PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island — On a night that any hockey team notches 40 shots and four goals, there are a lot of good things to point to offensively. For the No. 6 Boston University men’s hockey team, an improved effort from the second line was a crucial component of the Terriers’ 4-1 victory Friday evening over No. 8/9 Providence College.
Senior assistant captain Evan Rodrigues scored his first goal of the season, and added two assists on the evening for BU (4-0-0, 2-0-0 Hockey East). The goal came at the 13:41 mark of the second period, when Rodrigues sent a rebound sailing past Providence goaltender Jon Gillies.
“It’s always nice to do that,” Rodrigues said about his goal. “To bury the rebound, we had a great shift. To see a result in the goals is good for our lines.”
His assists on goals by freshman defensemen John MacLeod and junior forward Ahti Oksanen were Rodrigues’ team-best fourth and fifth of the year, respectively.
Rodrigues’ classmate and fellow assistant captain, Cason Hohmann, assisted on Rodrigues’ goal and also had the primary assist on a goal from MacLeod. Sophomore Robbie Baillargeon, who led the Terriers in scoring last season, recorded his second point of the season with an assist on Rodrigues’ goal.
BU head coach David Quinn put the second line’s performance in simple terms after the Terriers’ win over the Friars (1-3-1, 0-1-0 Hockey East):
“All three of those guys are such good players,” he said.
The three players had a strong start to the season — that line was responsible for two goals, four assists and 10 shots in BU’s 8-1 thrashing of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Oct. 10, and Quinn called them “unbelievable” following that contest.
“I thought that every time they were on the ice, they were generating scoring chances,” Quinn said in Amherst.
Those second-line scoring chances did not come to fruition over the next couple games, though. The trio took a downturn in subsequent games against Michigan State University and the No. 15 University of Michigan — in those two games, none of the three players recorded a single point.
Against Michigan State (1-4-0), Rodrigues, Baillargeon and Hohmann notched nine shots. During the Michigan (2-4-0) game, the three totaled just seven shots.
But Friday’s game was a different story. Rodrigues, Baillargeon and Hohmann created quality scoring opportunities and had their hands on three of the evening’s four goals.
“I thought they had a little bit of a drop after their game out at UMass,” Quinn said. “And tonight they really rebounded. I thought our back pressure was really great tonight. We caused a lot of turnovers through the neutral zone. I thought our offensive zone play was smart. I thought we didn’t play high-risk hockey. That line was pivotal tonight.”
The Terriers’ veteran forward concurred.
“We worked hard today,” Rodrigues said. “Last weekend we were held off the score sheet in both games so today… we knew it was going to be a grind of a game, so we wanted to come out, work hard and make sure we were winning our battles in the corner. And came out with a couple of goals.”
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.
