In their first game wearing the scarlet and white, the freshmen stole the show for No. 3 Boston University in a 4-2 exhibition win against Acadia University.
Freshman forward Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson notched two goals, including the game-winner, to give BU the edge. Freshman defenseman Shane Switzer provided one goal, and freshman forward Bobo Carpenter also added an assist.
Forsbacka Karlsson gave BU the lead for good with 14:50 left in the game, with his follow-up on a pass from sophomore forward A.J. Greer to put the Terriers up 3-2.
With just under seven minutes left, Forsbacka Karlsson exited the penalty box following his call for elbowing. He immediately gained control of the puck, but was impeded on his way to the net. He was able to convert on the subsequent penalty shot, pulling Acadia goaltender Brandon Glover toward the left and bringing the puck past Glover’s opposite side to push BU’s lead to a comfortable 4-2.
“I’ve done the move before but you never really know how the goalie’s going to react,” Forsbacka Karlsson said. “I saw he was kind of out of position and I felt like it was the right move to go. It was nice to get it in.”
“That was a heck of a shot,” added BU coach David Quinn. “And that’s a good goalie. He had him down and out. It was a heck of a move, and he’s great on his edges, and he’s got great poise. He’s a heck of a player.”
Senior assistant captain Danny O’Regan got the scoring underway for BU 9:53 into the game, with a swift wraparound and backhand into the net, despite his initial attempts to pass to senior linemate Ahti Oksanen.
“I saw Ahti cutting to the slot and I tried to just throw a little backhand dish to him,” O’Regan said. “I don’t even know what it hit, but I got a little bit of a lucky bounce.”
Acadia followed up by sending two straight goals past BU sophomore goaltender Connor LaCouvee, its first coming from forward Remy Giftopoulos at 12:06 of the first period and the second from forward Zachery Franko three minutes later.
The Axemen held the lead until Switzer evened up the score at 2:09 of the second period, after he received a backhand pass from Carpenter.
The game against the Axemen of Wolfeville, Nova Scotia, did not count toward BU’s record, but gave the Terriers an opportunity to learn more about their alternated personnel, Quinn said. With injury to senior captain Matt Grzelcyk and the loss of last year’s leading scorers, forwards Jack Eichel and Evan Rodrigues, BU had to adjust its defensive pairings and forwards, which Quinn noted was part of BU’s struggle to score early.
BU also saw fresh faces in net with the departure of goalie Matt O’Connor following last season. Senior goaltender Sean Maguire, in his first playing time since Feb. 28, 2014, recorded more than 30 shutout minutes to keep the Terriers afloat, recording 15 saves in the contest. LaCouvee, who played in just eight games in 2014-15, began the game in net, recording 12 saves in 29:24.
Ultimately, Quinn gave few complaints about the result.
“I thought it was a pretty good night, and it gives us a chance to look at some film, and look at the things we did well, and work on some of the things we didn’t do well,” Quinn said.
“Whenever you play a hockey game, you want to win it, and it was nice to get a win.”
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.
