Terriers look to turn tides vs. No. 3 Eagles

By Jake Seiner/DFP Staff

Every season is filled with turning points –– key games and moments that, at least on the surface, appear to spark or diffuse the path a team is on with often striking clarity. Opinions may differ, but there’s no question the No. 15 Boston University men’s hockey team has had at least one big one this season –– a two-game sweep at the hands of a bitter rival –– and it sent the Terriers spiraling in the wrong direction.

Now, starting with the same opponent, No. 3 Boston College, the Terriers get the chance to reverse fortunes. BU will play host to their Commonwealth Avenue combatants Friday night at Agganis Arena.

The most striking turning point in BU’s season to date came in early December. That weekend, the Terriers (10-6-6, 7-4-4 Hockey East) entered a two-game series with the Eagles (15-6-0, 11-5-0) as the No. 2 team in the country. BU had lost just one game to date, having swept through all of October and more than half of November before falling to the University of New Hampshire on Nov. 19.

Then came the two-game sweep. The Eagles victimized BU in the weekend set, outscoring the Terriers 14-7 and out-shooting them 71-54.

Talk about momentum might be overblown –– the losses were likely more revealing about where BU stood than anything else –– but the Terriers did struggle to a 1-2-1 mark over the four games following the Calamity on Comm. Ave. The result was a free fall in the national rankings all the way to 16th.

BU coach Jack Parker said this week he doesn’t think the team was unprepared from a tactical standpoint to handle the Eagles. In rivalries as old as this, there are no secrets left in either team’s gameplans.

The difference, Parker said, was BU’s lack of preparedness from a mental and emotional standpoint. The Terriers appeared overwhelmed by BC’s elite team speed, with no group more susceptible to shaky play than the rookie skaters. Redshirt sophomore Ryan Ruikka, sophomore Ben Rosen and the Terrier freshmen combined for an abysmal minus-19 rating for the weekend. The rest of the team came in at a still unimpressive minus-8.

“I hope there would be an improvement, yeah,” Parker said about his rookies. “They certainly have been through a lot more wars since then. I think they were taken aback. I think we might’ve been a little full of ourselves being second in the nation at the time.

“We were trying not to lose. It’s hard to win when we’re trying not to lose . . . Our problem is we didn’t play. If we come to play, it’ll be a different hockey game.”

“I think everyone’s getting better, especially [the freshmen]” Warsofsky said. “It was obviously early in the season, and to play two big games like that against BC, who’s obviously a big opponent every year, that’s a tough situation to be put in. But I think we’ve come back hard and played strong in some big games, so we’re looking for a lot out of them.”

Returning to the BU lineup will be junior co-captain Chris Connolly (eight goals, eight assists in 17 games), who missed the first contests with a broken finger. The 5-foot-9 winger hasn’t missed a beat since returning, turning in three goals and an assist in five games.

Opposing Connolly and his linemates will be arguably the deepest group of forwards in Hockey East. BC’s top threesome of Cam Atkinson, Brian Gibbons and Joe Whitney is flat-out lethal, having combined for 29 goals, 42 assists and –– bolstered by Atkinson’s 96 shots on goal –– an average of 65.66 shots on net per player.

For reference, junior defenseman David Warsofsky leads all Terriers with 68 shots on goal, and only one other Terrier –- Connolly –– has eclipsed the 60-shot mark.

As good as that top line is, it’s still BC’s depth at forward that poses the biggest threat.

“I was at a BC game about a month ago, and I saw a guy who was an agent,” Parker said. “He said to me, ‘What do you think of that Hayes line [featuring Kevin Hayes, Jimmy Hayes, and Chris Kreider]? Don’t you think that’s the best line in college hockey?’

“I said, ‘The Hayes line? They’re not even the best line on the BC team, never mind the best line in college hockey.’ I found out the guy was representing one of the Hayes line players, so of course he was pushing one of his players, but BC has four good lines. There’s not much to choose from.”

With last change on home ice and a television broadcast complete with TV timeouts, Parker said he planned to roll his top three lines as often as possible against BC’s, simply trying to avoid pairing his fourth-line against one of BC’s top three. He won’t try to match a specific unit against either the Gibbons or Hayes lines, but wants to make sure it’s one of his top three units opposing the Eagles’ more talented players.

In net, junior Kieran Millan will start for the Terriers, and Parker said he would wait until Saturday to decide whether Millan or classmate Grant Rollheiser would get the nod against No. 7 University of New Hampshire in a road contest later that evening.