BU?
23:19
SPEAKER_02: Should be a really excited weekend.
23:20
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Maine and BC both playing well.
23:22
SPEAKER_02: That's our nessing game this week.
23:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh, next week, a lot of non conference games, plenty to talk about as we get close to Thanksgiving.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: And we're finally close enough, we'll be able to start talking a little bit of NPI as well.
23:32
SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for joining us once again for another episode of this week.