By Annie Maroon/DFP Staff
Junior assistant captain Alex Chiasson. Junhee Chung/DFP STAFFBoston 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.