By Meredith Perri/DFP Staff
CHESTNUT HILL — And then there was a spark.
It didn’t yield a win, and the Boston University men’s hockey team is now winless in its last seven games, but Friday’s 6-4 loss to No. 3/4 Boston College showed a level of play the Terriers have not displayed thus far in 2014.
Minuses
Paltry penalty kill
Going into last Saturday’s tilt with the University of Maine at Frozen Fenway, the Terriers had an 85 percent success rate on its penalty kill. Since then, though, something has gone awry as BU has given up five power-play goals in eight chances in the past two games.
Senior captain Garrett Noonan was the only Terrier to take a seat in the penalty box Friday evening – first for interference in the opening frame, then for holding in the second. Each time, Boston College, who has the eighth ranked power-play unit in the conference, monopolized on its advantage.
Before Friday’s game, BU coach David Quinn implied that the Terriers might be doing too much on the penalty kill. After the game, he added that not having sophomore defenseman Matt Grzelcyk and junior wing Evan Rodrigues also has an impact.
“It has killed us the last two games and it has been pretty good over the course of the season,” Quinn said of his team’s penalty kill. “Probably some of that has to do with some of the guys we have out. They’re key penalty killers. We have got to clean that up a little bit.”
Defense
Just like the penalty kill is suffering from the team’s injuries, so is the Terriers’ overall defense. Don’t let sophomore Sean Maguire’s increasing goals-against average confuse you, the netminder had one of the better games in goal than either he or classmate Matt O’Connor has had in the second half of the season.
Maguire bailed out the Terriers’ defense multiple times during the game, including a spree during the second where he stopped three consecutive shots, including a breakaway chance, before a BU turnover led to a goal by BC wing Quinn Smith.
Physical first period
Quinn said after BU’s loss at Fenway that he hoped the team’s strong play in the final frame of the game would carry over to BC, and it did. While the Eagles showed more skill during the first period, BU showed a physicality that has been missing so far in the second half.
“It’s certainly something we talk an awful lot about as does every coach in the country and that’s something that’s a will, that’s a want,” Quinn said. “I thought we were more committed to play in the body, which we have a tendency to get there and put the head down and look for the puck and not gear all of our energy to playing through people.”
Along with that aggressive play came an early lead as freshman center Robbie Baillargeon took a shot from the left circle that ricocheted off the top shelf and out of the net.
Ryan pots first goal
About three minutes into the final frame, freshman wing T.J. Ryan netted the first goal of his collegiate career when he flipped the puck over BC netminder Brian Billett to make it a 3-2 game.
That goal had a little more meaning for Ryan, though, who, as Quinn pointed out, has a family history that involves both BU and BC. While Ryan’s grandfather is a big supporter and an alum of BC, his father, Tom, was the co-captain of the Terriers along with Quinn during the 1987-88 season and does the color commentary for the Terriers’ radio broadcasts.
“I would imagine if he had to pick a game where he was going to score a goal, I’d be it would be Conte Forum,” Quinn said.
“Anytime you get your first goal it’s a big deal, but when you get it in a BC-BU game in Conte Forum, I’m sure it has a little more meaning to it.”
We played the best we could possibly play and still lost. Blah…
The worse thing about last night was that our “fans” didn’t show up and those that were there left early. There were about only 15 of us at the end of the game.
We made BC’s lousy PP look amazing.
It’s shameful that BC’s 4th line outplayed our first line. Our guys have to play better.
According to USCHO, BC’s 4th line owned us all night. Why is it that their 4th line is better than our first line?
SIGH……because in reality, regardless of draft position/high school talent level these kids just aren’t D1 calibre. MANY MANY kids get drafted high because of high school performance and then tank when they get to college. It’s really not all that surprising if you do your research. The problem is we have a whole team of these kids. The previous recruiter barely left Massachusetts to look for players and while we don boast an amazing amount of talented players here, you just can’t fill a whole D1 HE team with local kids. They may be the greatest kids from great families but that doesn’t make a winning team, unfortunately. SO, with that said, considering the injuries, I think they played really well, they gave the #3/4 team in the country a run for their money, Finally displaying the abilities they do possess. After all, they are talentLESS kids, they are talented in some aspects. I really hope they can string a few wins together, because they are just kids after all and I can’t imagine how they are feeling at this point. And my God, if they read this blog with some of the comments that actually call them out by name and blame their coaches, they must feel worse.
Please stop bashing our players.
I am hoping the second anon is agreeing with the first anon, as anon #1 was being nice.
I will say this, and the trolling anons won’t accept this. They are a young bunch. Beyond sophmore year, you’ve got an injured Rodrigues, Hohman and Noonan doing okay, a quiet as always MacGregor, and a couple of guys who are just happy to be here. We all saw their problems early on, but with only 17 skaters against a team expected to be playing in Philly in April, they did alright.
Except for the BC trolls, we all wish the best for the team!
Gott o give credit to Maguire. If OC played this game, BC would have hung 20 on us.
I hear you on OC. he always starts strong but about midway on the season he starts to tank. and to think there are rumors that he might leave early. really?
Anonymous 8:59 AM is pretty much on target. I do disagree, however, that we have a whole team of players that do not have D 1 talent. Up front, O’Regan, Roberto, Baillargeon, Hohman, Lawrence and Rodrigues are all quality D 1 players. They are not Amonte ,Tkahuck or Silk, but if complemented by players like Jack Eichel and some of the quality recruits coming in, BU will be back in the upper echelon of D 1 and HE.
I also think we have some quality players on defense. Defense starts with forwards. We will see substantial improvement next year. Give our players and coaches some time. They will get us there.
I am all for giving the coaches sometime. for better or worse, these are the players they inherited. but this freshman class is horrible – kelly, duane, mcafee, collier, even somerby really fall short. bavis was a good guy, and a true BU guy, but man, what was he looking at? i don’t want to get into bashing bavis and parker, but they certainly left behind a mess of mediocrity and worse. facts are facts
lawrence is NOT a quality D1 guy. rodriques and holmann have hardly distinguished themselves on a consistent basis and they are juniors. baillargon and roberto (a quinn recruit), we shall see
this year is lost and it is only january. i look at the remaining schedule and i am hard pressed to see a win. to be looking forward to next year at this point in the year is very disheartening
also, i am hoping buddy powers leaves (no offense), and we can get in another high end, energetic recruiter with nhl cache – jay pandolfo, scott young, mike grier
I am anon 859 and the line should have read ” these are NOT talentless kids.” You’re right, we have a few really good kids but not enough to surround t themselves with