David Quinn named head coach of Team USA for 2019 World Junior Championship

In the midst of the rumors linking BU head coach David Quinn to the vacant coaching position of Matt’s New York Rangers, Quinn has been named the head coach of Team USA for the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship which will begin Dec. 26.

University of Minnesota’s Bob Motzko coached the team the past two seasons and brought home a gold medal in 2017 and bronze earlier this year.

Quinn is no stranger to coaching this tournament. He was an assistant coach in 2007 (bronze), 2012 and 2016 (bronze).

He played on the 1986 team that won USA’s first-ever medal which was bronze. Quinn previously served as an assistant coach for the 2005 U.S. National Junior Team. He was an assistant two silver medal-winning U.S. Women’s National Teams (1999, 2000) and the U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team in 2003.

He will be joined Minnesota State head coach Mike Hastings, Dartmouth assistant coach David Lassonde and Ohio State assistant coach Steve Miller.

 

Best of 2017-2018 seaon: Writers’ favorite articles

We are finally dropping the puck on “The best of 2017-2018 men’s hockey season” lists. First up are the writers favorite articles. Matt, Nikki and Liam all wrote a lot so picking our favorite was not easy. But these are the ones that we each writer stood out the most.

If you haven’t checked the out, we encourage you do so.

Nikki’s favorite article is her article onsophomore defensemen Chad Krys and Dante Fabbro.

 

Liam’s favorite article is his on freshman defenseman Kasper Kotkansalo.

 

Matt felt that his favorite article was his on junior forward and assistant captain Bobo Carpenter.

 

The article that the writers felt was the most interesting was Matt’s article on how college hockey changed over the years.

However, the article that stood out the most to all three of them was senior defenseman and captain Brandon Hickey’s “Letter to BU.”

We ask you, which article did you enjoy reading the most?

 

Men’s hockey announces captains for 2018-2019 season

Sunday at the End-of-the-Year Banquet, BU head coach David Quinn named the captains and the assistant captains for the upcoming season.

Junior forward Bobo Carpenter and sophomore defenseman Dante Fabbro with both wear the “C” next season as co-captains.

Carpenter spent this past season as one of three assistant captains and led the team in goals and scoring with 20 and 35 respectively. He was named to the Hockey East Second Team and a member of the All New England Team.

Fabbro finished second amongst defensemen with 29 points and first in goals with nine. He joined Carpenter on the Hockey East Second Team and the All New England Team.

The leadership will be rounded out with two assistant captains in sophomore defenseman Chad Krys and sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger.

Krys finished his sophomore campaign with 27 points while Oettinger rebounded from a rough start to the season and from 2.10 goals against average and a .925 save percentage. Both players were named to the All Hockey East Tournament Team with Oettinger taking home Tournament MVP honors.

BU will host Acadia University for an exhibition game Oct. 6 and then open their season the following weekend in Mankato for a two-game series against Minnesota State.

The rest of the schedule will be released soon but the rest of the non-conference slate will be against Quinnipiac University, Dartmouth College, two games against Arizona State University. They will also play in the Friendship Four in November in Ireland.

The first round of the Friendship Four will be against the University of Connecutict, and will be a league game

As for the blog, both Liam and Matt will be returning for the Fall semester. Within a few weeks they will announce the newest men’s hockey beat writer.

From the FreeP: Hickey’s letter to BU

Senior defenseman and captain Brandon Hickey wrote a letter to BU, in which he reflects on his four years at Boston University, you can check it out here.

As someone who has talked with Hickey a number of times, Matt can tell you that he is a very nice guy and that Matt was moved watching Hickey’s post-game press conference after the loss to the University of Michigan.

 

From the FreeP: End of season recap

Well, as we all know it was a tale of two seasons for the Boston University men’s hockey team. Read Matt’s season recap here. One thing to note is that Quinn did not comment on who are “flight risks”, that information can be found in the recap.

For those who have asked about why Matt excluded Joel Farabee on the list of players who are coming in next season, that is because to our knowledge (and on his elite prospects page), it says that he is expected to arrive during the 2019-2020 season.

Earlier this semester, the FreeP brought on a columnist named Matt Dresens (he is not the Matt who runs this blog), you can read his thoughts on the season here.

We will be starting on “Top 10” lists later on this week.

 

Plan for the Blog during the “offseason”

Being as the season ended Sunday, Matt thought it would be fair to tell what you should expect over the course of the next few months.

There will be a weekly “Top 10” lists of various categories which have been decided him, Liam and Nikki. There will be updates on which players leave early, such as junior forward and assistant captain Jordan Greenway (there will be more on him within the next few days), updates on how former Terriers did during the NHL season, a look at next year’s team and much more.

The blog will be adding another writer so keep looking out for that.

Matt does plan on sitting down with Coach Quinn shortly for an end of the season breakdown.

 

If you have any other ideas for stories please email Matt at [email protected]

Live Blog: BU vs Michigan

After knocking off No. 3 Cornell University Friday, the No. 13 Boston University men’s hockey team takes the ice to take on long time rival, the No. 10 University of Michigan with a trip to the Frozen Four on the line. Last night, the Terriers won the batle of the goaltenders and a date with Michigan this afternoon. You can follow along with Matt here on the live blog. Please note that per NCAA rules, he can not do a full play-by-play.

No. 13 men’s hockey to take on No. 10 Michigan in NCAA Northeast Regional final

It certainly has been a tale of two seasons for the No. 13 Boston University men’s hockey team — and it is not over yet. After facing off against No. 4 Cornell University 3-1 Saturday afternoon in the NCAA Northeast Regional semifinals at the DCU Center in Worcester, the Terriers (22-13-4, 12-8-4 Hockey East) downed Cornell (25-6-2) 3-1 in a rematch of November’s Red Hot Hockey game.

Freshmen forwards Shane Bowers and Logan Cockerill as well as freshman defenseman David Farrance all found the back of the net in the win against the Big Red.

On Sunday in the regional finals, the Terriers will take on the No. 10 University of Michigan for the ninth time in the NCAA tournament, which marks the most times BU has played a single opponent in the tournament of all time.

The Wolverines (21-14-3) knocked off No. 8 Northeastern University 3-2 yesterday, thanks two goals from junior forward Cooper Marody and one from senior forward Dexter Dancs.

The game will feature a total of 19 players currently drafted by NHL teams with the Terriers having 12 on their roster and the Wolverines sporting seven.

However, both teams also have a top-four rated North American Skater for the NHL draft in BU’s freshman forward Brady Tkachuk and Michigan’s freshman defenseman Quinn Hughes, who are ranked third and fourth, respectively.

Although they will be facing off against each other Sunday, Hughes and Tkachuk were teammates during the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship for Team USA.

Both the Terriers and the Wolverines sent three players to the international tournament. For BU, sophomores goaltender Jake Oettinger and forward Patrick Harper. In addition to Hughes, Michigan sent forwards sophomore Will Lockwood and freshman Josh Norris.

Tkachuk outscored the three Wolverines in that tournament 9-6.

Since returning from the tournament on Jan. 6, Oettinger boasts a 1.96 goals against average and a goal save percentage of .931, which puts the Lakeville, Minnesota native 11th in the nation in both categories.

The first round Dallas Stars prospect has played extremely well since the start of the Hockey East Tournament on March 9.

During the last five games, the netminder has posted a .949 goal save percentage and a goals against average of 1.69, which puts him fourth and 12th in the country respectively.

BU will look to him to stop a Michigan offense that ranks ninth in the country averaging 3.34 goals per game, which is led by Marody who has 48 points. The Wolverines have seven players more than 20 points and two with 40 or more.

Although BU does not have a single player on their roster with 40 points, it has four players with 30 or more points and a total of eight players with 20 points or more.

Junior forward and assistant captain Bobo Carpenter leads the Terriers in points (35) and goals (20).

Michigan will turn to sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne to slow down the Terriers offense.

He current sits on a  .910 goal save percentage and a 2.76 goals against average of 2.76 while picking up one assist.

BU is playing in its third regional final in the past four years, which matches the University of Denver and the University of Minnesota Duluth as the only teams to do so.

With a victory over the Wolverines, the Terriers will find themselves in the Frozen Four for the first time since the 2014-15 season where they fell to Providence College in the National title game.

Live Blog: BU vs Cornell

For the fourth straight year, the No. 15  Boston University men’s hockey team has made the NCAA tournament. Read Matt’s preview for their regional semifinal with No. 3 Cornell here as well as his breakdown of the game. FreeP columnist Matt Dressens gave this history of BU playing in Worcester which can be found here. As per normal you can follow along the game here with our live blog.