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Unlike his first year at the helm at Boston University, just about everything went right for head coach David Quinn in his second season leading the men’s hockey team.

Expectations were high and results soon followed. The team found ways to win seemingly every night. Trophy ceremonies and dog piles became a recurring event by the time March rolled around. 


A Beanpot championship. The Hockey East regular-season and postseason titles. A Frozen Four berth. The Terriers had collected about every team accolade that you could, except for one: a national title. 


Despite holding a one-goal lead with under 10 minutes to play in the national championship game last season, BU succumbed to Providence College, falling just short of the ultimate prize. For a team that had so often found ways to win, losing in the fashion it did seemed unfathomable.

And that stung.

So for Quinn and his team, the final loss hurt more than it would have if it had come earlier in the season. But whatever bitter taste was left in BU’s mouth after that defeat has dissipated. Quinn’s viewing this season with a mix of both excitement and optimism. The talent is there and the goal is the same, though this time they’d like just one more win.

“Our guys are excited about the season and the challenge ahead of us,” Quinn said. “You just have to put it behind you. One thing I think we did a great job of last year was putting everything behind us night-to-night, focusing just on the task at hand. It’s the only way to have success. I talked to our captains and a bunch of our returning players, and they can’t wait to get going.” 


The road to Tampa, Florida, and this year’s Frozen Four won’t be any easier for this group, however. A tough Hockey East and non-conference schedule includes eight opponents ranked in the preseason USCHO top-20 poll.

Internally, too, there’s the question about whether or not this team can transition after losing key players. Hobey Baker winner Jack Eichel and his 71 points are now in the NHL. The team’s second-leading scorer in Evan Rodrigues is also no longer part of this unit. Hockey East Second Team All-Star goaltender Matt O’Connor, a stalwart in the crease all season long, will not be patrolling the pipes this year.

But Quinn anticipates his returning players will embrace the challenge, and that his seven incoming freshmen will make an impact right away.

“I have equally high expectations,” Quinn said, “because you know we’ve got a group of guys that had a taste of a successful season and I think they fully understood why we had the success we had last year.”

Anyway you put it, this year’s group, with all the potential it has, will have a slightly different feel than it did a season ago, starting with the offense.

With Eichel, Rodrigues and Cason Hohmann all departing, three of BU’s top six scorers are now elsewhere. With that in mind, there’s a bit of a shakeup within the team’s top two offensive lines. 


The only permanent member of BU’s first line that remains is senior assistant captain Danny O’Regan. Eichel and Rodrigues may be gone, but O’Regan’s 50 points will be an asset the team is glad to have around. Having played on the wing last year, O’Regan will shift back to the center position, and will likely be flanked by senior Ahti Oksanen and freshman Jordan Greenway. 


Oksanen, who played half of the season on BU’s vaunted first line, finished second on the team in goals with 25. His goal-scoring knack with Greenway’s playmaking ability should keep the top group balanced. So far, Quinn has seen a consistency from Greenway that few freshmen give this early during their time in college. Greenway is coming off a strong career (85 points) in two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program.

Another freshman impressing the coaching staff thus far is Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, who is expected to center the second unit with sophomore A.J. Greer and junior Robbie Baillargeon joining him on the wings. Forsbacka Karlsson brings a lot of different skills to the game, and has been called a “well-rounded player” by Quinn.

Greer battled through some inconsistencies early on in his first year, but caught fire late, scoring some important points during BU’s stretch drive. Baillargeon returns as a top-six forward after dealing with ups and down and the effects of mononucleosis last season. The two, who combined for 23 points last year, will be looking to add more to BU’s offensive depth.

As for the bottom six forwards, senior assistant captain Matt Lane and fellow senior Mike Moran figure to play the center spots, while junior Nick Roberto, sophomores Nikolas Olsson and Chase Phelps, along with freshmen Bobo Carpenter and Ryan Cloonan should all expect to compete for ice time at wing. 


Carpenter, a North Reading native, has a shot as well as anyone on the team, according to Quinn, and Cloonan, another local kid from East Longmeadow, has speed to give the bottom lines some energy.

Quinn has liked what he has seen so far from the forwards, but noted that each returning player needs to improve off what they did last year.

“Obviously when you lose a Hobey Baker winner, it’s going to hurt, but if you’re going to have a great program, you need great players leaving, you need great players staying and you need great players coming,” Quinn said. “And we feel like we’re in that situation now.”

The Terriers commence the season without returning All-American and team captain, senior Matt Grzelcyk, who will sit out for the first several weeks of the season while recovering from offseason knee surgery. The loss is significant, but Quinn showed no concern in the team’s ability to play without him.

“We’re not going to have the best defenseman in college hockey, in my opinion, when the season starts,” Quinn said. “But if there’s a team built to absorb that, I think it’s ours. … Any team is going to miss Matt Grzelcyk, but we may be less impacted than others because of the depth we have on D.”

All members of BU’s defensive corps from last season return, including last year’s four freshmen, a year older and a year more experienced, which makes them dangerous, according to Quinn.

“I think there’s going to be a whole new confidence level for them,” Quinn said. “Not that they weren’t confident anyway, you don’t get to the national championship game without four freshmen that aren’t confident. And, boy, they all played great in the NCAA Tournament, played well in the Frozen Four.

“The good news is we’ve been in some big-pressure games, they’ve handled it well, and I think that’s going to bode well for us moving forward.”


Sophomore Brandon Hickey (6-foot-2, 190 pounds) led Hockey East last year with 91 blocked shots. His defensive partner in 2014-15, sophomore Brandon Fortunato (5-foot-10, 160 pounds) was second among all defensemen in scoring (one goal, 17 assists) after Grzelcyk last season. 


Heavy-hitting junior Doyle Somerby (6-foot-5, 225 pounds), sophomore John MacLeod (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) and last year’s team-voted “Most Improved Player,” sophomore Brien Diffley (6-foot-2, 185 pounds), also return.

BU adds two talented freshmen to an already competitive position: the 6-foot-1, 211-pound Charlie McAvoy, a former player for the USNTDP, and Shane Switzer, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound blue liner who played for the Lloydminster Bobcats last year.

Quinn is hesitant to name a starting goaltender for the year just yet, but feels confident in his netminding corps to replace O’Connor, who signed with the Ottawa Senators this offseason. 


In Saturday’s exhibition game against Acadia University, sophomore Connor LaCouvee got the start in net, and allowed two goals in 29 minutes of play. Senior Sean Maguire played the final 31 minutes, stopping all 15 shots he faced. 


Maguire took a redshirt year last season with a head injury, but was effective his freshman and sophomore seasons when he split time with O’Connor. The Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick owns a save percentage of .923 and 2.69 goals-against average in his BU career. 


LaCouvee, alternatively, as a freshman in 2014-15, served as O’Connor’s backup. He played eight games and had a goals-against average of 2.58 and a .913 save percentage.

Freshman Max Prawdzik, an Andover native, could see time in net as well. As a senior captain at the Brooks School in North Andover, he backstopped his team to a New England Prep Large School championship, and was named the 2015 Independent School League MVP after posting a 1.25 goals-against average and .944 save percentage.