Men's Hockey Notebook: 12-1-09

About that Red power play

It's No. 1 in the country, converting at a 31.9 percent clip. But B.U.'s penalty kill early in the second period held the Red to just one outside shot by Justin Krueger as the penalty minutes were wearing down. In fact, the Terriers penalty kill unit was so dominant that on the next man-advantage chance for Cornell, head coach Mike Schafer '86 skipped over his top line (Colin Greening-Riley Nash-Brendon Nash-Sean Whitney-Blake Gallagher) and sent out John Esposito, Patrick Kennedy, Joe Devin, Mike Devin and Nick D'Agostino.

The result? B.U.'s shorthanded goal. Schafer pulled that unit and sent his top line out, which rewarded him with Blake Gallagher's (patent pending) backdoor goal off a cross-ice pass.

Reflex decision

It may have confused some people why junior center Riley Nash — along with defensemen Justin Krueger and Braden Birch — was part of Schafer's three-man line in the 6-on-3 situation late in the game. Despite being mostly invisible for the majority of the game on Saturday, Nash is considered Cornell's best face-off option, and he was likely part of the 6-on-3 for that reason. But he was just 9-10 in his face-offs against B.U. on Saturday. Gallagher led the team with a 16-15 record and the Red was 33-32 overall.

NY Times and the 6-on-3

Jeff Klein of the New York Times took some special interest [9] in BU coach Jack Parker's decision to go with a 6-on-3 in the waning minutes of the Red Hot Hockey game. In the press conference after the game, Parker said that the assistant who recommended practicing the 6-on-3 had to face it on the shorthanded side; his players never touched the puck.

Klein noted that

In the second period of an N.H.L. game, will we see a team that’s trailing but that receives a two-man advantage pull their goalie to make it a three-man advantage?

If it really works, then why not?

If it was original the first time...

The Terrier Hockey Blog headlined its recap post about Red Hot Hockey BU Beats Cornell, 3-3 [10] in a reference to the 1968 headline that inspired the 2008 movie Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29. HILarious.