By Meredith Perri/DFP Staff
EAST LANSING, Mich. – For the first time this season, No. 13/14 Boston University men’s hockey coach David Quinn felt as though his team took a step back. The Terriers, who fell to Michigan State University Saturday evening 3-1, finished off their first away weekend of the season with a pair of losses after holding a 1-0 lead for the majority of the game.
Minuses
Team’s readiness to play
At a very basic level, Saturday’s game against Michigan State carried some similarities to Friday’s game against the University of Michigan. Both involved BU taking a 1-0 lead late in the first period and, ultimately, giving it up in the second half of the third. Quinn, however, was quick to say that the game against the Spartans was different since it showed a Terrier squad that did not expect much from its competition coming into the game.
“Today [Michigan State] played like a team that was 0-3 and was looking for a win,” Quinn said. “We played like a team that was 3-2 and thought it was going to be easy tonight. And they were the much better team tonight. That’s all there is to it.”
Penalties
Quinn had one word to sum up his thoughts on the amount of penalties the Terriers took not just Saturday night, but on the weekend – ridiculous.
BU had seven penalties during the tilt with the Spartans. Even though the Terriers were perfect on the penalty kill, Quinn said it took the legs away from a team that already started off the game “standing in quick sand.”
According to Quinn, even though he’s benched players for racking up too many penalty minutes, he wants to see more “drastic” improvements.
The trouble with faceoffs
BU really struggled at the dot in the game,with Michigan State holding the faceoff advantage 36-20. None of the BU players who took faceoffs had a successful night. In fact, the only BU player to have better than a .500 average on the draw was senior captain Garrett Noonan, who went 1-0. Sophomore center Danny O’Regan, who took the most faceoffs of the game with 25, went 9-16.
“Oh, we got killed,” Quinn said. “That’s not being ready to play. Faceoffs are a huge sign of your team’s readiness, and we lost faceoffs … As the puck was about to hit the ice, [Michigan State] was already moving and we were flat footed.”
Pluses
Matt Lane
While the sophomore had the Terriers’ lone goal tonight, he also had some other good scoring opportunities. Lane, who gave BU a 1-0 lead with 48 seconds left in the first frame, was the only Terrier to finish the night with a positive plus-minus rating. Furthermore, the right winger out of Rochester, N.Y., had multiple shorthanded chances during the second period when BU had four penalties.
Goaltending
Just like his classmate Matt O’Connor on Friday, sophomore Sean Maguire had a strong night in goal against Michigan State. The Powell River, British Columbia, native had 30 saves on the night – 11 of which came with the Terriers on the penalty kill.
When asked what he would say to both O’Connor and Maguire after a weekend where they both kept BU in their respective games, senior captain Garrett Noonan said, “sorry.”
“Both of them played unbelievable back-to-back nights,” Noonan said. “When you don’t get the win for them it’s tough. They played hard for us all night, and we give up two goals back-to-back nights. It’s tough. We have got to get back to work Friday night [against Providence College] and try to earn them a victory.”
Quinn also made said that without the strong goaltending he was not sure where the Terriers would be right now.
Traveling Terriers
More than 20 members of the Dog Pound drove to Michigan this weekend, marking the first time that Quinn saw the Terrier fanbase travel to watch BU play and, at times, out-cheer the home school’s student sections.
“It’s awesome,” Quinn said. “I just wish we were able to reward them for their support.”
Noonan also showed his appreciation for the fans.
“It’s pretty tremendous that they come all the way out for us like that and support us like that, Noonan said. “They mean a ton to us, and I know we will need them Friday night.”
Looked like DQ didn’t have his team ready to play. Can we get a new coach and let DQ be the head recruiter? It’s obvious that DQ is no Parker.
Noonan must be easy to impress if he was so impressed with just 20 BU fans in the stands.
I wonder where all this negative talk will be when DQ Has his recruits playing-instead of Bavis recruits who didn’t win anything since Quinn left in 09′-HAS EVERY ONE FORGOTTEN THE LAST 4 SEASONS-not even a Beanpot,for the 1st time since I believe 65′,last yrs Sr. Class was the 1st to not win one.(Beanpot)
A good recruiting class from DQ would be nice but if he can’t coach them then it doesn’t matter how much talent they have. DQ has yet to show that he knows anything about coaching a team. Parker did the work with the recruits and won us a championship. DQ can barely get us a .500 record.
Who knows more about hockey??You or people the CAPTAIN of the Gold Medal Olympic team from Lake Placid,who was on the committee that hired Quinn.They gave him a guaranteed 5 yr contract for a reason,HE can COACH,all 6 defensive players from the 09’team are currently playing in the NHL.And when DQ was associate head coach,HE was in charge of recruiting,1 Hobey Baker Award winner,&players like Colin Wilson. 5 lousy games into the season &people are already talking STUPID…YOU NEED TALENTED PLAYERS TO WIN.Sit back and watch,you will be proved wrong.What has BU won since DQ left in 09′??Nothing=Bavis not getting job,&DQ coaching Bavis recruits.By the way,Bavis ‘resignation’ was for that reason-not winning anything. Which is probably why after 15yrs he DOES NOT HAVE A COACHING JOB AT ANY COLLEGE PROGRAM….I WONDER WHY????
What’s with all the Bavis bashing? Let the guy rest in peace. He served BU well and we need to let it go and stop blaming him for our issues and lack of success.
Why are certain “fans” forgetting the fact that we won championships before DQ and we will win them after it is gone. It is unclear if we can win them while he’s here.
Not Bashing Bavis,just stating the STATS!!!THE BU TEAM HAS WON NOTHING SINCE DQ LEFT,&BAVIS WAS IN CHARGE OF RECRUITING….THE TRUTH HURTS….
So the DQ line is to blame everything on Bavis? Sounds like Obama making excuses for his failure by blaming others.
Must have been tough for last year’s senior. They left BU having never seen any sort of trophy raised by the hockey team then they get out in the real world and can’t get a job. It’s understandable they would be disappointed, angry, and whining.
Amazing that BU goes to Michigan/Michigan State for two games, with 10 freshmen and five games into Quinn’s tenure … and you’re already questioning if he can coach or not?
I attended the first four games and I saw no evidence that he can’t coach. In fact, the overall effort from the team was much more consistent. And the early messages to Kurker (two offensive zone penalties – benching) and Collier (failing to back check – scratched from the next game) both seemed to get the desired result from both players.
This is a very young team. Quinn is the new coach. It is going to take this season, and longer, before anyone can draw any conclusions.
The “young team” excuse is already getting old and it’s only 5 games into the season. BTW, don’t we only have 9 freshmen? Michigan, BC, and Northeastern all have more freshmen than we do. And someone said that it’s BC who is the youngest team in country yet they don’t whine about being a young team.
According to DQ, we have 8 freshmen. Where are you getting your 10 freshman number from? Did you just make that up to justify the poor coaching job?
Can’t you people see that BU DOES NOT HAVE ANY PLAYERS THAT are as TALENTED as BC??GUYS LIKE A HOBEY BAKER SHOO IN!!!complimented by kids like HAYES….BU HAS NO TALENT EVEN CLOSE TO THAT OF BC….
Wow – DQ with the young team excuse again. DQ is weak if he needs to cling to that after every loss.
It’s quite clear the person who keeps bashing DQ is scorned. Lord knows by what, but I wish he/she would either give evidence of his/her ridiculous rants about DQ being a crappy coach (gee I didn’t realize crappy coaches get jobs like this) or just STHU! ugh its sickening listening to your same broken record complaints.