It may not have counted in the standings, but the Boston University men’s hockey team certainly has reason to feel good after a dominating 12-1 exhibition win over St. Thomas University Saturday at Agganis Arena.
Junior forward Ahti Oksanen tallied four goals and freshman forward Jack Eichel notched five assists as BU secured its third consecutive exhibition victory in as many years, and its largest exhibition win since a 12-0 thrashing of the University of Toronto in 1995.
“Obviously, anytime you win a game, it’s a feel-good moment,” said BU coach David Quinn. “A lot of good things happened tonight. You never know what’s going to happen when you don’t get a chance to practice much at all and to move the puck the way we did, to compete the way we did, to take advantage of most of our opportunities, it was certainly a great feeling.”
The scoring got underway at 3:24 in the first period, with Oksanen scoring on his own rebound to give BU a 1-0 lead. Oksanen, in his first career start at forward, added another goal seven minutes later. Both goals came on assists from Eichel. With 2:11 left in the first period, freshman forward Nikolas Olsson made the lead 3-0 with a one-timer from the slot after A.J. Greer sent a pass from behind the net.
Oksanen added two more at the beginning of the second period, both on nifty passes from Eichel. Freshman Chase Phelps and Dillon Lawrence then pushed BU’s lead to 7-0 lead with goals at the end of the second frame.
In the third period, sophomore forward Robbie Baillargeon added another goal to BU’s lead on a 2-on-1 pass from sophomore forward Nick Roberto. About two minutes later, however, the BU shutout ended when St. Thomas center Connor Sanvido tapped in a deflection past freshman goaltender Connor LaCouvee.
Junior forward Mike Moran went crashing to the ice midway though the third period after a crosscheck from a St. Thomas player. Moran was helped off the ice by Eichel and senior assistant capatain Evan Rodrigues, and went to the locker room for the remainder of the game.
BU stormed back with four more goals in the remainder of the period, though, and gave St. Thomas few solid scoring opportunities. St. Thomas had a total of 24 shots in the game to BU’s 52, with junior goaltender O’Connor tallying 11 saves in 31 minutes of play. Graduate student goalie Anthony Moccia notched six saves in an 8:53-long appearance at the end of the second period, and LaCouvee recorded six saves after allowing the goal at the beginning of the third.
“I took out of the performance that we’ve got three good ones, which I already knew,” Quinn said. “I mean, there weren’t a lot of flurries, but there was some zone time. [O’Connor] made some big saves, I thought when it was 3-0. [If it were] 3-1, all of a sudden the game could change. Tough situation for Moccia to come in. He comes in the middle of the second period and they get a power play … I like our goaltending situation.”
Fourteen players recorded a point, and nine of those players recorded two or more in BU’s 12-goal performance — a far cry from BU’s 2-1 exhibition win over St. Francis Xavier University last year. And, most significantly, the result gives Quinn and his players confidence headed into Friday’s regular-season opener against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
“It was important to play a game before Friday night. It’s always important to win it,” Quinn said. “It was important to get those guys out there. Get the nerves out, and get a game out of the way, especially here at Agganis.”
Sarah covers men's hockey and other sports for The Daily Free Press, and is the chairman of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the FreeP during the Spring 2014 semester and was Sports Editor in Fall 2013. She has also written for the Boston Globe and seattlepi.com. When she's not writing, she loves baking and going to concerts. You can contact her by tweeting her at @Kirkpatrick_SJ or emailing her at sjkirkpa@bu.edu.
