By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff
After an abysmal showing in last weekend’s split against the No. 8 University of Massachusetts-Lowell, the No. 5/7 Boston University men’s hockey team played its best defensive game of the season in Friday night’s 1-0 loss at Northeastern University.
Not only did the Terriers allow the fewest goals they’ve given up all season, but they also did a much better job of keeping the opponent to the outside, disrupting cycles and clearing out rebounds.
“BU did a terrific job,” Northeastern coach Greg Cronin said. “I thought they did a great job just neutralizing us on the cycle. They really stapled us on the boards. They surrounded the puck on all the battles. They constantly had those red jerseys all over the puck. We just had no mobility.”
Last weekend, the Terriers surrendered an astounding 32 shot attempts from the slot or closer in two games. BU coach Jack Parker said his team was “really inept at covering out front.” Senior defenseman and alternate captain Eric Gryba said the Terriers “weren’t tough enough to play against.”
But Friday night was an entirely different story. The Huskies took just six shots from within 10 feet of the BU cage. Rebound chances were few and far between. Extended offensive zone possessions were virtually nonexistent.
“We were focused,” Parker said. “We played harder. It’s really simple. We weren’t standing around watching . . . Saturday night’s game was a real downer for me as far as how good an effort and how good a focus we had. We looked like we weren’t ready to play. Tonight, we looked like we were ready.”
Besides being more focused and playing harder, changes in the defensive pairings worked about as well as they possibly could have. Reuniting juniors Colby Cohen and Kevin Shattenkirk on the top pairing after they were separated last weekend seemed to ignite the spark that had been lit between the duo over the past two years, but had seemingly flamed out earlier this season.
“I thought Shattenkirk played great tonight,” Parker said. “I thought this was his best game of the year. I thought Colby Cohen played great tonight. I thought it was his best game.”
Freshman Ben Rosen, who played with Gryba as the fill-in for injured sophomore David Warsofsky, also stepped up in his first collegiate regular-season game. After playing well in BU’s two exhibition games, the Syosset, N.Y. native didn’t crack the lineup in any of BU’s first five games due to a combination of both of the other freshman d-men (Sean Escobedo and Max Nicastro) performing well and Rosen not impressing the coaches enough in practice.
“I thought he played well,” Parker said of the rookie. “He was good with the puck. He was good defensively.”
One thing’s for sure –– if the Terriers continue to hold opponents to 20 shots and one goal a game, Parker will be a happy coach. When asked what his message to the team would be heading up to the University of Maine on Sunday, Parker responded, “Play like this. Give me another game like this.”
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