While the No. 10/6 Boston University men’s hockey team made the St. Francis Xavier X-Men look like real superheroes during most of a 6-4 loss Saturday night, a few of the younger Terriers showed some of their powers as well, albeit they weren’t quite super.
In their first time suiting up as Terriers, BU’s trio of class of 2015 members – defenseman Alexx Privitera and forwards Evan Rodrigues and Cason Hohmann – impressed their teammates and BU coach Jack Parker in the exhibition game at Agganis Arena. The latter in particular drew praise from the head coach, who is starting his 39th year at the helm.
“I thought both freshmen [forwards] played really well, and I thought Hohmann really played,” Parker said. “He took a couple bumps. He’s a very quick guy, and he’s going to create some offense for us.”
Junior forward Wade Megan, the only Terrier to get the puck by St. Francis goalie Joseph Perricone more than once, was the best forward on the ice, according to Parker, “even without the goals.”
But like any down-to-earth player seeing some success, Megan was quick to deflect praise to his linemates, Hohmann and Rodrigues.
“They’re both very skilled players,” Megan said. “They’re speedy, they’re shifty, they can get you the puck, so that’s good. I like playing with them.
“It’s not easy to come into a place like this with a good crowd tonight, and I thought they handled themselves very well. They had a great game.”
Megan didn’t fail to include Privitera, though, saying that all three played “exceptionally well.”
“They really picked it up pretty quick, very quick in fact, so that’s good for them, we need them to keep heading in the right direction and doing the little things right, which it seems like they’ve been doing, so that’s good,” Megan said.
Statistics-wise, all three finished with an even zero plus-minus rating and registered just one shot on goal apiece, all coming in the third period, and Rodrigues and Privatera’s coming as grade-A opportunities. Privitera was the only freshman to score a goal, finding the net with a backhanded rebound 12:13 into the third period to narrow BU’s deficit to 5-2 as part of the Terriers’ near comeback.
Still, Parker was not as impressed with defenseman’s play as he was with the forwards’, and disagreed with Megan that Privitera caught on quickly.
“I thought he looked very nervous to me; I thought he looked unsure of himself in his own zone,” Parker said. “He’s very good with the puck, but he’s got some work to do, as all of our defensemen do.”
Parker pinned some of the blame for the first of St. Francis’ two shorthanded goals on Privitera, who, as the last defensemen on the play, took too aggressive of an approach. This allowed St. Francis forward Bryce Swan to chip it by him, leading to Swan’s unassisted goal and a quick 1-0 BU deficit.
To Privitera’s credit, Parker went on to explain that freshmen do indeed often take some time to adjust to the college game, especially defensemen.
“The pace of the game is much quicker here than it is playing junior hockey or prep-school hockey, so when you come here, you have to figure out the pace of the game,” Parker said. “Forwards take a little time to figure it out, [but for] defensemen, [opposing players] are on them right way, so their mistakes show up.
“There’s always a lot more pressure on the defensemen than it is for forwards.”
Possibly due to his inability to catch on, Privitera picked up a pair of two-minute penalties – a chunk of BU’s seven on the night, – during the middle of the second period, one for tripping and one for roughing.
“We’re going to have to work on is being competitive without being stupid,” Parker said. “But that’s why you play an exhibition game.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
