Know Your Enemy: The "Five Year Anniversary" Edition

Well folks, tonight is Agganis' birthday.

No, not Harry, the Arena.  And it's five years old.

What better way to celebrate than with a resounding bounce back win over a below average Merrimack team?

Yeah.  Those clowns.

First of all, there's something I need to get off my chest.  I diligently followed Eric Gryba's noble quest to surpass Freddy Meyer as BU's all-time penalty minutes leader.  And when he broke the record, we told you about it here in our Chasing Freddy Meyer section.  However, Agganis didn't announce the momentous occasion until the following game, and it just made it into the game notes for tonight's game against Mack.  What crap is this?  The man broke a record people.  Show some respect!

Moving on.

Tonight is a big game for BU.  It's a monster game in fact.  BU cannot afford to lose to the 10th place team one night and the 9th place team the next.  Not if they want to get back in this thing.

The Terriers and Warriors have met twice already this season, with tonight's contest serving as the rubber match between the two teams.  In a home and home in November, Merrimack took the game in North Andover 6-3,  on the strength of a two goal effort by Brandon Brodhag.  The next night Chris Connolly stole the show for the Terriers, scoring two goals and adding an assist to lead BU to a 6-4 victory over Mack at Agganis Arena.

Splitting a series with Merrimack is not something the Terriers are used to by any stretch, however.  BU and MC have met 87 times in the past 45 years, and the Ice Dogs were simply dominant.  BU has posted a 71-12-4 record over the Warriors, including a 51-9-4 record since both teams joined Hockey East.  Prior to this November, BU had taken an incredible 15 consecutive games against Merrimack, which equates to a 5 season winning streak.  The Warriors have never beat BU in consecutive games, and they won't accomplish that feat tonight, as BU won the last game in the series.

Last season, Jackie Parker led his team into North Andover and won his 800th career game over the Warriors.

Since that night, Merrimack is 1-7-0, including 5 consecutive losses coming into tonight.  In those games, Merrimack has averaged 2.4 goals per game while surrendering 4.0 tallies per game.

Those numbers are a far cry from the solid offensive numbers Merrimack put up in their first 10 games of the year, when they were scoring at a pace of 4.0 goals per game en route to a 6-4-0 start to the 2009-10 season.

So what does BU have to do to ensure that Merrimack's losing streak hits six?  First of all, they need to shut down Mack's electric freshman Frenchman, Stephane Da Costa.  The kid is a beast.  Da Costa has 10 goals and 12 assists to lead the Warriors with 22 points.  Da Costa burst onto the scene earlier this season with a mammoth five goal effort against Army which included a natural hat trick.

Da Costa had two goals and two assists against BU in the two game set back in November.  He is a rare talent, and BU will need to shut him down if they want to stay in this one.

Only one other Warrior, Junior Forward Chris Barton, has tallied double digit goals this season so far for Mack.

It's a goalie by committee situation for the Warriors, but I feel like Andrew Braithwaite always plays when these teams meet at Agganis.  And he probably should get the start.  Braithwaite's numbers have been significantly better than his counterpart Joe Cannata.  Braithwaite's surrendered 3.01 goals per game and saved 90% of the shots he has faced.  Cannata has given up 3.69 goals per game and turned away just 88% of opponents' shots.  Perhaps most telling, Cannata is 3-8 while Braithwaite is 4-3.

One bright spot for Mack has been their power play.  The Warriors convert on 1 out of every 4 chances with the man advantage, going 22 of 87 on the year.  And BU didn't exactly inspire awe with their penalty kill last night, so maybe Eric Gryba should scale it back a bit in this one.

Bottom line, Merrimack was an upstart nice little surprise earlier this year, but they're not a good team.  They're on a losing streak, as Providence was and RPI was before them.  But BU made both of those teams look like the Red Wings.  So don't think that a mediocre team will make BU look good.  That's the same mistake the boys in Scarlet seem to make every time.