We're No. 5 (Again)!

 

The 6-1 University of Georgia Bulldogs are ranked No. 5 in the week's AP Poll. That's the same ranking they had when they started the season, before they played a single game, and the same rank they held in Weeks 4 and 5, when they were 3-0 (i.e., before they played Alabama). But since that 'Bama loss, which knocked them down to No 12, they kept on winning and slowly rose back up in the rankings, moving to No. 10, then 9, and this week, after beating then-No 5 Ole Miss, 43-35, and now they're back to their original No. 5 slot like nothing ever happened.

Undefeated Ohio State, Indiana, and Texas A&M are Nos. 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Alabama (6-1) is No. 4, right above Georgia. Oregon (6-1) is No. 6,  and unbelievably, Georgia Tech is undefeated and ranked No. 7. This year's Georgia-Georgia Tech game could be interesting.  

Ole Miss, Georgia's victim last weekend, fell from No. 5 to No. 8.

Speaking of unbelievable, Miami lost to unranked Louisville, 24-21, on Saturday and fell from No. 2 to No. 9. Ex-Georgia QB Carson Beck, who fell out of favor with Bulldogs fans last year for a tendency to throw interceptions, got picked off four times in the loss. But an overrated ACC team losing to another ACC team isn't even the story here. Miami, as I'm sure you know, is - or was - the holder of the lineal college football championship, that imaginary title going all the way back to 1869, as well as Georgia's 2021 and 2022 championship rings. 

The belt and the rings are now in Louisville, Kentucky, in the hands (wings?) of the Cardinals. Those prizes have already been on quite the ride this season - Florida had them at the start of this season and then lost them to South Florida. Miami won them from South Florida, and now Louisville won them from Miami. 

I want Georgia to get their rings back, and it would be nice for them to hold the lineal championship belt, too, but the Bulldogs don't play Louisville this year (or hardly ever, for that matter) and Louisville's not going to the playoffs (sorry, Cardinals fans, but it's true). They won't play another ranked team again this season, but will have plenty of opportunities to lose the belt and the rings to unranked Boston College, or Clemson, or their in-state rivals, Kentucky, none of whom are going to the playoffs, either. It might take several seasons for those prizes to work their way back to where the Bulldogs could claim them. Thanks for nothing, Beck!

The other big upset last weekend was No. 10 LSU losing to No. 17 Vanderbilt, 31-24. Vandy moves up to become the new No. 10 (funny how teams claim their victim's ranking) and LSU falls all the way down to No. 20.

Georgia's off this weekend and then plays unranked Florida in the annual party down in Jacksonville. Can you imagine the excitement if Florida had somehow managed to hold onto the belt and rings all season, and the prizes were on the line? 

Mammoth 3, Bruins 2

 

Fourth straight loss. The Bruins won their first three games, then lost their next four, including all three on this road trip. They drop to fifth in the Atlantic and have the Panthers coming up on Tuesday.

David Pastrnak got the only two goals for the Boston, his fourth and fifth of the season. Korpisalo made 24 saves. There's really nothing else to report on here.

Play better, boys.

Patriots 31, Titans 13

 

Twenty-one completions today on 23 attempts. Two touchdowns and no interceptions. 222 total yards. QB rating of 135.9, second in the NFL. In the NFL top 10 in touchdowns, total yards, first downs, completions and percent completions on the season.  Sixty-two yards rushing. Drake Maye is officially an elite QB, and suddenly it's fun to watch Patriots games again.

Today, the New England Patriots (5-2, first in the AFC East) beat Cam Ward and the Tennessee Titans (1-6, last in the AFC South) by a score of 31-13. Is there a term for when one team's score is the reverse of the other team's score?  Is it a palindrome (the score's the same when read backward as forward)? The Patriots beat the Titans by the palindrome score of 31-13.

The game started fairly evenly and late in the second quarter, the Titans kicked a FG to take a brief, 13-10 lead. They never scored again. The Pats came back in the last minute of the half and scored a TD on a 39-yard Maye pass down the middle to Kayshon Boutte to lead 17-13 at the half. New England scored twice in the third, once on a  four-yard Rhamondre Stevenson run and once on a returned Cam Ward fumble. That's all that was needed to complete three straight wins on the road.

The Patriots finally get to return to their New England home. Next week, they host the Cleveland Browns (2-5, third in the AFC North) in Foxborough. 

We're going to the playoffs, baby!

Avalanche 4, Bruins 1

 

Third consecutive loss - sure, tough schedule, I get it (Colorado's 5-0-1 for a reason), but is it time to start worrying about this year's team? 

The Bruins' John Beecher got the first goal of the game some three minutes into play, but that was it for Boston on the night. They were shut out for the next 57 minutes. Swayman, for his part, made 34 saves on 37 shots for a .919 average.

We lost to Tampa Bay on home ice, and then to Vegas and Colorado on the road. Tonight, we have Utah (3-2-0) and then back home to face our kryptonite, the Florida Panthers (3-4-0). To top it all off, we have to face the Avalanche again next Saturday.   

The Bruins are 3-3-0 and in fourth place in the Atlantic with six points, trailing first-place Detroit by two points. But a win over Utah tonight and a Red Wings loss to Edmonton this afternoon would put us right back into the thick of things.  

It's been a brutal weekend on the ice. Two Bruins' losses, two losses by the BU men's team, and one loss by the BU women. 0-5 on the weekend. If it wasn't for Georgia Bulldogs' football, I'd be totally despondent. 

Michigan State 4, BU 3 (OT)

 

Well, THAT'S some bullshit right there!

BU was robbed - robbed I tell you - of an OT goal with 1:15 left in OT. Cole Eiserman took a shot at the Michigan State goal that appeared to go in before it got stopped by Spartan goalie Trey Augustine. But the officials called it a save, and MSU immediately took the puck down the ice and scored a goal at 1:10. There was an official review of the Terrier's previous shot to see if it was actually a goal or not. I couldn't see - the game was on ESPNU and I only get ESPN and ESPN2 - but the radio guys said it was close but to them it looked like a goal. Granted, they're biased, but after watching several replays they said the puck crossed the line "by an eighth on an inch." The officials, though, said "nope," it didn't, and gave the winning score to Michigan State. 

It's all the more frustrating because of how it got to that point. MSU took a 2-0 lead into the third period, but BU's Gavin McCarthy finally ended the drought by scoring early in the third. Michigan State came right back and scored again within a minute to take a 3-1 lead. BU's Kamil Bednarik scored a short-handed goal midway through the third, and then Terrier Conrad Fondrk added another a few minutes later to tie the score up.  Mikhail Yegorov made 30 saves in the course of the game, and it went into OT with the teams tied at 3.

And then that bullshit up above happened.

BU doesn't get a point in the Hockey East standings for the OT loss because it wasn't a conference game, but by NCAA rules they get 40% of the win for taking it to overtime. BU won't be No. 1 next week, but with the solid effort tonight (and last night, too, to be sure) against an elite opponent, they shouldn't fall too far. 

We'll know Monday.  

Georgia 43, Ole Miss 35

 

That was one exciting game!

Uncharacteristically, the No. 9 Georgia Bulldogs scored first in this game, although due to offensive pass interference, had to settle for a field goal even though they had advanced the ball all the way to the Rebels' 24-yard line. After that, it was time to buckle up and tighten your seat belt, because both teams swapped TDs on the next five possessions, with Georgia scoring two and No. 5 Ole Miss, three. After another Georgia FG as the clock expired, the Rebels led, 21-20, at the half.

Everyone knows Georgia's pattern by now and expected Coach Smart to make his halftime adjustments and the Dawgs to come out in the second half with guns blazing. But Ole Miss knocked the wind out of our sails by starting the half by scoring a TD in two plays, including a 75-yard pass. The Dawgs scored a TD on their next possession, an 11-play drive, but failed to make the two-point conversion and had to settle for six points. Ole Miss scored another TD on their next drive and took a 35-26 lead. Things weren't looking good for the Bulldogs.

That's when fortune turned around for Georgia. On their next possession, a 13-play drive, Georgia gambled on a 4th-and-one and got the first down and then the subsequent TD. Then, in the fourth quarter and for the first time in the entire game, Georgia prevented Ole Miss from scoring on a drive and forced the first punt of the game. Georgia scored a TD again, forced another Ole Miss punt, only the second by either team in the whole game, and got a field goal. Georgia then held the Rebels to 22 yards on their final possession and forced a turnover on downs. The Bulldogs ran out the clock and the game ended, 43-35, Georgia.

During the regular season last year, the Dawgs lost two games, one to Alabama and one to Ole Miss. This year, we had already lost to Alabama again and for a while there, it looked like we were going to lose to Ole Miss again, too. But history did not repeat itself, and Georgia is now 6-1 and Ole Miss took their first loss of the season and are 6-1 as well.      

Georgia is 4-1 in the SEC, second to A&M and Alabama (3-0). Ole Miss is 3-1. 

Mercifully, Georgia has a bye week next weekend, and then the annual rivalry game against unranked Florida (3-4).

What a game! What a thrilling Bulldog win!

Michigan State 4, BU 2

 

Well, being No. 1 was fun while it lasted. 

Tonight, the No. 1-ranked Boston University Terriers were soundly beaten by the No. 3 Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans scored first and then barely 90 seconds later, scored a second, short-handed goal while BU was on a power play. BU's Sascha Boumedienne scored on a power play to pull the Terriers to within one goal, 2-1, but MSU scored a third goal and the first period ended 3-1.

No one scored in the second, and while it seemed like the momentum might be shirting to BU, the Spartans scored a fourth goal to make it 4-1. We finally scored again in the closing minute (thank you Ryder Ritchie) on a power play and with an open net to get a 6-4 advantage but that was it. Goalkeeper Mikhail Yegorov made 30 saves for an .882 average.

Michigan State's good, I'll admit it, and their goalie, Trey Augustine, is fantastic, going .900 with 18 saves. It's hard to imagine how New Hampshire beat them last weekend (they split the series) The two teams play again tomorrow, and the Terriers will have to dig deep and play ferociously to salvage a split of our own in this series.

Tough 24 hours on ice: the Bruins lost last night, the Terriers' women's team lost earlier this evening, and the men's team lost this game on national tv (I watched it on ESPN). Time to tun this frozen mojo around.  

.  

Brown 2, BU 1

 

The BU women's hockey team must be the best 0-5 team in all of sports. They opened their season with two losses against Wisconsin, the No. 3 team in the country, and them lost two more games to Colgate, the No. 8 team, by a combined three points.

Tonight, the No. 13 Terriers finally caught a break in the schedule and hosted unranked Brown, but lost by one. Luisa Welcke scored the sole BU goal, and goalie Mari Pietersen made 16 saves. But the frustration continues as the Terriers keep coming close, but seem to always have one or two fewer goals by the end of the third than their opponent.

You know who I feel sorry for? New Hampshire. They're up against BU next Friday, and the Terriers are going to be hungry for a much deserved win. 

Golden Knights 6, Bruins 5

 

What the hell happened in the NHL? The Bruins (3-2-0), tied with Florida for first place in the Atlantic, are off for three days, then suffer a loss to Vegas, their second consecutive drop, and are suddenly in fourth place behind Montreal, Detroit, and Toronto, and one ahead of Florida.

Tanner Jeannot and Nikita Zadorov scored in the first period, which ended in a 2-2 tie, and Pastrnak got a power-play goal in the second, the only score in that period, which ended with a 5-3 Vegas lead. In the third period, Mark Kastelic and Michael Eyssimont scored within 1:07 of each other in a furious Boston comeback, but it wasn't enough and the Bruins lost, 6-5.  

Jeremy Swayman was in the net last night and made 31 saves (.838). 

The Bruins' mountain-west road trip will continue with a Friday night (9:00) game against Colorado (4-0-1), the first-place team in the Central Division and the one with the most points (9) in the NHL. They'll play Utah on Sunday before returning home to host Florida in the Garden on Tuesday (ESPN).   

We're No. 1!

 

The latest U.S. College Hockey Organization poll came out yesterday, and the 2-0-1 Boston University men's hockey team is ranked No. 1 in the nation! The Terriers move up from last week's No. 3 ranking.

The Terriers got 27 first-place votes. Also receiving votes were Michigan (8), Western Michigan (6), Michigan State (5), Maine (3), and Penn State (1).   

Previous No. 1 Western Michigan lost to Ferris State last week and fell to the No. 2 spot. Last week's No. 2, and the Terriers' opponent this weekend, Michigan State lost to New Hampshire last week and are now No. 3. 

The BU women's team are 0-4 due to a brutal schedule that had them starting their season against No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 8 Colgate.  However, they played those games tough, and the poll actually moved them up from No. 14 to No. 13 despite the losses.

Lightning 4, Bruins 3

 

What? I'm used to losing to the Florida Panthers, but now we're losing to any random Florida Man team?

The Tampa Bay Lightning hand the Bruins their first loss of the season, 4-1. To add insult to injury, it was the Lightning's first win of the season. They're now 1-2-0. 

Tampa Bay's Anthony Cirelli's two goals gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead in the first period. Casey Mittelstadt, Morgan Geekie, and defenseman Jordan Harris scored goals for the Bruins in the second period, but Tampa scored two more goals of their own that period. Both sides were shut out in the third and the game ended in a 4-3 Bruins' loss. Joonas Korpisalo made 19 saves in the net.

The Panthers lost as well yesterday, 5-2, to the Philadelphia Flyers, so Boston and Florida are both tied for first in the Atlantic at 3-1-0 and 6 points.

The Bruins are off until Thursday night when they travel to Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights (1-0-2).