Month: April 2012

From the Freep: Parker discusses state of Hockey East for next season

By Annie Maroon/DFP Staff

It is certainly early to make predictions about next season, but as players graduate and depart for the professional ranks, it is not too early to speculate about how the balance of power in Hockey East might shift come fall. Boston University men’s hockey head coach Jack Parker said he doesn’t foresee any dramatic changes, but that the parity in college hockey across the board makes conjecture tough.

“It’s difficult to think that the usual suspects aren’t going to be around,” Parker said. “[Boston College] is going to be good, BU’s going to be good, [University of New Hampshire] is going to be good. Maine is probably the only one of the usual suspects that might be losing the most, but they still have plenty coming back and they still have very good freshmen classes.”

BC, the defending Hockey East and NCAA champion, will lose key players, including forward Chris Kreider and defenseman Brian Dumoulin, to the NHL teams that own their rights, the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes, respectively.

Parker said he doesn’t see the Eagles’ losses damaging their chances next year, though, especially in light of the breakout year freshman Johnny Gaudreau had.

“BC was going to lose a lot of players,” Parker said. “BC lost a lot of players last year, but the [Barry] Almeidas and [Paul] Careys stepped up, they got Johnny Gaudreau by accident, and all of a sudden it’s a different world.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com. 

From the Freep: Megan named men’s hockey captain for 2012-13 season after breakout year

Junior forward Wade Megan will captain the 2012-13 
Terriers JUNHEE CHUNG/DFP Staff

By Meredith Perri/DFP Staff

During the 49th annual Friends of Boston University Hockey Banquet on Saturday, BU men’s hockey coach Jack Parker announced that junior forward Wade Megan will serve as the team’s captain during the 2012-13 season.

“We’re extremely pleased with his effort and his growth,” Parker said of Megan in a recent interview with The Daily Free Press, “and we’re excited about having him back next season.”

After scoring a combined 13 goals in his first two seasons with the Terriers, Megan experienced a breakout 2011-12 campaign, during which he led BU with 20 goals. The Canton, N.Y., native also tallied nine assists during the season.

Read more at dailyfreepress.com. 

From the Freep: Parker conducting own investigation into team’s behavior

Corey Trivino Amanda Swinheart/DFP Staff

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Like many hockey teams, the Boston University men’s hockey team has had issues in the past with individual discipline off the ice, but the 2011-12 season featured two extreme cases of misbehaving players.

Forward Corey Trivino and defenseman Max Nicastro were both arrested within 10 weeks of each other for separate cases of alleged sexual assault on campus. Trivino had the most serious charge against him, assault with intent to rape, dropped in a March 22 court date. He still faces six other charges – three counts of indecent assault and battery and three counts of breaking and entering – and pled not guilty to all of them. Trivino is scheduled to appear in court again April 27.

Nicastro is still facing two charges of rape and also pled not guilty to all charges. His next scheduled court date is May 7.

BU coach Jack Parker said that although each case appears to be an isolated incident, the team is operating under the assumption that the two arrests in one season were not a coincidence.

“We are not considering what happened this year as just a bad situation and coincidence,” Parker said. “We are considering it as something we should look at and make sure and hope that it’s a coincidence that we had two [arrests].

“We’ll look at everything we have to do to cover the correct pages and make sure that these kids handle their situation as a BU hockey player differently than they’re handling it. Or maybe they should handle it exactly the same, and this is an aberration. I know one thing for sure: This is not a BU hockey problem. This is not our culture, but I do believe drinking and rape charges and sexual assault and bad behavior permeates our society.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the Freep: Future Terriers ready to fill holes in men’s hockey’s lineup

By Kevin Dillon/DFP Staff

The conclusion of the Boston University men’s hockey team’s 2011-12 season ended the college careers of the remaining players from the Terriers’ 2008-09 national championship team. As these players leave the team, BU fans lose the only remaining members of the last successful BU hockey season.

The loss of such talent as goaltender Kieran Millan, who earned Hockey East Tournament MVP that season, as well as a spot on the NCAA Frozen Four All-Tournament Team, or captain Chris Connolly, who scored the opening goal of the national championship game and assisted the game-winner in overtime, has to leave the BU faithful wondering who will replace their production and leadership in upcoming seasons.

While the Terriers will lose five players to graduation, lost three players during the season and lost junior assistant captain Alex Chiasson after the season because he signed a pro contract with the Dallas Stars, the future for BU hockey remains bright thanks to a strong returning defensive core and a deep, promising recruiting class.

The main area of concern for the Terriers next season is between the pipes, as the Terriers are graduating Millan and fellow goaltender Grant Rollheiser, who were both NHL draft picks. To replace the duo, BU coach Jack Parker is following a trend of bringing in two freshmen goaltenders to lock down the position just like he did with Millan and Rollheiser.

“It’s a little bit easier because we’ve already been through that ‘We have two rookie goaltenders; I wonder how we’re gonna be?’” Parker said. “Actually we were pretty good. So we have a little track record there.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the Freep: Multiple members of men’s hockey team improve, help BU during rocky year

By Annie Maroon/DFP Staff

Junior assistant captain Alex Chiasson. Junhee Chung/DFP STAFF

Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker doesn’t shy away from the notion that losing Corey Trivino, Charlie Coyle and Max Nicastro mid-season hurt his team. From a depth perspective alone, any college hockey team would have a hard time replacing three players who saw as much ice time as those three did. The facts that Trivino was Hockey East’s leading scorer at the time of his dismissal and that Coyle was a first-round NHL draft pick only compounded the loss.

But in their absence, the Terriers kept scoring. For a time, they kept winning. The credit for that success should be distributed among a number of remaining BU players who made great strides this year, from sophomore defenseman Garrett Noonan putting up 16 goals to junior blueliner Sean Escobedo taking on increased responsibility on and off the ice.

As a junior assistant captain, Alex Chiasson provided an example of increased maturity as he grew into his role.

“The year before, he was pretty vocal in the dressing room as a sophomore because he knew he’s an important guy and got a lot of ice time,” Parker said. “But I think he realized he’s got to approach it a little differently. He wanted to be more sensitive in his remarks to teammates. . . . I think he quieted the rhetoric down and did more with what he was doing, and what he was doing was playing the right way and playing hard and getting better. . . . When things got bad, he got better.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.

From the Freep: Terriers find levels of success despite off-ice distractions

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Junhee Chung/DFP STAFF

Following a 5-1 win over the University of Maine to end the first half of the hockey season, the Boston University men’s hockey team looked poised for a promising second half. The team owned a 10-5-1 record and had won seven of its last eight games heading into the break.

As coach Jack Parker reviewed game film from the win over the Black Bears during the bus ride back to Boston, he felt confident about the team’s future looking ahead to the second half of the season.

“I can remember it like it was yesterday,” Parker said. “I was going over the game film on the way home and I was thinking to myself, ‘We could win the national championship with this team. This is a very, very good college hockey team.’ And that changed in a New York minute.”

Read more at dailyfreepress.com.