By Meredith Perri/DFP Staff
ORONO, Maine – The University of Maine men’s hockey team defeated Boston University Friday evening at Alfond Arena after the Black Bears scored a touchdown and picked up the extra point halfway through the third.
In a game where the Terriers gave up seven goals for the first time since February and were shut out for the first time this season, there, obviously, were more negatives than positives. According to BU coach David Quinn, however, the Terriers made improvements in some areas after their 5-1 loss to Boston College last weekend.
“I thought we played hard,” Quinn said. “I feel a lot better with our effort and our physical play and our intent than I did against BC.”
Pluses
The majority of the first period
Sure, once sophomore wing Matt Lane and senior captain Patrick MacGregor landed in the penalty box at the end of the period, the Terriers put themselves into a hole. Before that, though, with the exception of a goal that sophomore netminder Sean Maguire would surely want back, BU showed some improvements.
Most noticeably, the Terriers had more of a shooting mentality than they had in the past few games. BU not only had 12 shots on goal to Maine’s 13, but also had more shots in close – something the team has struggled to do recently.
Minuses
Sean Maguire
Maguire hasn’t won a game since the Terriers’ home opener against the University of Massachusetts on Oct. 11. Since then, BU has failed to score more than a goal in any game he has started while Maguire held onto a 2.03 goals-against average.
Friday evening’s game at Maine was different, however, as Maguire gave two soft goals in the first half of the game before Quinn replaced him with sophomore Matt O’Connor.
For more on BU’s struggles in goal, read Tim’s article here.
5-on-3s – for and against
Also known as the trouble with taking penalties in bunches.
BU could have gotten out of the first period with just a one-goal deficit. With Lane and MacGregor in box, however, BU was at a significant disadvantage. This became even more evident when wing Connor Leen scored with just six seconds left to give the Black Bears even more momentum heading into the second.
After the Terriers killed the remainder of the penalty in the second, it looked as though the team may have turned it around. With a 5-on-3 opportunity of its own, however, BU had just two shots on goal. Meanwhile, Maine went up 3-0 despite being down two men.
Sophomore defenseman Ahti Oksanen lost control of the puck in the offensive zone, and Maine defenseman Ben Hutton capitalized, demoralizing a Terrier squad that looked as though it might just fight its way back into the game.
“We don’t even get a sniff [on the 5-on-3],” Quinn said. “You’re throwing passes into skates, you’re not alert, you’re shooting when you should pass, you’re passing when you should shoot. You’re going to struggle on a 5-on-3. That’s what happened and not only did we not score, but they get a goal and it just changes the whole complexion of the game.
“You could feel it on the bench.”
Lack of offense
The Terriers have scored seven goals in their past six games. That’s right – the same amount that the Black Bears scored Friday evening.
In that same span of time, BU is 1-5 with its only win coming against Providence College.
Quinn has said throughout the past few weeks that much of the team’s offensive woes have to do with a lack of shooting mentality. Although the team did finish the night with the same amount of shots on goal as Maine with 34, they still aren’t getting great opportunities. According to Quinn, the team has made strides with its puck possession, but clearly still has work to do.
“I don’t want to lose 7-0 in any way, shape or form at anything,” Quinn said. “Losing is tough to swallow, but you have got to look big picture here, and sometimes you have just got to continue to move forward and think big picture and try to get better every day.”
Fire Quinn. Hire York.
So according to DQ, losing 7-0 to Maine was better than losing 5-1 to BC? Time to form a new coach search committee.
Ahti is now tied with Grzelcyk for the worse +/- on the team. Congratulations to these two “defensemen”.
Sad day for BU fans but we lack natural goal scorers so must have great 1/2 court game in O zone to score. Team seems to be down on itself but I have seen teams bounce back before but this team lacks talent and it will be a slow process. This teams is better than that it showed last night.
Coach Parker took this “no talent” team to the Hockey East finals but DQ somehow cannot get to .500. It’s easy to read between the lines and see that DQ is not the right coach for BU.
Did DQ pull Maguire to protect his GAA? Seems like DQ is playing favorites. Magure has a pathetic 1 win this season.
I just checked out the player stats. If you take our top 3 forwards and add up their goals and assists, they match the stats of just one BC player. This would have never happened under Parker no matter how bad the players are.
This is a rebuilding year. Parker left the program in bad shape. His recruiting of “me first,” looking toward the NHL players with little regard to team or their responsibilities as students was bound to catch up. Quinn will get the right mix of talent and attitude in here. It will take time. What you see is what you get. .500 is a good goal for this year with steady improvement until BU is back in its rightful place as a national power.
I agree completely. I wasn’t going to come on here with all the ridiculous comments lately from a few people. But look at Nate Leman…his first year at PC he was 14-20-4 and even his second year wasn’t so great 17-14-7. But now HIS recruits have come in, the program has turned around. The same will happen here. I don’t know why some people are being so negative. They wouldn’t say half the things they do if they knew even an iota about the process. And let’s face it, it’s not all that hard to get to the Hockey East playoffs. PC did it both times with those not so great records. Parker is one of the most storied Coaches in College Hockey history. And in his FORTY years, he won 3 National championships (avg, 1 every THIRTEEN YEARS) he won 8 Regular season Hockey East titles (avg. 1 every FIVE yrs.) and 7 Hockey East Championships (approx. 1 every 6 years) So why are some so quick to bash Quinn when the guy has coached exactly 10 games, 1/3 of his FIRST season? People with hockey knowledge understand this is a process. Let’s all just take a deep breath
It is great to see someone on this blog that understands the process of building a good hockey team.But you have to expect these kind of blogs when you have low class morons who even wrote comments about DQ greeting his family & little children,with a smile, after a loss in his home state.I believe the article said the oldest child was 11 or 12…..so think about that for a minute and it shows you the type of people bashing Quinn.I checked the Web site about the recruits who have already committed, and truly believe BU is not far from hardware.
Omg I thought the same thing!! I don’t pay attention to them anymore. Although sometimes it’s really hard not to respond to the idiocy.
Let the DQ bashing continue, I don’t understand how these people don’t understand that you can’t teach talent, check out the recruits that have committed to BU, looks like some serious talent is on its way, but hey, let’s just fire Quinn,-idiots…team has no scoring ability – you can’t coach that,& Parker coached the same team?? Do the math – what is it,8 or 9 freshman this yr? And how many left the team?-3,?? That is either 11 or 12 gone from last Yrs team….
NU, Michigan, and BC all have more freshmen than we do. BC is the young team and has the youngest player in college hockey. yet none of these teams have trouble winning and don’t constantly make excuses.
Not excuses-FACTS, YES BC HAS more freshmen, but they are much more talented than our group – fact #1.BC has 8 players drafted in the first 110 picks, BU-2, DOES that not show the talent level discrepancy???
Yet somehow this no talent group coach by Parker managed to beat BC but DQ gets crushed by the same BC team.
Wrong again…very different team than last year…freshmen weren’t here last year, duh
Idiot – this team is missing 12 players from last Yrs team…where and what will you be posting when Quinns recruits start arriving on campus next year??? It took Nate Lehman from PS 2 Yrs to turn around that program, I don’t think it will take that long for BU…sit back, shut up-HATER,& STAY AWAY FROM THE BANDWAGON when it all turns around. ..HATERS ARE SUCH MORONS….
With someone like DQ, every year will be a rebuilding year.
Talent is on the way? Will destroy their talent like he has with the current members on the team?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time I checked…megan, nieto, & gill are NOT on this year’s team…shut up moron, it’s not the same team!
ok, we all know you’re slow, but try to follow….8 or 9 freshmen (the term freshmen means this is their FIRST year) and a few that left (I think 3, now I don’t want to confuse you, so don’t quote me on that…so let’s take the lesser of the numbers and do some Kindergarten Math… If 8 players are new and 3 players had to be replaced with new players, how many new players are there?
8+3 = 11 NEW players, which in turn means, now follow closely here…..NOT THE SAME TEAM as last year. So now can YOU stop bashing and chill out? Please and Thank You.
They’ve given up 12 goals in two games and he’s worried about just one. Ridiculous. He was complaining about penalties as well post game…I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Because you don’t understand the process. Stay tuned though…
Stay tuned for the UCONN game? I expect an epic blow out of UCONN. Anything less and DQ still has not shown us anything.
DQ needs motivation – tell him that anything less than an 9 goal victory and he will be fired on the spot.
At least DQ has a sure win against UCONN. Since Maine beat us 7-0, how many to we need to put up against UCONN to make us fell better about DQ? I say we need at least 9.
You can’t even put a sentence together or spell,’fell better’,??-feel better…wow, I am glad the haters show how ignorant they are!!!
Wow – so you’re using the Obama tactic of insults and diversion to distract from DQ’s incompetence and total failure so far this year.
Ah, the Obama comparison and DQs incompetence again…borinnnnng
If DQ is getting a free pass this year due to a bad team left to him, how does DQ and his family members here explain how a Maine team with a new coach and even less talent left for him blow out DQ’s team?
I stick up for coach DQ because he is a good coach who will prove all you haters wrong, I have known DQ for a long time,&I AM A BC GRADUATE!!! I have not read one post by a family member – just from people who know hockey!!!
DQ has shown zero signs that he’s a good coach. What has he done that gave you that impression? The goalies stink. The defensemen stink. The forwards stink.
Interesting how the goalies, defensemen, and forwards have all regressed under DQ. Looks like the only common denominator for their demise is DQ.
Grzelcyk with another -2 in this game. Way to go! DQ has really caused Grzelcyk to regress this year. Wasn’t DQ suppose to be a wiz coaching defensemen? DQ proves that he’s a complete failure in another area.
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…..