At last, the first two-game weekend for the No. 4 Boston University men’s hockey team has arrived.
The Terriers will take on the Under-18 U.S. National Development Team Program in an exhibition game on Thursday before traveling to Colgate University for its first regular season game on Saturday. The matchup with the U.S. NDTP will be BU’s second and final exhibition of the season.
Just last year, the Under-18 squad came to Agganis Arena for an exhibition game in which the home team lost by a score of 7-4. In that game, the U.S. NDTP was carried by some familiar faces.
Forwards Clayton Keller and Kieffer Bellows combined for two goals and four assists for the national team, while goaltender Jake Oettinger collected 41 saves for the U18s. Now donning Terrier scarlet and white, they will look to help the team improve against a formidable foe.
“Obviously for us, it’s another good chance to get better and become better as a group and apply our systems and whatnot,” said junior forward and assistant captain Nikolas Olsson.“[It] gives us a chance to be more prepared for the season because it’s another exhibition game against a really good opponent, and so [there’s] a lot of skill on that team. It will be nice to put ourselves up to the test on Thursday night.”
Sophomore forward and fellow assistant captain Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson agreed, saying the team still has plenty to work on early in the season.
“I think it’s good we have this game to kind of work on the system and everything like that, to line chemistry and all those things,” Forsbacka Karlsson said. “We’re just trying to improve from last week’s game.”
There’s a strong connection between the U.S. NDTP and BU, as eight current Terriers were in the U.S. program before beginning their collegiate careers. At the moment, BU commits Brady Tkachuk, Logan Cockerill and David Farrance are on the Under-18 roster.
“It definitely has a lot of guys coming in here it seems. It’s like a pipeline,” Olsson said. “It’s pretty good because you know you’re getting some of the most skilled players there are in the country for that age group. To have them come to BU from there, it looks really good for the future.”
After Thursday’s exhibition, however, the season truly begins in a contest versus the Raiders (0-0-1). In the last game between the two teams on Nov. 29, 2014, the then-ranked No. 1 Terriers pulled out a 5-2 victory, with a goal coming from current junior forward Chase Phelps.
Colgate, who settled for a 2-2 draw against the United States Military Academy on Saturday, is a team that lost their top four scorers from last season to graduation. The top returning forwards, junior Mike Panowyk and senior Tim Harrison, combined for 35 points, yet the Raiders suffered a 11-24-2 record last year.
The regular season is just a few days away, but Olsson stressed the importance of staying focused on Thursday’s exhibition, no matter how excited the team may be to kick off what should be a successful campaign.
“We’re trying to take it one game at a time, but obviously it’s tough to kind of not overlook our exhibition game and look towards the regular season,” Olsson said. “We’re trying to monitor ourselves and just concentrate on the game at hand, but I mean we’re all really excited to head up to Colgate and actually get the season underway.”
Nick is currently writing for the Boston Hockey Blog. In the past, he has served as associate sports editor, and has covered men's and women's cross-country, women's soccer, men's basketball, and men's lacrosse for the Daily Free Press. You can keep track of Nick's exciting life by following him on Twitter at @nikfraz14
