Despite pregame changes, stability reaps greatest rewards in BU win

By Sam Dykstra/DFP Staff

The big news coming into Friday night’s matchup between No. 15 Boston University and Providence College was BU coach Jack Parker’s shakeup of the first and third lines. The biggest move was freshman center Charlie Coyle moving to the right wing on the top line with senior right-winger Joe Pereira moving down two pegs on the lines sheet.

Perhaps everyone should have been more focused on what stayed the same rather than what changed.

Four of the six points tallied by BU skaters in the team’s 2-1 win over the Friars came from the team’s second line of forwards – consisting of freshman left wing Matt Nieto, junior center Corey Trivino and sophomore right wing Alex Chiasson – that had remained untouched despite Parker’s scrambling. The trio has now combined for 16 points in the Terriers’ last three games, and that type of statistical performance led to some praise from a coach who didn’t have much praise to give despite the win.

“I think they’re just playing well right now individually and they’re playing well as a line,” Parker said. “They feel good with each other. They’re moving the puck and making some nice plays.”

Nieto scored first for either side on a goal that has typified the way his line has played as of late. After Chiasson drove hard behind the Providence net, Nieto did the same toward the net from the left half-wall. The right wing found the left wing for a one-touch goal, Nieto’s first tally since the first day of 2011.

“The three of us are very unselfish players,” said Nieto, who also put up two points for the third straight contest. “We just try to make each other look better out there. There’s no selfishness. We just find a way to find each other out there on the ice. We get good opportunities, and we’ve been capitalizing lately, which has been helpful for the team.”

But it hasn’t been just the stability of that second offensive unit that has helped lead the Terriers to a 5-0-1 record in their last six conference games.

In fact, another set of first-years are making themselves heard lately, this time from the blue line. Freshman defensemen Adam Clendening and Garrett Noonan have played together 28 straight games together as the second defensive pairing for the Terriers but have begun to truly leave their marks on the stats sheet lately.

Noonan, a player originally thought to be more of a stay-at-home blue-liner as opposed to the more typical offensive defenseman in Clendening, had received the lion’s share of the publicity for his four-game points streak, tied for the fourth-longest on the team this season.

However with Clendening’s power-play goal in the second period Friday night, he showed that he perhaps is still the better offensive player of the two. The goal meant that Clendening had scored in two consecutive contests for the first time in his NCAA career and had tallied at least a point in four of BU’s last five games. During that stretch, Clendening owns a line of 2-3-5 while Noonan is the opposite at 3-2-5.

“Lately, he’s been a bit of an offensive guy,” Clendening said. “I guess he came in as a defensive, all-around type of guy. I try to be an all-around guy as well, but I was supposed to come in as a more offensive guy. Just our two different styles of game. We love to give each other the puck and always cover each other up. I think just the chemistry is something we’re working on.”

The stability provided by those two sets of Terriers will continue to be essential as the men in scarlet and white fight for home-ice advantage in the upcoming Hockey East tournament with only five games left on the schedule.

However, Parker hinted that that stability may take another hit in Saturday’s rematch in Rhode Island. Chiasson and sophomore forward Wade Megan totaled eight minutes of penalty minutes in the third, when Chiasson got into a wrestling match with Providence forward Chris Rooney in front of the Friar bench and Megan instigated Jordan Kremyr into fighting as well.

Parker rebuked the incident after the game and noted that he might move around the lineup again to penalize certain players, the names of which he never specifically gave but can be assumed to be Megan and Chiasson.

“I’m considering changing a couple guys around,” he said. “For being stupid.”