After four unsuccessful attempts this season, the Boston University men’s hockey team picked up its first win in the O’Connell era thanks to a 4-1 victory over No. 13 Northeastern University.
BU head coach Albie O’Connell attributed the win to increased goal
“We played hungry offensively for sure,” O’Connell said. “Scoring nine goals, I think our power play was a bit better … we played a lot more simple, so that was a big key.”
The Terriers (1-4-1, 1-2-1 Hockey East) picked up three points from the Huskies (4-3-1, 1-1-1 Hockey East) with a tie Oct. 1 and the win Saturday, tying the two teams in Hockey East standings.
Junior forward Patrick Curry, who is tied for second place on the team’s scoring sheet for goals, said the win came as a relief.
“I feel like there’s definitely a weight off the shoulders,” Curry said. “It was kind of tough starting off 0-4 — it wasn’t what we were looking to do, but now that we got that first one I feel like we can get it
BU now turns its attention to the University of New Hampshire, who, like the Terriers, have a new coach behind the
For the first time since 1989, Dick Umile is not the head coach of the Wildcats (1-4-1, 1-1-0 Hockey
“He was a legend,” O’Connell said of Umile. “… He had really good teams. They played hard, and they played really skilled, so you always knew when you went against one of their teams it was going to be a hard night, and they can
The Melrose native compiled a record of 596-373-114 and made the NCAA tournament 18 times. Umile led his squad to the Frozen Four four times and finished as the runner-up in 1998-99 and 2002-
UNH named Mike Souza as the man tasked with replacing
Souza played as a Wildcat from 1996-2000 and accumulated 156 points. He captained the 1999-2000 team that made the NCAA
Before returning to his alma mater in 2015, the Wakefield native spent two seasons at Brown University starting in
UNH sophomore defenseman Max Gildon leads the team with six
The main man in net for the Wildcats is sophomore Mike Robinson. Robinson’s 2.67 goals against average and .902 save percentage are ninth and 10th in the Hockey East, respectively.
He will be tasked with stopping a Terrier offensive that has put up three, three goal periods so far this season.
Co-captains forward Bobo Carpenter and defenseman Dante Fabbro lead the Terriers in points with six.
Both Carpenter and Fabbro recorded three points against the Huskies.
“All the older guys played really well, and the younger guys can feed off it,” O’Connell said. “If you watch the game, as the game wore on, the less and less the younger guys played, just because guys have been in the situation before: managing the puck, making the smart plays, changing quick. So [for] the younger guys, it was a good lesson for them to kind of watch and see how it’s done.”
Curry is tied with Fabbro with three goals, good for second on the team only trailing Carpenter.
“Obviously got to have your upperclassmen being your leaders,” Curry said, “and they got to be the guys that are going to set the tone — the guys that the young guys can look up to on a daily basis and learn from.”
Currently, Curry has four points this season, which is almost half of his total from last season.
The Schaumburg, Illinois, native attributed his fast start to gaining confidence under O’Connell, who he said has played him in a greater variety of situations for positive results.
Before this season, the Terriers were 14-2-2 in games in which Curry scored a point.
Despite having a lackluster start to the season, the Terriers said they are not concerned with the results of their play, but more so about the way they are playing.
“I think we’re just worried about playing the right way and doing the right things, and the wins will take care of themselves,” O’Connell said. “It’s more about the process than the result. [We] just got to be ready to play.”
However, Curry also said the lone game gave the team a narrow scope to focus in preparation.
“Obviously, only playing one game this weekend, that’s the only thing you’re going to be able to think about for the rest of the week,” Curry said. “Two points would be huge, and so we can roll with it into the following weekend and get a chance to back up to .500.”
