Disappointed with the production he had received out of his top line, Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker stacked the primary unit with three of his club’s most dynamic players for Saturday night’s affair with the University of New Hampshire.
Freshman forward Alex Chiasson and his team-leading four goals were added to Friday night’s pairing of junior center Nick Bonino and sophomore forward-defenseman David Warsofsky on BU’s starting line, a combination that was intended to kick offensive lulls and reinvigorate the attack with each new shift.
‘We have guys so banged up that we need a little more talent up front,’ Parker said after Friday’s 4-2 defeat to the Wildcats.
A first-period goal involving all three provided instant gratification on Saturday. But in the end, Parker’s decision to focus his resources up front threw off the balance of talent on the blue line, and in the waning minutes of the game, Parker opted to drop Warsofsky back to his customary defensive position.
‘I thought we needed a bit more poise back on the point,’ Parker said. ‘I thought he’d create a bit more offensively for us. He almost broke out a couple times. He was struggling [at forward] on the forechecking a bit, and on the backchecking. He’s good when he’s got the puck, but he doesn’t have that instinct as a forward.’
Warsofsky, who moonlighted as a forward on early-season power plays, was inked into the lineup as a winger on Friday for the first time in his college career.
He shared the ice with Bonino and junior forward Joe Pereira, who brought a distinct spark to the first line in his top-tier debut against Merrimack College on Nov. 14. Pereira’s energy was a big reason the group featuring Bonino and injured sophomore forward Chris Connolly found themselves on ice for four of the Terriers’ six goals that night.
But Parker didn’t see quite the same vigor from ‘Bulldog’ on Friday.
‘I thought Pereira looked OK, but nowhere near the speed he usually gives us,’ Parker said after the game.
During the first period on Saturday, Parker’s new first line rolled on all cylinders, and the idea looked like a seasonal breakthrough of sorts, as every incentive for making the decision panned out on the first goal, tying the game, 1-1.
Off a pass from Bonino, Chiasson infused the energy the attack had missed with a burst down the left side of the zone.
Warsofsky’s knack for a solid finish was on full display, too, after Chiasson left a puck off in the slot, teed up for a one-timer. The sophomore buried a no-doubter, beating UNH senior goalie Brian Foster top left.
Perhaps Chiasson’s energy was infectious. Bonino looked more like his old self, just a few games since his return from a shoulder injury.
‘I thought Bonino came out of it a little bit tonight. He got his legs back a little bit tonight, made some plays,’ Parker said.
But as the game progressed, Warsofsky was needed elsewhere, and the goal proved to be that unit’s only of the evening.
Thus, Parker employed a different formula to try and ensure the most beneficial spread.
‘We just rotated four lines with three left wings, so sometimes it was [sophomore Ross] Gaudet, sometimes it was [senior] Zach Cohen, sometimes it was [sophomore Andrew] Glass,’ Parker said. ‘It was one of those three. Those three played, and the rest of the other four lines played for the most part until the very end.
‘So, it was four lines with three left wings. Mostly every time a line went out, a center went out, he had a different left wing, but it kept those guys in the game.’
The go-to explanation for this team has been that the talent is there ‘–‘- they just haven’t managed to put it all together, yet.
But this style of shuffling begs the question: is it a matter of getting the numbers to add up, or is the stockpile too lean to begin with?
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.
