bruins 6, Mammoth 1

 

Before last night, Bruins' team captain David Pastrnak hadn't scored a single goal, and the Bruins hadn't scored on the power play all season. All that changed fourteen minutes into the first period, when Captain Pastrnak scored on a power play, assisted by Fredrick Brunet and Morgan Geekie. To make his case, Captain Pasta scored again on another power play in the second period, assisted by Geekie and Hampus Lindholm. 

A big part of being captain is leadership, so on another second-period power play, Pasta fed a puck from Pavel Zacha to Geekie, who scored the goal. Pasta also assisted on an even-strength goal by Matthew Poitras in the second period.

On top of all those Pasta-powered goals, Casey Mittelstadt scored his first of the season, assisted by James Hagens and Elias Lindholm. Mason Lohrei also got his first goal of the season in the first period, assisted by Poitras and Mark Kastelic. In the end, the Bruins crushed the Mammoth, 6-1.

Jeremy Swayman was 36-for-37 in the net for a .973 average.

Our old friend, Andrew Peeke, had 12:56 minutes on the ice for the Mammoth and got off one shot on goal and a hit on Hagens, both in the first period. Clayton Keller (BU, 2017) had 19:41 minutes, four shots on goal, one takeaway, three giveaways, and a second-period hit on the Bruins' Connor Clifton.

The Bruins improve to 3-2-0 and six points, but are still in fourth place in the Atlantic Division because of the stupid games-played tiebreaker. C'mon, Ottawa, Florida, and Tampa Bay - play some more games, dammit!

The Bruins are in Philly tomorrow. The team may be led by long-time (11 years) Flyer Travis Konecny's three assists, but  Trevor Zegras (BU, 2020) is tied for second on the team with two assists. The puck drops at 1:00 pm.

Senators 4, Bruins 1

 

Boston Bruins' goaltender Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves in the net last night, but the Ottawa Senators just kept coming and scored four unanswered goals in the first two periods. None of those goals were on power plays, and one was even short-handed. Finally, early in the third period, James Hagens said "Fuck this shit," and scored an unassisted goal, Boston's only goal of the game.

Our old friend, goalie Linus Ullmark, played the first two periods for the Senators last night and went 10-for-10 on saves; it was his third period replacement, Sam Ersson, who gave up Hagens' goal. Ottawa defenseman Cameron Crotty (BU, 2016) got his first time on ice this season, 10:56 minutes worth, and had one hit in the game, on Mason Lohrei early in the first quarter. 

It was the second straight loss for the Bruins after winning the first two of the season, and they fall to 2-2-0. Ottawa moves up to first place in the Atlantic Division, while the Bruins fall to fourth. Both teams have four points, but the games-played tiebreaker puts Ottawa (two games) first and Boston (four games) fourth. Tampa Bay and Florida also have four points each, but both have played three games and are second and third in the division behind Ottawa and ahead of Boston.

The Bruins are off until Thursday, which will give some of the other teams time to catch up on games played. When they finally return to play, it will be against the Utah Mammoth (2-1-0) in the Garden. In addition to our old friend, defenseman Andrew Peeke, who's scored one goal and one assist so far this season, Utah's team also includes forward Clayton Keller (BU, 2017), who's racked up five assists so far.

Patriots 29, Bills 23

 

Drake Maye and the New England Patriots played well today! That would be reason enough to celebrate right there, but they also won against division rival Buffalo, 29-23, and improve to 2-2 (.500!) and second place in the AFC East.

The win didn't come easy and Buffalo fought hard on their home field. The Pats scored first on their first possession, starting at their own 3-yard line and driving the ball downfield in twelve plays until Drake Maye completed a touchdown pass to Romeo Doubs. This was the old Maye of last season returned to form, not the interception- and fumble-prone Maye of the first three games this year. 

Buffalo tied the game up with a TD midway through the second, but Rhamondre Stevenson took the lead back with a one-yard run into the end zone. The Bills tied it back up again with another TD, and as the half expired they took a 17-14 lead with a field goal. 

Undeterred, Maye connected with Doubs again for a third quarter TD to regain the lead, 21-17, but Buffalo narrowed the lead to one with a FG early in the fourth. The Bills then took a 26-21 lead with another TD (they missed the two-point conversion) with 4:27 left to play. 

 

Maye then ran a Brady-esque drive in the closing minutes to move the ball 73 yards down the field, culminating in a 23-yard passing TD to Efton Chism III; Maye connected with Stevenson for the conversion and a 29-26 lead. On the Bill's next possession, the Pats' Craig Woodson intercepted a Josh Allen pass with 1:14 left on the clock, and the Pats worked the clock to win the game.   

Woo-hoo! The Patriots are back, baby!

Maye finished the game with 269 passing yards and led the Pats with another 54 yards on the ground. Doubs finished with six receptions for 58 yards and Hunter Henry had 62 yards on five receptions. 

Next week, the Patriots will host the Oakland Raiders (3-0, with a 13-10 lead over K.C. in the third right now). I know they're currently based out of Las Vegas, but to fans my age, they'll always be "Oakland." Former Georgia Bulldog Brock Bowers has averaged 66.3 yards per game for the Raiders since 2024 and had 116 yards in the one game he played this season. Veteran QB Kirk Cousins (Michigan State, 2011) is in his first season with the Raiders and so far boasts a QB rating of 107.2, his best rating since 2019.

The early line favors the Patriots by 3½ points.

No. 2 for the Fifth Straight Week

 

For the firth straight week, the University of Georgia Bulldogs (5-0) are No. 2 in the AP Poll. In fact the top five teams in the poll are the same teams in the same order as last week. 

Just like last week, the Dawgs got six first-place votes in the poll. The No. 1 Texas Longhorns (4-0) had a bye week but lost one first-place vote and received only 61 this week, while the No. 4 Miami Hurricanes (5-0) received two and the No. 7 Indiana Hoosiers (5-0) received one. No 3 Notre Dame (5-0) and No. 5 Ohio State (4-1) didn't receive any first place votes.

Former No. 6  Indiana and former No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide (5-0) swapped place in the poll, with Alabama the new No. 6 and Indiana the new No. 7. Georgia plays No. 6 Alabama next Saturday (7:30 pm)  and the Tide's new ranking just makes an already interesting game that much more intriguing. 

Statistically, the two teams are pretty evenly matched. Georgia leads the FBS with 51.4 points per game, but Alabama is second, tied with Miami at 49.6 ppg. Georgia also has a slight advantage in total yards per game (478.8 vs. 473.8). However, while Georgia leads Bama in rushing yards per game (213.0 vs. 186.4), Alabama leads in passing yards (287.4 vs. 265.8). 

Defensively, Alabama's passing game may spell trouble for the Dawgs because Georgia ranks only 42nd in the FBS against the pass at 187.2 yards per game. Georgia's advantage on the ground will be challenged by Alabama's rushing D, 10th best in the subdivision at 79.0 ypg. Georgia is third best at 57.4 ypg against the rush, but Bama has a more potent passing than running game.        

Georgia's Gunner Stockton has a QB rating of 202.0, third best in the FBS, while Alabama's Keelon Russell is sixth bast at 185.7. Gunner has a total of 13 TDs this season while Russell has 11. 

In other words, it will be a close game. 

The biggest news in the latest AP Poll may well be the Florida Gators (4-1), the Bulldog's Week 9 opponent, dropping from No. 8 all the way down to No. 16 after their 47-17 loss to No. 25 Missouri (4-1), while the Tigers, Georgia's Week 11 opponent, moved up 11 places to No. 14 in the poll.

Ole Miss, Georgia's Week 10 opponent, remain at No. 9 in the poll.

So off the Dawgs go into the toughest conference run in recent memory: No. 6 Alabama on the road, followed by unranked Auburn at home, followed by No. 16 Florida in neutral territory, followed by No. 9 Ole Miss on the road, and finally No. 14 Mizzou at home. And then they still have to go to South Carolina and their annual rivalry game against Georgia Tech. 

Buckle up, Bulldogs!

BU 4, Alaska 0

 

After two scoreless periods by both teams up in Fairbanks, Alaska, BU freshman Haoxi (Simon) Wang hit his first collegiate goal 3:43 into the third period. Junior Kamil Bednarik scored an unassisted goal midway through that final period, and after the Nanooks pulled their goalie, freshman Caleb Malhotra and sophomore Tynan Lawrence each added empty-netters to make the final score, 4-0.

Mikhail Yegorov faced 16 shots without allowing a single goal for his fourth career shutout. It was the 100th win for Jay Pandolfo as BU's head coach.  

In case you're wondering (I was), the high temperature in Fairbanks today is 43° and the low was 32. 

The No. 16 Terriers return home for an exhibition game next Saturday against Brown ("What color is horse shit? Brown! Brown! Brown!"). BU's Hockey East season will start the next weekend with October 16th and 17th games in Burlington against the Vermont Catamounts (0-0-0).  

Wild 4, Bruins 1

 

The Bruins scored first, almost immediately. A mere 1:53 into the first period, Tanner Jeannot scored his first goal of the season, assisted by Mark Kastelic and Connor Clifton. But that was it for the Bruins, the only score of the game. They went through the remaining 18:07 of the first period and the entireties of the second and third without a single additional goal.

The Wild scored twice in the second period and again in the third. Down 3-1, the Bruins pulled the goalie with 2:07 remaining in the game and the Wild hit the empty net to make the final score 4-1.

Michael DiPietro, who played in only one game for the Bruins all last year, was in the net last night, making 26 saves on 29 shots (.897).

The Bruins are 2-1-0 on this young season. Their four points have them all alone in first place in the NHL East's Atlantic Division.  They make their home debut tomorrow night against the Ottawa Senators (1-0-0) featuring our old friend, goalie Linus Ullmark (.931), and former Terrier Cameron Crotty (BU, '20), who has yet to appear in a game this season. 

Georgia 38, Vanderbilt 14

 

The No. 2-ranked University of Georgia Bulldogs improve to 5-0 on the season with a 38-14 home win against unranked Vanderbilt (3-2). After wins over Arkansas and Oklahoma, it's Georgia's third straight SEC victory. 

The Commodores and in particular backup QB Blaze Berlowitz, who started the game, put up more of a fight than expected, especially in the first half, scoring touchdowns near the end of the first and second quarters. Nevertheless, Georgia scored three TDs in the first half to take a 21-14 lead into halftime, and scored two more TDs and a field goal in the second half while shutting Vandy down. 

Georgia QB Gunner Stockton finished the day with three TDs on 295 yards passing on 25-of-32 attempts. He rushed for an additional 22 yards. Wide receiver Landon Roldan caught the first of the three TDs, and finished the game with 25 yards receiving. Stockton's second TD was caught by tight end Elyiss Williams (20 yards).in the third period. Running back Dwight Phillips Jr. led the Dawgs with 75 yards receiving on top of his 27 yards on the ground, and during the fourth quarter caught Stockton's third TD of the game.  

Running back Bo Walker led the Dawgs with 71 yards rushing. Chauncey Bowens rushed for a TD and finished the day with 31 yards. Tight end Jaden Reddell had only one carry all game and for only one yard at that, but that one-yard run crossed the goal line for a TD. 

No. 1-ranked Texas was off this week, prepping for their upcoming match against unranked Oklahoma and will probably remain No. 1. No. 3 Notre Dame had their hands full with Bill Belichick's unranked North Carolina Tarheels but won, 37-26, although they failed to cover the spread. They'll probably remain in third place because they're Notre Fucking Dame.

Next weekend, the Dawgs face their archnemesis and kryptonite team, the Alabama Crimson Tide. The game's in Tuscaloosa and Trump is threatening to attend because what else should the Chief Executive of the United States be doing three weeks before election day? It's actually fine by me, though, because the home team typically loses games that Trump attends. But despite the Trump jinx, Georgia will face their biggest test of the season in that game in Tuscaloosa. FYI, the Tide crushed No. 16 Mississippi State today, 56-23. 

After that, Georgia has a home game against unranked Auburn (3-1) , who's currently trailing No. 17 Tennessee (3-1) by only three points in the third quarter. The Auburn game will be followed by No. 8 Florida (4-0), who's trailing No. 25 Missouri, 30-10, in the third. The Gators game with Georgia will be on neutral territory here in Atlanta. 

It doesn't get any easier after that. The week after Florida, Georgia plays undefeated No. 9 Ole Miss, who's off this week, in Oxford, followed by a home game against No. 25 Missouri, who, as mentioned above, is kicking Florida's butt right now.

The next five games will be, at a minimum, interesting. We're not likely to win them all, which is not disqualifying in these days of 12-team playoffs. 

Thank you. Go Dawgs!

BU 2, Alaska 1 (OT)

 

So apparently this has become a hockey blog. I'm cool with that - show me some puck, baby!

Last night, the Boston University men's hockey team started their 2026-27 season in Fairbanks against the University of Alaska Nanooks, the first-ever meeting between these two schools separated by four time zones. The Terriers won, 2-1, in OT.

Sophomore forward Tynan Lawrence scored the game-winning goal in OT and sophomore Jack Murtagh scored the Terrier's earlier goal in the first period. Junior goalie Mikhail Yegorov made 25 saves, all during regulation - the Nanooks never got a shot on goal in the OT period.

The Terriers start the season 1-0-0 and play Game Two of their weekend series in Alaska tonight. The puck drops at 11:07 Eastern time (7:07 Alaska time).

Speaking of Alaska, Captain Ella Hibbert has completed winterization of her ship, the Yeva, in Nome and will be leaving the 49th State in the next day or two. She intends to complete her circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle next summer. Tamara Klink's Sardinha 2 is in Homer on the Kenai Peninsula, where it's been for at least the last month. Her goal is to get the boat back to Brazil, and it appears that she's going to leave the Sardinha in Homer, where it spent last winter. 

Both Hibbert and Klink were denied passage through Russian waters this summer as they tried to sail over Siberia and Scandinavia through the Northeast Passage.

Bruins 4, Jets 3 (OT)

 

New-guy JJ Peterka is earning his keep. Last night, he scored an OT goal, his second of the season, with an assist by Nikita Zadorov and Captain David Pastrnak, and the mighty Boston Bruins won the game, 4-3.   

Hampus Lindholm and rookie James Hagens both scored in the first, Lindholm assisted by Morgan Geekie and William Borgen and Hagens assisted by Zadarov and Mark Kastelik. 

Kastelic had got into it earlier with Jets rookie Tyrel Bauer. They exchanged a few punches and Kastelic left the ice with blood on his jersey. He returned to the ice nine minutes later with a clean uniform and set Hagens up with the Bruins' second goal. 

The Jets took a 3-2 lead into the third period, but Elias Lindholm tied it up late in the game with assists by Captain Pasta and Mason Lohrei. And then Capt. P and Zadorov set JJ up for the game winning OT goal.

Jeremy Swayman made 30 saves against 33 shots for a .909 average. 

The Bruins improve to 2-0-0 on this youngest of seasons, which for now puts them in first place in the Atlantic Division. Tonight, they play in St. Paul's Grand Casino Arena against the Minnesota Wild (1-0-0).

Wisconsin 4, BU 1

 

Freshman forward Lo LaChappelle scored a power-play goal for the BU Terriers 15:18 minutes into the first period, BU's first and only goal of the game and BU's first and only goal so far of this season. It was also LaChapelle's first and only goal so far as a collegiate. 

Wisconsin answered with a power-play goal in the second period and two more even-strength goals in the third. As the game wore down, BU pulled their goalie, the terrific Sydney Fogu (37 saves on 40 shots for a .925 average), and the Badgers scored an open netter. And then that was that - the No. 1 Wisconsin Badgers swept the unranked BU Terriers in two games.

What else did you expect? 

Chalk it up to a learning experience. What doesn't kill you makes you stranger. After the Badgers, all the other teams will look like, well, BC. 

BU starts the season 0-2, and the only good news is that the losses were out of conference. Next Friday,  the Terriers go up to Durham to play Hockey East's New Hampshire Wildcats (1-2-0), and then on Saturday they go to Worcester to play the conference's Holy Cross (1-0-2). Neither team is ranked.

I think it's fair to say that after losing by only 4-1 to the No. 1 team in the country, the Terriers will win both games next weekend.

Wisconsin 7, BU 0

 

Last year, the Boston University Terrier's women's hockey team opened their season with two games against No. 3 Minnesota. In fucking Minneapolis, no less. I thought they were insane. They lost both games, of course, and started their season 0-2.

This year, the Terriers open their season with two games against No. 1 Wisconsin. In fucking Madison, no less.  They lost the first of the games last night, 7-0.

Wisconsin scored a goal in the first period and then exploded for five in the second. They added a seventh and final goal in the last period. 

Senior goaltender Mari Pietersen made 24 saves on 31 shots. Sophomore Sydney Fogu made her collegiate debut (she was out all last season with an injury) late in the second and made 16 saves on 17 shots.  

The Terriers play the second game of the series tonight (6:00 pm).

Yankees 9, Red Sox 2

 

It's over.

There's really nothing more to be said (but here I go anyway). It always sucks to lose and it sucks even more to lose the second straight game in a three-game playoff series. That the season-ending loss occurred in Yankee Fucking Stadium, the home of the you-know-who's, the site of so many previous Red Sox disappointments, makes it even worse. The fact that the Sox were just god awful - we didn't lose due to one missed play or a bad call or one unfortunate hop of the ball, but were publicly humiliated the entire series -  is just the icing on the cake.

Quick autopsy of the season: the Red Sox started as one of the worst teams in MLB and ended as one of the worst teams. For a glorious six or so weeks there in the middle of the season, centered around the month of July, they played like gods. No one knows how or why the season turned around, so no one knew how to keep the streak going or reignite the spark after the hot streak fizzled out. 

There were twin low points in last night's game. Chad Tracy pulled starter Sonny Gray, the Sox best pitcher this season, after only 70 pitches and the Yankees holding a narrow, 1-0 lead, for reliever Erik Miller, who gave up an RBI single on his third pitch. The next inning, Tracy put in pitcher Garrett Crochet, who had been out with an injury since last April and hadn't played in a single game since then. Did Crochet still have the stuff of last season? No, he have up another run - 3-1, Yankees - and then loaded the bases. Garrett Whitlock, normally a reliable reliever, took the mound and gave up two more runs before allowing a three-run homer. 8-1, Yankees.

It was difficult to watch. I turned the game off in the seventh inning.

Baseball's over for the year as far as I'm concerned. I'm totally uninterested to see how any other team fares this season, and I'm not about to wagon-hop my allegiance to someone else. We're already well into football season, the Bruins have played their first regular season game, the BU Terriers are already in Alaska for their season opener in Fairbanks, and basketball's just around the corner. 

We might not even have a baseball season next year due to threats of a either a work stoppage or a lockout due to faltering negotiations on the Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

So thanks for a glorious July, Red Sox. That was great. And thanks for the bitter ending to the season that will leave the foul taste of disappointment in my mouth as millionaire players argue with billionaire owners over future revenues. 

It's over.