By Tim Healey/DFP Staff
Matt O’Connor’s rookie season is over.
The freshman goaltender for the No. 19 Boston University men’s hockey team underwent surgery for his collapsed lung Thursday afternoon, according to coach Jack Parker, and will not return to action this season.
O’Connor has been hospitalized since Saturday, when he was scratched from his start against the University of Vermont, and after the puncture in his lung didn’t patch itself up over the course of the week the way doctors had hoped, they decided to perform surgery.
Team athletic trainer Larry Venis said the procedure is called VATS — video-assisted thoracic surgery — and is of the arthroscopic variety. Doctors at Boston Medical Center made a minor incision in O’Connor’s chest and used a small camera and instruments “to try to help scar down the lung tissue a little bit, so that way it would heal on itself and close it on its own.”
Venis said the long-term prognosis is “very favorable,” and the short-term includes very little physical activity for at least four weeks, maybe longer depending “on how the body reacts.”
“He’s very healthy, he’s young and fit,” Venis said. “So that’s going in his favor.”
Parker said O’Connor suspected a shot to the ribs Feb. 15 vs. Maine might have been what caused the collapsed lung — formally known as pneumothorax — but symptoms did not present in earnest until Saturday.
According to Venis, O’Connor had had some rib pain and a cough earlier in the week, then complained of shortness of breath during Saturday’s pre-game skate. That’s when Parker and team doctors made the decision to not let him play.
The goalie dressed for the contest but did not take to the ice for introductions before puck drop, and when he was absent from the bench for much the game he was actually at the hospital getting chest x-rays.
The plan had been for O’Connor to get the tests done after the game.
“He dressed because he wanted to support his team, and then he started thinking about it more,” Venis said. “It wasn’t an emergency situation at all. He could’ve waited until after the game, which is what our plan was, but it just transpired where he wanted to go and get it over with.”
Although O’Connor mentioned the blunt force in Maine, Venis said the official diagnosis is “spontaneous pneumothorax,” which O’Connor has many of the risk factors for — he’s tall, thin, athletic, male and between 10 and 30 years old.
Although O’Connor mentioned the blunt force in Maine, Venis said the official diagnosis is “spontaneous pneumothorax,” which O’Connor has many of the risk factors for — he’s tall, thin, athletic, male and between 10 and 30 years old.
Parker said operating was not originally the plan, but about 40 percent of those who suffer from pneumothorax experience it again. With surgery, that is not expected to be an issue.
“If you have it [a collapsed lung] happen a second time you have to have the operation anyway,” Parker said. “We didn’t need to take the chance that it will happen again next December or something.”
The Toronto, Ontario, native’s mother, Lesley Hadrill, is in Boston, and Parker and many teammates have visited him in the hospital, according to the coach.
“I was pretty shocked to find out how serious it was,” said senior captain Wade Megan, who is amongst those who have paid O’Connor a visit. “Obviously it’s unfortunate, but the biggest thing for him right now is to worry about himself and get himself healthy again. Hockey comes second when it comes to stuff like that. So he has our support obviously, we’ve been over there as much as we can and he’s in our thoughts and we hope he can recover quickly and get back to us.”
O’Connor will end his season with a .910 save percentage and 2.86 goals-against average. He went 8-8-2 in 19 games, 18 of them starts.
Freshman Sean Maguire, who has largely split time with O’Connor all season, is slated to be the full-time goalie, while junior Anthony Moccia, a Medford native who has not seen ice time in his two seasons on the roster, will be the backup.
“He’s praying nothing happens to Sean or he’s trying to get him sick,” Parker said. “One of the two.”
My good friend Larry Venis is the athletic trainer of the Terriers
Best wishes to O’Connor for a full recovery! Looking forward to seeing him between the pipes at the start of next season…