The Boston University men’s hockey team still has plenty of fight. That was made crystal clear during Wednesday’s practice.
A half hour into the Terriers’ hour-and-a-half session, senior defenseman and assistant captain Eric Gryba responded to Victor Saponari slashing his stick in half by ripping the junior forward’s helmet off and throwing him to the ice.
Junior defenseman and captain Kevin Shattenkirk jumped on Gryba before the 6-foot-4 bruiser could do any more damage. As Shattenkirk held him back, Gryba continued to yap at Saponari. BU coach Jack Parker put an end to it by kicking Gryba off the ice.
After a half hour in timeout, Gryba returned to the ice. He continued to hit anything that moved, which isn’t unusual ‘-‘- Gryba always brings the same aggressiveness to practices that he brings to games.
On one particular drill, he knocked senior forward and roommate Zach Cohen to the ice with a forearm shiver. Cohen responded by taking a run at the already irritated Gryba at the opposite blue line. After a couple shoves and some jawing, the longtime friends dropped their gloves, discarded their helmets and began exchanging punches. Each landed a couple blows before associate head coach Mike Bavis broke them up.
Sometimes, intrasquad fights can tear a team apart. This wasn’t one of those times. The fierceness displayed by the trio of upperclassmen seemed to fire up the rest of the team.
‘Today was a very good practice, and that’s why it was a good practice,’ Parker said. ‘There was some feistiness out there. I didn’t want to see guys fighting, but I wanted to see intensity.’
Senior forward Luke Popko, who also rooms with Gryba and Cohen, made light of the fights.
‘I thought we had a good ballroom dancing class before practice,’ he said. ‘I’ll have to beat them both up tonight, I guess. I’m sure they’ll be sitting around playing video games like they always are. What happens out there usually doesn’t translate to off the ice.’
So, why exactly were tempers running so hot Wednesday?
‘It’s the BC week,’ Shattenkirk explained.
Oh yeah. That’ll do it. On Friday night, the Terriers (7-10-3, 5-8-2 Hockey East) travel to Conte Forum to face archrival No. 10/11 Boston College (12-6-2, 9-4-2) at 7:30 p.m. And if that’s not big enough, BU returns to Agganis Arena on Saturday night to host first-place No. 16 University of New Hampshire (10-7-4, 9-2-3) at 7 p.m.
The Terriers, who are currently tied for seventh in the conference, are 1-1 against the second-place Eagles this season, most recently picking up a 3-2 win in front of 38,472 fans at Fenway Park on Jan. 8. They’re 0-1-1 against the Wildcats, losing 4-2 in Durham on Nov. 20 before forcing a 3-3 tie at ‘The Greek’ the following night.
‘Every weekend from here on out is the biggest weekend,’ Parker said. ‘The fact that we’re playing archrival BC and number-one team UNH, and the fact that we have a chance to win the BC series and tie the UNH series, that would be really good for us if we got those two things done.’
Parker identified three keys for success this weekend: 1) Skating ‘-‘- Parker said that both BC and UNH are very fast teams, but that his team ‘can skate with anybody as long as we’re moving our feet.’ 2) Penalties ‘-‘- Parker said that special teams will be even more important than usual this weekend because BC and UNH ‘are two very, very good offensive teams that can exploit us being a man down.’ 3) Controlling the front of the net ‘-‘- Parker said, ‘Whichever team can defend grade-A the best and attack grade-A the best is the team that’s gonna win.’
Another key will be how BU counters the two most explosive offenses in Hockey East. The Wildcats are first in the conference with 3.93 goals per game in conference play, and the Eagles are second with 3.67. BC’s 3.60 goals per game overall are fourth nationally, and UNH’s 3.48 are good for ninth.
The Eagles had been scoring with arguably the most balanced offense in the country, but after losing their first three games of the second half, coach Jerry York decided to switch things up and put his three best scorers on the same line.
Since the move, BC is 2-0 and junior Brian Gibbons, sophomore Cam Atkinson and junior Joe Whitney ‘-‘- who rank first, second and third on the team with 24, 22 and 17 points, respectively ‘-‘- have combined for six goals and eight assists.
‘That’s changed their look drastically,’ Parker said. ‘They were getting a lot of points before when they were on three different lines, and now they’re all on the same line. So, they decided to put their three best players together and see what they can get out of that. So far, they’ve gotten a lot.’
UNH’s offense is led by senior forward Bobby Butler, whose 24 points in conference play are tops in Hockey East. Nationally, he’s tied for fourth with 16 goals, eighth with 30 points and eighth with a plus-15 rating. Parker also picked out junior forward Mike Sislo as a focal point. Sislo has just six goals and nine points this season, but he led the team with 19 goals last year.
‘They’re great goal scorers,’ Parker said of Butler and Sislo. ‘They both can pound it on the power play on the off side. UNH has always had right-shot forwards who can really shoot the puck. And those two guys are really talented hockey players.’
Notes: Parker said that sophomore Kieran Millan will start in net at BC on Friday, and that he would make a decision on Saturday’s starter after that.’hellip; Junior goalie Adam Kraus missed Wednesday’s practice with an illness, according to Parker.’hellip; Junior forward Joe Pereira has been moved up to the top line while sophomore Vinny Saponari has been dropped to the third line. Parker said he made the move ‘to send a message,’ presumably to Saponari.’hellip; Parker said that a poor effort by his team Friday night could result in anywhere from three to five lineup changes for Saturday night.
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