Syner and Almeida are having their best seasons as the Minutemen and Eagles open their best of three quarterfinal series Friday night at Conte Forum.
T.J. Syner is having an excellent senior season for UMass hockey
Syner and the eighth-seeded University of Massachusetts (13-16-5) challenge Almeida and top-seeded Boston College (25-10-1) Friday night at 7:30 on national television (NBC Sports Network) in the opening-game of their best-of-three series quarterfinal series at BC’s Conte Forum.
Both are enjoying tremendous years. Ironically, they are they are tied for seventh in Hockey East overall scoring with 36 points apiece. They’ve done it in a little different way – Syner has 13 goals and 23 assists while Almeida is 21-15. Syner leads the Minutemen in scoring while Almeida trails only Chris Kreider, a first-round pick of the New York Rangers (19th overall) in the 2009 NHL amateur draft. The speedy Kreider is 20-17-37 to lead BC.
Almeida is tied with Drew Shore of the University of Denver for the most power-play goals in the nation with 11. And that’s also real good company. Shore was a second-round pick (44th overall) of the Florida Panthers, also in the 2009 NHL draft.
In plus-minus, Almeida is a plus-11, and Syner a plus-10. Both are career bests.
Almeida never saw much time on the power play until this year, compiling only three goals with the extra man over his first three seasons.
“He’s had a remarkable senior season,” Boston College coach Jerry York said this week. “He’s always been a good player for us, now he’s a candidate for all-league honors. His play is considerably better offensively as witnessed on the power play. Over the years, we’ve had so many good power-play players that Barry hadn’t gotten the chance to break in there on a regular basis. This was his opportunity this year, and he’s done an amazing job with it. He’s certainly among the keys to our success this year.”
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.
But this is a much better UMass team than a year ago, and one that took the season series over BC two games to one. Both the wins were at the Mullins Center, 4-2 and 4-0 with freshman Steve Mastalerz posting the shutout. The loss was 4-2 Oct. 21 at Conte Forum. The Minutemen were one of only three teams to win the season series against the Eagles. Boston University and Maine were the others.
“It’s a whole new time of year, they’re a great program this time of year, they refer to it as trophy season, and they know how to win those trophies, so I don’t think those two (wins) are going to be a factor other than motivating them not to look by us,” Cahoon said.
The biggest difference between BC and UMass is team defense. BC is fourth in the nation (out of 58 Division I teams) in offense while UMass is 11th. But on defense, BC is ninth, and the Minutemen are 50th. Much of the reason for the spread is the penalty kill where BC is fourth, and UMass 55th.
And in other family matters, the Shea brothers on defense will oppose each other again. Edwin Shea is a senior at BC, and Colin is a sophomore for UMass.