The team that skated off the Mullins Center ice last Friday following a 3-2, season-opening slip up to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, didn’t look like last year’s national champion Boston University men’s hockey team. Not that anyone expected a clone.
Down eight players and two Hobey Baker finalists from a year ago, this is a new group. But sloppy play in the neutral zone, poor performances from some of last year’s upperclassmen leaders and a lack of true Terrier grit left the team’s 2009-10 identity ambiguous.
This year’s No. 3 Terrier squad looks to come out with a more distinguished brand of hockey in its regular season introduction to the home crowd at Agganis Arena, Tuesday, against a marquee opponent in the No. 9/10 University of Notre Dame.
‘I hope that they play more tenacious,’ BU coach Jack Parker said. ‘I hope they play more thorough. I hope they play with more urgency. I hope they play less casual. We’ll see if that happens.’
Traction won’t be easy to gain against a Notre Dame team that traditionally specializes in locking down middle ice through their own zone with ultra-efficient play.
‘They really have a pretty good transition game, they can bottle teams up at center ice and they really compete hard down low in their own zone,’ Parker said. ‘They play a lot of low scoring games. They can get five, seven goals some nights, too, but they’re a very comfortable team in their own zone and through center ice.’
The Fighting Irish manage to keep opponents in check, in large part because of defenseman Ian Cole. The preseason All-American, according to Inside College Hockey, is a force in his own zone as well as a contributor on offense, adding to the Irish’s superb puck control through the neutral zone.
Controlling possession in the neutral zone was a struggle for the Terriers on Friday. Veteran defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk, Colby Cohen and Eric Gryba all turned the puck over near the middle, which led to numerous oddman rushes for UMass.
In practice this week, the Terriers worked hard on managing the initial rush. As Parker said, ‘hopefully it gets better.’
Freshmen defensemen Sean Escobedo and Max Nicastro didn’t do anything fancy, but they didn’t produce costly mistakes to drastically hurt the Terriers, making for successful debuts.
‘The freshmen defensemen kept it simple,’ Parker said. ‘They didn’t try to make any big plays ‘-‘- they just moved the puck quickly to the closest and easiest pass out of the zone.’
They weren’t the only freshmen to make names for themselves. Freshmen forward Alex Chiasson was BU’s star, scoring both of the Terrier goals.
But can the youngsters contribute in a similar fashion versus Notre Dame? Parker isn’t necessarily counting on it.
‘They may be more nervous playing at home in front of the hometown crowd than they were in front of the big crowd at UMass,’ he said.
Uncertainty in the Fighting Irish net may help cancel out early game jitters. A three-man rotation hasn’t yielded any steady answers in the early going for Notre Dame, as the early favorite, junior Brad Phillips, has started both Irish losses, giving up six goals over the two games.
Freshman Mike Johnson, the seventh ranked incoming goaltender by INCH, emerged to shutout Providence College, 3-0, on Friday. Johnson, along with senior Tommy O’Brien, who held the University of Alabama-Huntsville to just one goal in Notre Dame’s first win of the season, look to be the most likely to start.
But UND head coach Jeff Jackson has shown loyalty to Phillips, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him roll with his go-to against BU, Notre Dame’s strongest opponent thus far.
Regardless, the BU game plan won’t change, as Parker has stressed that the only team capable of beating the Terriers are the Terriers themselves.
‘We want to see if we can get back to the way BU hockey teams play, and that means with a little bit more grit, a little bit more determination and we need to win more one-on-one battles,’ he said. ‘This will be a tough team for us.’
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