The way Jack Parker yells, waves and paces about behind the Boston University men’s ice hockey team bench, it’s hard to imagine that the 33-year head coach can ever relax during a game.
But he can – when freshman forward Chris Higgins has the puck.
“Since the first game of the year, I’ve said it to myself probably 100 times: when the puck gets on his stick, I can relax,” Parker said following BU’s 5-0 over Merrimack College Saturday, a game in which Higgins enjoyed his finest night as a college player with a goal and two assists.
“He never turns it over, he makes the right play every time,” Parker added. “It doesn’t matter if he’s in front of his own goal, if he’s at center ice. And since he moved to the center [on the third line], he’s been even more effective that way.”
Effective is probably the best way to describe Higgins, though Parker has often opted for “clever” throughout the year.
When the rookie came to BU, Parker and his staff expected the Lynnfield, Mass. native to provide a spark on offense, and his 13 points this season (3 goals, 10 assists) haven’t disappointed. His four-point weekend – he had an assist in the first game as well – was only made sweeter after he was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Week on Monday.
What has surprised Parker, however, is the grit, toughness and – of course – effectiveness Higgins has shown on both ends of the ice. Reminiscent of the hard-working, tough-nosed center that senior Brad Zancanaro and sophomore Pete MacArthur have come to embody, Higgins has proven to be a force on defense since being teamed with freshmen wingers Brandon Yip and Jason Lawrence.
At 5-feet, 11-inches and 165 pounds, Higgins isn’t big, but he hasn’t backed down from any physical play either, blocking pucks and the occasional body when needed.
In Friday’s 5-3 win over Merrimack, Higgins and freshman center John McCarthy – another rookie who’s earned his stripes as a defensive whiz – were the first ones on the ice to kill a Warriors’ 5-on-3 power play late in the first period.
Needless to say, they helped spearhead what has recently turned into an aggressive penalty kill that hardly allowed Merrimack a quality shot with the man-advantage in two games.
“When we were recruiting him – we’ve been watching him since he was a sophomore in high school – I thought he was a terrific offensive player,” Parker said of Higgins. “I was worried about his size and if he got a little tuckered, if he’d be down on his bum, but I knew he really saw the ice very well and he had great hands.
“The thing that amazes me is how good he is defensively, how solid he is in his own end.”
Last season, while playing for the EJHL’s New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs, Higgins said he focused on adding a defensive dimension to his already explosive game. Though it certainly didn’t hurt his offensive numbers (53 points on 22 assists and 31 goals, including a league-high seven game-winners), it made him more prepared for this year.
“My first two years in prep school, there wasn’t a lot of defense I had to do,” said Higgins, who played at the Pingree School in Hamilton. “So when I played last year in the [EJHL] with the Monarchs, I definitely worked against better competition, and you definitely had to [play defense]. It prepared me more for the college season, playing in all three zones.”
MOVIN’ ON UP
Backed by their weekend sweep of Merrimack, the Terriers vaulted from No. 16 to No. 13 in the polls. Cross-town rival Boston College moved up to the country’s top spot after weekend shutouts of the University of Vermont, setting up what should be a lively showdown at Conte Forum this Friday when BU travels up Commonwealth Avenue to battle the Eagles.
ANOTHER FRESH BREATH
The player who Higgins replaced as the league’s Rookie of the Week – linemate Brandon Yip – certainly made another strong case this past weekend to retain that award. With five assists on 10 BU goals in the weekend set, Yip now has nine helpers in his past five games, tying him for the team lead of 14 with John Laliberte.
With his recent explosion, Yip also leads the team with a plus/minus of +11, two points ahead of (go figure) Higgins.
But Yip’s accomplishments come with two interesting footnotes. One, in that five-game span, he hasn’t scored a goal of his own. And two, he accomplished all this while playing in only half of Saturday’s game.
With about 10 minutes left in the second period, he was ejected after receiving a game misconduct for hitting from behind. Yip now leads the team in both penalties (18) and penalty minutes (47). In his defense, Northeastern University – the league leader in penalty minutes – has two players with 60-plus minutes and another with 52.
“Yip’s a great player, obviously,” Higgins said. “He can score and he can find you, too. He’s really good on the point on the power play and he’s doing really well there, too.”
ELEVEN TERRIERS HOBEY WORTHY
Eleven Terriers are on the preliminary ballot for the Hobey Baker Award, given annually to college hockey’s best player.
Of the 193 nationally who made it, BU boasts: goalies John Curry and Karson Gillespie; defensemen Dan Spang and Sean Sullivan; and forwards Yip, Laliberte, MacArthur, Zancanaro, David Van der Gulik, Kenny Roche and Brian McGuirk.
With all due respect to the Terriers, expect that number to drop drastically after preliminary voting ends on March 5.
AN OFFENSE REBORN
BU leads Hockey East in goals scored in conference play (54). They haven’t finished a season higher than third in this category since 1995-96, when they scored 132 goals in 24 games (5.5 goals per game) to lead the league. That team was led by Chris Drury and Jay Pandolfo (22 goals apiece in 24 games) … MacArthur had two game-winning goals last weekend to tie for the league lead with four total … After Laliberte exited Friday’s game with a strained knee – he will be re-evaluated mid-week – sophomore Craig Sanders left Saturday’s game with a high-ankle sprain. They are joined on the injury report by Ryan Weston (separated shoulder), who still is expected to miss another week or two … Friday’s game in North Andover was a homecoming for John McCarthy, who hails from Andover, no more than a slapshot away from Lawler Arena. During the third period, three college-aged students sat directly behind the BU bench and chanted McCarthy’s first name in distracting fashion, though it was obvious they were friendly with the Terrier fourth-liner.
-Mike Lipka contributed to this report
