The top-ranked team in college hockey is in a slump. At least it thinks it is.
In four games since the No. 1/2 Boston University men’s hockey team claimed its 29th Beanpot Tournament title earlier this month, it has collected five of a possible eight points. Most teams would be more than satisfied with such a stretch, especially if it came during the nation-best 12-game unbeaten streak the Terriers are currently riding.
BU, however, isn’t most teams. As evidenced by its self-diagnosed slide, expectations have been raised on Commonwealth Avenue this season. For a program that’s been plagued by maddening inconsistency in recent years, these Terriers have been anything but unpredictable. They play with the kind of effort and determination that gives them a chance to win every time they step out on the ice. And on most occasions, the result is two points.
‘We’ve realized that we’ve taken a little bit of a step backward after the Beanpot win and haven’t played our best hockey in the two games against [the University of Maine] and the two games against [Northeastern University],’ BU coach Jack Parker said.
‘Sometimes the only way to snap out of it is to get beat, and obviously we don’t want to get beat in the playoffs. We also don’t want to get beat because there’s a [regular-season] championship in front of us. After the Beanpot I think we took a little dip and didn’t pay for it, but I believe that this team is going to refocus now.’
Two points away from clinching home-ice advantage in the quarterfinal round of the Hockey East Tournament, BU (23-5-4, 14-5-4 Hockey East) will look to snap a season-worst three-game winless streak tonight at Mullins Center in the opener of a home-and-home series with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (14-15-3, 9-11-3).
Of all the venues for the Terriers to right the ship and continue their march toward a Hockey East regular-season title, Mullins Center ranks as one of the toughest. The last two trips to Amherst have resulted in sobering 5-1 defeats for BU, which saw a seven-game unbeaten streak halted last March before it absorbed another beatdown earlier this season in its first game after being tabbed No. 1 in the national polls.
Parker attributed the Minutemen’s recent success against his club to several factors, including the added significance UMass coach Don ‘Toot’ Cahoon ‘-‘- a former BU player and assistant coach ‘-‘- places on each and every meeting with the Terriers.
‘I think, in general, because of Toot and his relationship with this place that he gets his team really sky high for BU. They’ve always played well against higher teams,’ Parker said of UMass, which owns a 5-2-1 mark against teams ranked in the top five nationally this season.
‘When I watched them at the beginning of the season in the Ice Breaker [Invitational], I really thought they were going to be a top-four team [in Hockey East] because of the way they played against Michigan State and North Dakota.
‘The rink [at Mullins Center] also presents a problem. It’s a big rink. It’s a lot bigger than our rink. It’s fortunate that we played Northeastern this past week, because they do a lot of similar things. They kill penalties almost exactly alike, they break out of the zone very similar, and they forecheck almost exactly the same.’
Although their initial stay atop the polls lasted just one week in November, the Terriers reclaimed the celebrated slot Feb. 2 and haven’t relinquished it. What seemed like a lost night back on Nov. 14 was ultimately a valuable learning experience for BU, which realized it wasn’t quite ready to handle the responsibility that comes with the No. 1 mantle.
Since that night, a different mindset has resonated throughout the Terrier dressing room.
‘There was a change in recognizing that it doesn’t win a hockey game for you, that if anything, it makes the other team more determined instead of intimidated,’ Parker said of the No. 1 ranking. ‘Part of that problem was UMass, and part of it was ourselves. We were feeling good about ourselves being the number one team in the nation and didn’t realize what you have to do to live up to that.’
When the Terriers take the ice tonight, they’ll do so as a different team than their mid-November counterparts. If seven games since Feb. 2 have taught them nothing else, it’s that the No. 1 ranking is as much a challenge as it is an honor. There’s no such thing as an easy night, not when every opponent ratchets up its intensity an extra notch to play the top team in the country.’ ‘ ‘
‘We get everybody’s best game because of where we’re ranked and people talking about us,’ Parker said. ‘It’s hard to give them your best game every night. You’ve got to hope that when you have a ‘B’ game, it’s good enough to beat the team that gives you their ‘A’ game. Everybody we play, we’ll get their best game. That’s what makes it difficult for a team to stay up on top.’
News & notes: Senior forward Chris Higgins will wear a protective pad on his left hand this weekend after injuring it on a drive into the boards during the second period of last Friday’s game against Northeastern. Parker said the left winger is not 100 percent healthy, but should be back to ’90 percent at least.’ ‘hellip; Sophomore forward Joe Pereira and freshman forward Corey Trivino will return to the lineup tonight. Pereira missed the past four games with an oral infection, while Trivino has been a healthy scratch each of the last three games. ‘hellip; Freshman goaltender Kieran Millan will make his 24th start tonight. Parker, however, expressed a desire to give fellow rookie netminder Grant Rollheiser more playing time over the final two weeks of the regular season.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
