No. 7 men’s hockey looks to rebound at home vs. Harvard

For the No. 7 Boston University men’s hockey team, their next game could not come at a better time.

After being shutout at home for the first time since 2013 in a 4-0 loss to the University of Connecticut on Saturday, the Terriers (6-4-1, 2-1-1 Hockey East) will host No. 9 Harvard University on Tuesday before the Thanksgiving break. Tuesday’s contest will give BU the chance to erase memories of Saturday’s defeat and go into the break on a high note.

That’s not to say the loss to the Huskies (4-4-5, 2-2-1 Hockey East) was a necessarily a bad one. The Terriers put 37 shots on goal, but were denied by UConn goaltender Adam Huska time and time again.

BU head coach David Quinn was happy with a lot of the things his team did on Saturday, despite not being able to put one through the net.

“We really had some unbelievable chances and their guy made great saves,” Quinn said. “You never want to get shutout, and scoring usually takes care of itself. We had 22 scoring chances on Saturday night, that’s a lot.”

Sophomore forward Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, who has just three assists in the last six games, echoed his coach’s thoughts.

“You can’t really get to down on yourself,” Forsbacka Karlsson said. “You just have to keep doing what you’ve been doing all along and just build on that.”

The Terriers have now suffered from two shutouts in their last four games. There are a few possible reasons for this lack of scoring, but Quinn said as long as his team builds on what they did last weekend with a little more consistency, they’ll be fine.

“We’re around the net, but we’re this close to doing exactly what we need to do to maybe get a rebound or screen the goalie more,” Quinn said. “There’s got to be a little bit more purpose when we’re at the net. We’re there, but we’re not really there, and we got to be there. We got to be all in with a purpose, I think if we just add that element to our game we’ll get rewarded and score some goals.”

BU will likely need all the goals they can get as they prepare for a red-hot Crimson (5-1-1) team. Led by head coach Ted Donato, Harvard is coming off a statement win against No. 4 Boston College on Friday, giving them a small jump up the USCHO rankings.

The Crimson are led by a strong senior group at the forward position in Tyler Moy, Sean Malone, Luke Esposito and Alexander Kerfoot. All four forwards have at least eight points in seven games played.

Throw in sophomore Ryan Donato’s four goals and four assists, and it’s clear Harvard’s strength is their top two lines, or as Quinn called them, “two first lines.”

“We know they’re very deep up front, they’ve got two first lines and they’ve got four senior forwards who are really good players,” Quinn said. “They’re very good, and they’re as good as a team we’ll see all year, and they’re as good a team as we’ve played so far this year. We’ve got to manage the puck, we’ve got to take away time and space on them, we’ve got to be ready to go from the drop of the puck.”

The last time these two teams met, the Terriers scored three goals in the final four minutes to pull out a thrilling 6-5 victory at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center. It’s unlikely Tuesday’s contest will provide an ending as wild as last season’s, but fans can expect a show as two top teams duke it out.

When it comes to addressing Harvard’s talent, Forsbacka Karlsson stressed not focusing too much on the other team and more on the Terriers’ efforts to improve upon last weekend.

“You have to be aware of it, but we’re just trying to build on our game and do what we do well,” Forsbacka Karlsson said. “It’s a good team, they’ve been playing well. Hopefully it will be a fun game.”