By Tim Healey/DFP Staff
It may have only been one game, and it may have only been an exhibition, but so far Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker has a lot to like when it comes to his 2012-13 squad.
The No. 13 Terriers easily handled the University of Toronto in an exhibition game at Agganis Arena Sunday afternoon, downing the Varsity Blues 5-0 and outshooting the visitors by a 50-17 margin.
“We’re still trying to evaluate who’s playing where, but in general I thought everybody played well,” Parker said. “When it was obvious we could control the puck, nobody got selfish and nobody got trying to do too much or trying to show off. We played like a team from the start to the end.”
BU got the scoring started early when junior forward Matt Nieto found the back of the net on the power play just 6:10 into the first period. After a series of passes between Nieto and freshman defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, the former ripped a shot that snuck between Toronto goalie Brett Willows and the left post.
Grzelcyk, the Boston Bruins’ 2012 third-round draft choice, assisted on the Terriers’ second goal as well.
At 18:56 he sent a pass to freshman defenseman Ahti Oksanen, who promptly sent a shot on net. Sophomore forward Evan Rodrigues tipped it in for BU’s second tally.
The game only got uglier for Toronto from there. The second period – during which play started to get chippy and the teams took a combined 13 penalties – featured another pair of Terrier goals.
After sophomore defenseman Alexx Privitera’s one-timer got stopped, the rebound bounced off the boards right to redshirt sophomore forward Yasin Cissé, who promptly poked it by Willows.
Eleven seconds later forward Mike Moran, listed as the extra forward on the line chart, upped BU’s lead to 4-0 when he tapped in the rebound off of junior defenseman Garrett Noonan’s initial shot.
Sophomore forward Cason Hohmann made it 5-0 at 9:34 in the third on a slap shot from the slot.
Parker started to mix and match the team’s lines as the game progressed, but because of the multitude of penalties – the teams served 50 in all – he wasn’t able to experiment as much as he would have liked.
“The way we started the game was the best lines. Those guys really played well,” Parker said. “I wanted to see different centers with different wings, and we got a little of that accomplished, but not [a lot]. There was too much four-on-four, five-on-four, four-on-three. There was too much of that going on.”
Shortly after the final goal, the teams got into a 10-man scrum behind Toronto’s net. The result was a combined 20 penalties, which led to six Terriers in the box at one point, as well as Cissé and Toronto’s Tyler Turcotte getting booted from the game.
The punches brought an end to an otherwise impressive night for Cissé, who was the team’s first-line right wing for the first time since last season’s Dec. 31 date with the University of Notre Dame.
“Cissé played well,” Parker said. “I thought he played smart and he played like he’s played since he got back here. He really looks more confident.”
Parker added that Cissé’s misconduct charge will likely not result in a suspension.
Defensively, freshmen goaltenders Matt O’Connor and Sean Maguire combined for the shutout. O’Connor stopped all five shots he saved in the first 30:15 of play while Maguire saved another 12 in his 29:45 on the ice.
Junior Anthony Moccia was scheduled to play one of the periods before getting hurt during practice Friday.
Given the limited action the freshmen netminders saw, Parker was unable to draw much of a conclusion on their abilities.
“Both goalies handled the puck pretty well and that was important,” Parker said.
BU opens its regular season at Agganis on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Providence College.
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