When No. 11 Boston University men’s hockey head coach David Quinn spoke last Thursday about his team’s performance at the start of a three-game stretch within five days, he wasn’t exactly singing praises about a loss at the University of Connecticut.
It was a sloppy three-goal defeat that he all but forgot about.
But after splitting the final two games of the three-game stretch, coming away with a win over then-No. 5 University of Denver, Quinn said he was proud of the way the Terriers (3-3, 1-2 Hockey East) bounced back, and he hopes they’ll continue in the right direction in a home-and-home series with Northeastern University this weekend.
What a difference a week makes.
“I really liked what I saw all weekend,” Quinn said. “I thought we competed hard. We certainly looked like a completely different hockey team on Friday and Saturday nights than we did on Tuesday night. I thought we were more physical, more purposeful, I thought we defended much better.
“I feel a lot better about our hockey team than I did a week ago,” he added.
The team, as a whole, did indeed look better, especially offensively. Senior winger Ahti Oksanen, who had been held without a goal through the first five games, broke out with two goals against Denver (3-3), including the game-winner in overtime.
“I could sense him getting frustrated, and it’s certainly nice to get him on the scoreboard,” Quinn said of Oksanen. “It’s a good start. For him, they come in bunches, so hopefully it’s the beginning of a nice streak here.”
Between the two games against Denver and No. 16 Merrimack College, BU combined for eight goals and now has five players with at least five total points.
“We were much harder to play against,” Quinn said. “Especially after the Merrimack [(4-1-2, 1-1-2 Hockey East)] game, even though I thought we had a lot of puck possession, had some chances. I really didn’t think we were as gritty offensively as we were defensively. I thought against Denver we were much grittier offensively, possessed it, took it to the net, scored some goals at that net front.”
On the other side of things, as Quinn said, the defense looked sharper and went a perfect 9-for-9 on the penalty kill. That defense should be, at least on paper, even better with the return of its captain.
According to Quinn, senior captain Matt Grzelcyk will make his return to the lineup Friday night against Northeastern (1-5-1, 0-1-1 Hockey East). Grzelcyk had missed the first six games of the year as he recovered from a knee injury.
With Grzelcyk’s return, Quinn has made some adjustments to the defensive corps, pairing Grzelcyk with freshman Charlie McAvoy. Junior Doyle Somerby will be with sophomore John MacLeod, while sophomores Brandon Hickey and Brandon Fortunato will round out the other grouping.
This weekend will be a chance for the defense to solidify itself further against a Northeastern team that has struggled thus far.
The Huskies have gone winless over their last six games, losing and coming away with a tie in their previous two games against the University of Vermont. Northeastern’s lone victory this year came back in the first week of the season when the Huskies defeated then-No. 20 Colgate University.
Part of the issue for the Huskies has been their inability to get the offense clicking. A season ago, Northeastern was in the middle of the pack among Hockey East teams in goals per game (2.97). In seven games this year, the Huskies are second to last in that category, scoring under two goals per contest.
Senior Kevin Roy, who many expected to be one of the candidates for the Hobey Baker Award at the end of the season, does have four points this year, but has yet to score a goal.
Aside from forwards John and Nolan Stevens, who have four and three goals, respectively, no one at Northeastern has scored more than once this year.
And as much as scoring has hampered the Huskies thus far this season, their goaltending hasn’t helped out much either.
Standout goaltender Clay Witt was lost to graduation at the end of last year, leaving a void in the crease. Derek Roy has started the majority of games in goal in Witt’s place, but has not found a rhythm. The redshirt junior has a .821 save percentage in five starts, which is the worst number for a Hockey East goaltender.
In spite of the Huskies’ slow start, Quinn expects to see a strong hockey team show up this weekend, one that has played better than its record indicates.
“They’re a good team,” Quinn said, “They’ve got one of the most dynamic players in college hockey in Roy, they’ve got a good group of forwards, couple of real good defensemen. We get everybody’s best. I don’t care what we watch on film. It seems we watch a team on film and they look a hell of a lot better when we face off against them on Friday or Saturday night.
“We’re expecting a team that’s got some good skill, that’s physical, that’s going to bring out the best of us.”
Andrew is one of the men's hockey beat writers for The Daily Free Press. He was Sports Editor during the Spring 2014 semester and has also interned with NESN, WEEI.com and SportsNet New York. Follow him on Twitter at @squidthoughts for sports-related tweets and random quotes from "The Office," or you can contact him via email at arbattif@bu.edu.
