By Kevin Dillon/DFP Staff
It was no flawless victory, but David Quinn and the No. 19 Boston University men’s hockey team started the season off with a 3-1 win over the University of Massachusetts Friday night at Agganis Arena. Even with the win, the team left a lot of room for improvement as it was outplayed by the Minutemen for the majority of the contest.
It all started from the beginning of the game, as the Minutemen upped the physical play from the drop of the puck. Even when UMass was called for a minor penalty in the first minute of the game and then a major penalty a few minutes later, the Terriers were being hit hard all over the ice and could not muster up any offense on the power play.
“I thought they took it to us in the first period,” Quinn said. “I thought we were a little bit surprised by their speed and their aggressiveness. I didn’t think we matched it.”
The power play continued to be a problem for the rest of the night, as BU was only 1-for-6 with a man advantage on the night. It was not that the Terriers power play was not creating chances, as Quinn pointed out that there were plenty of opportunities created by both of his units. However, there were several extended chances on which BU did not capitalize, like a five-minute power play in the first period and an extended 5-on-3 power play between the second and third periods.
It was the second game in a row that the Terriers’ power play looked less than effective, as it was less than stellar in the preseason game against St. Francis Xavier University. BU went 1-for-9 with a man advantage in that contest, which served as a preview to the low conversion rate the Terriers had Friday night.
Sophomore Sam Kurker began the game on the power play, but was removed from the ice completely in the second period after he took two penalties in the offensive zone. Kurker was expected to have served a front-of-the-net role on the power play, where he would screen UMass goalie Steve Mastalerz and try to deflect shots past him. After taking a holding penalty to cut short a five-minute power play and then following it up with a slashing penalty in the second period, Kurker found himself on the bench for the rest of the game.
“This game is hard enough 5-on-5 and you can’t take offensive zone penalties,” Quinn said. “It’s something that we talked about as a team and it really — there was no yelling and screaming, it just can’t happen. He is a good player.
“He and I will have a conversation and he will be right back at it and he is going to be a big part of our success this year.”
With Kurker as an example, Quinn proved that he is truly a coach of meritocracy like he has preached in the preseason. Kurker made one too many mistakes, so he was no longer in the lineup regardless of his expected role on the team.
“I think [Quinn] holds us accountable,” junior forward Evan Rodrigues. “If you’re not playing the right way, he’s going to — I guess not really punish you, but he’s going to tell you what you did wrong, and it’s something that I appreciate and I like.”
There were other things that Quinn will likely hope to improve entering the rest of the season, including the amount of turnovers BU had in the neutral zone. However, if Quinn continues to hold his players accountable for mistakes like he did Friday night, the expectation is that BU will improve quickly.
“Well I’ll watch every minute of every shift,” Quinn said. “We’ll have a little film session tomorrow, and you can’t kill them with the video.
“We defended a lot tonight, which is something we don’t want to do. We’ll keep working on it.”
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