Today on MassLive, Dick Baker has a feature on UMass senior forward, Springfield native, T.J. Syner and his cousin Barry Almeida of Boston College, who will be squaring off in the Hockey East Quarterfinals this weekend as the Minutemen face the No. 1 Eagles.
Syner has rewarded UMass hockey fans the past four years with his breakaway speed. He has 96 career points, and a chance to become only the 10th player in the history of the program to reach the century mark. In the regular season finale at Merrimack, Syner made a highlight film solo rush , weaving and then splitting thrugh the defense for a shorthanded goal with six seconds remaining in the first period.
"Last year, he had a goal against Minnesota that was very similar," UMass coach Toot Cahoon said. "It wasn't shorthanded, but it just took the 11,000 people at that game right out of their seats. It was the same type of play where you just say - Wow that looks like Kharlamov (Valeri, former Soviet superstar). You just don't see too many do that. I can think of some guys - Corey Millen, (Paul) Kariya. Very special athletes make a play like that."
The Minutemen will need big plays to upset the Eagles. BC has won 11 straight games, and has beaten UMass 10 straight times at Conte Forum, including 2-0 sweeps the past two years in the Hockey East quarterfinals.
Dick Baker discusses the Minutemen's chances against No. 1 Boston College this weekend. He also writes about BC coach Jerry York's thoughts on facing UMass.
"The Minutemen have our attention, stated BC coach Jerry York," writes Baker.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette recaps the 1-1 weekend against Merrimack, and how the Mass Attack will face No. 1 Boston College in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs this weekend.
Dick Baker of the Springfield Republican takes a look at the season of Springfield native T.J. Syner who is one of 77 candidates on the Hobey Baker Award this year. The award honors the top collegiate hockey player.
Steve Mastalerz not only posted the first shutout of his career last night at the Mullins Center - the freshman goalie posted the first shutout ever against Boston College since the series began in the early 1920's. UMass cruised to a 4-0 win over the No. 4 Eagles to win the regular-season series thanks to a pair of goals from T.J. Syner and a shorthanded goal from Peter DeAngelo.
Dick Baker of the Springfield Republican looks at the scoring numbers of UMass' T.J. Syner and Conor Sheary who are both among the Hockey East leaders in points this year.
Dick Baker of the Springfield Republican has his Baker's Dozen for the week where he looks at the match-ups in the Everblades College Hockey Classic which starts tonight along with other items surrounding the UMass hockey season.
Scott Cournoyer of the Daily Collegian has a recap of Friday's home-opening win over Bentley and Saturday's tough loss at Providence for the UMass hockey team.
Matt Vautour of the Daily Hampshire Gazette has a recap of the hockey team's 5-3 win against Bentley yesterday in the Mullins Center home opener. Mike Pereira had three goals and an assist.
Steve Levine of The Daily Collegian looks at some of the critical aspects of the hockey team's performance last weekend at Northeastern and how that will translate tonight against Bentley.
UMass and Northeastern battled to a 3-3 overtime tie on Friday night in the season opener for both teams. The Huskies managed to tie the game with two seconds left in regulation after pulling goalie Chris Rawlings for the extra skater.
Dick Baker of the Springfield Republican has a story from Hockey East Media Day on how the sophomore class will be key in the success of UMass this season.
Last Friday's announcement of the Hockey East double header, Frozen Fenway 2012, and New England Hockey Day in Boston sparked tons of excitement throughout the region. Here's all the coverage from the press conference:
Dick Baker of the Springfield Republican has a story on MassLive.com today about rising senior hockey player T.J. Syner impressing top brass at the Washington Capitals Development Camp. The Longmeadown native, who has not been drafted by a NHL team, took the opportunity to show off his terrific speed and skating ability to top executives.
Syner had 27 points on nine goals and 18 assists in 2010-11 and will serve as co-captain for the Minutemen in the 2011-12 season.
The Washington Post has a list of players attending the Capitals Prospect Camp this week including UMass' T.J. Syner and Conor Allen. Both are free agent invitee's.
A choked-up Paul Dainton accepted his award as the most valuable player of the 2010-11 University of Massachusetts hockey team, and said his final goodbyes to his college teammates at the end of season banquet Saturday afternoon at the Campus Center.
"I like to thank my teammates for this award," the senior captain said. "Being a goalie, I couldn't do it without my other defensemen clearing rebounds."
Dainton, on an amateur tryout agreement with the Springfield Falcons, was fighting back tears at the podium as he individually began to thank his defensemen for their help. The award was voted on by the members of the team.
The UMass hockey team heads to Northeastern tonight to kick-off a weekend series that returns to the Mullins Center tomorrow night to wrap up the regular-season series between the two clubs. Tonight's game will be live on NESN & NESN-HD beginning at 7:30 PM, while tomorrow's match-up will be televised live on CBS3 Now (Comcast Digital 293) beginning at 7 PM.
It was a dominating performance at both ends of the ice last night as the hockey team bounced back from Friday's loss for a 6-0 win at Vermont on Saturday. It was just the 2nd career shutout for goalie Paul Dainton and the first ever for the Minutemen at Gutterson Fieldhouse since 1964. Four skaters had multi-point nights led by T.J. Syner's 2 goals and 1 assist.
In John Connolly's Boston Herald hockey notebook, he looks at the success UMass had this past weekend over Lowell and has extensive quotes from Coach Don "Toot" Cahoon about the make-up of the team. Cahoon mentions some strengths of the team and says " We need to learn to play together and play well together, even if it means suffering a few losses, so that we can learn to win together. That's what we're in the midst of right now.''
Dick Baker has four new blog entries in his MassLive.com Hockey Blog as the Minutemen prepare for a home weekend against Northeastern (Friday, 7 PM) and New Hampshire (Saturday, 7 PM).
The UMass Hockey Radio Show returns to the Hangar Pub & Grill tonight at 7 PM. Be sure to join us to talk hockey and enjoy a few of the best wings in town! Player guests tonight will be a pair of locals as Holyoke's Kevin Czepiel and Springfield's T.J. Syner join us.
If you can't make it, you can always listen online, listen on the radio (100.9 FM WRNX), or check out the PodCast tomorrow morning.
Here are several recaps from Thursday night's 5-1 loss at No. 15 Wisconsin for the UMass hockey team. The Mass Attack and Badgers will face each other again on Friday night starting at 8 PM Eastern (7 PM CST).
Don't forget UMass hockey fans that today HockeyEastOnline.com will continue its chat series at 1 p.m. (Eastern) with Massachusetts junior forward T.J. Syner. The chat forum will open a few hours in advance to begin accepting your questions.
In 11 games this season, Syner has three goals and a team-high six assists with a +2 rating. The assistant captain for the Minutemen has played in 75 career games with 18 goals and 24 assists which is the most for an active skater.
Be sure to join us on Tuesday afternoon for the chat to hear all about how T.J. became involved with hockey, what it's like to play in front of his hometown fans and what it's like to be a college hockey player in the best league in the country.
It was a thrilling game last night for college hockey fans as UMass clawed back after trailing twice to take a 3-2 lead with just over 60 seconds left in the 3rd period only to have No. 8 New Hampshire score 20 seconds later to force a 3-3 tie. Here are the recaps from last night's action.
It's the home opener for the UMass hockey team as the Mullins Center prepares to welcome fans for the first time in 2010-11 tonight at 7 PM with the No. 8 Boston University Terriers coming to town. WWLP NBC22 and the Daily Hampshire Gazette both have previews for tonight's action.
If you missed watching the UMass Hockey Show on CBS3 Springfield this past Saturday, you can watch it online. Host Josh Maurer and Coach Don "Toot" Cahoon break down the team's series against Minnesota and looks ahead to the next few games. We also learn about captain Paul Dainton, and the meaning behind the symbols on his goalie helmet. Plus, a couple of local players are leading the team's offense. And we take a few minutes to chat with Michael Marcou, and former UMass great Jon Quick.
Don't forget to tune-in or set your DVR's, TIVO's, or if you are old-school, VCR's to check out the UMass Hockey Show which will air this Saturday, October 16 at 11 AM on CBS3 Springfield.
The show will recap the Minnesota weekend, preview the upcoming games against Boston University, feature insight into the program from head coach Don "Toot" Cahoon and show you sides of several players you may not have known about.
There are several features on Paul Dainton, Michael Marcou, T.J. Syner and Kevin Czepiel, plus you can meet several of the team's freshmen and Kevin Moore finds out what guys must do to get ready for games. It's a show any UMass hockey fan will not want to miss!
In Dick Baker's MassLive.com UMass Hockey Blog, he examines some of the numbers behind the two games at Minnesota, including Paul Dainton moving into third all-time on the career saves list at UMass, and at the surprising UConn/Maine tie from the weekend.
Dick Baker was on-site yesterday at the Hockey East Media Day and has two new entries in his UMass Hockey Blog on MassLive.com. In his first post, he spoke with captain Paul Dainton and assistant captains Danny Hobbs, Michael Marcou, and T.J. Syner about the upcoming season. An interesting fact: they are all roommates and according to Baker live with a "gremlin" in the house. No further explanation was offered except that the Gremlin is the "Captain of the House".
Dick Baker has several new entries in his UMass Hockey Blog on MassLive.com. One interesting thing to point out is that Justin Braun, James Marcou and Cory Quirk were all assigned to the Worcester Sharks over the weekend. The trio will join Matt Irwin with the AHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks.
