AMHERST - In both the exhibition loss to New Brunswick and the season-opening win over Rensselaer on Oct. 8, a disturbing trend emerged for the University of Massachusetts hockey team - poor first-period play.

The Minutemen have gotten away with it so far. In the exhibition contest, they fell behind 3-0 and lost 3-2, but that game did not count. Against the Engineers, UMass overcame the slow start and a 1-0 deficit to win 5-2.

The Minutemen likely will not have the same leeway at 7 tonight at the Mullins Center. A slow start against No. 2-ranked Boston University, the defending national champion, would likely have tougher consequences.

"Against New Brunswick we spotted them three before we started playing," UMass coach Don "Toot" Cahoon said. "We can't afford to spot BU three before we start playing."

Senior captain Brett Watson agreed. "We know that we can't have that kind of start Friday and expect to only be down 1-0," he said.

"We're just excited. It's our first Hockey East game of the year," Watson added. "The fact that it's the defending national champion makes it that much more exciting,

"We know we have things to work on. We just want to keep getting better," he continued. "We know BU is a great team. They had a great year last year and they have a lot of key guys coming back. It will be a good test for us. But regardless of what happens, there's a lot of games left to play."

Technically this is the season opener for the Terriers, as last week's 3-2 win over the USA Under-18 Team was an exhibition even though it gave BU a chance to raise its championship banner.

The game features two of the best forwards in Hockey East. Minuteman James Marcou tallied four assists against RPI and Nick Bonino of BU had 18 goals and 32 assists last season.

NOLET MAYBE, LECOMTE DOUBTFUL - The availability of Martin Nolet and Michael Lecomte, who both left the win over RPI with undisclosed injuries, is uncertain for tonight's game.

"Lecomte is probably a little further away," Cahoon said. "Lecomte still isn't practicing with us, while Nolet has practiced with us. We just have to see how sore he is."

MARCOU CLIMBING - With 83 career points, Marcou is tied with Marvin Degon at No. 18 on the UMass all-time list. Next up is No. 17 Jeff Blanchard who had 84 points in his UMass career.

KICKING OFF CONFERENCE PLAY - UMass vs. BU is one of just two conference games being played this weekend. In the other, Boston College is at Vermont at 5 p.m. Sunday.

New Hampshire will try to bounce back from Saturday's 3-1 loss at Rensselaer when the Wildcats host No. 1 Miami of Ohio at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.