“O Captain! My Captain!”
For the youngest team in the nation, the Boston University men’s hockey team more than likely will need to rely heavily on their leadership core — and that is exactly what the team did in its 4-1 victory over No. 13 Northeastern University.
“Really good leadership tonight from the captains,” BU head coach Albie O’Connell said. “They led the charge obviously with some of the goals. Especially Fabbro [who] kind of set the tone, so it was great to see those guys lead.”
At 14:02 in the first period, junior defenseman and captain Dante Fabbro scored the game’s first goal — a feat no other Terrier (1-4-1, 1-2-1 Hockey East) had accomplished this season.
“I thought that we as a team got off to a good start,” junior goaltender and assistant captain Jake Oettinger said. “Obviously we haven’t been able really to get off to a good start. I think we’ve been trailing every game, so for Fabs to get that huge goal to get everyone started was big for us.”
Fabbro unleashed a shot from the slot that Huskies’ (4-3-1, 1-1-1 Hockey East) sophomore goaltender Cayden Primeau could not stop and put the Terriers up 1-0, with assists from junior forward Patrick Curry and junior defenseman and assistant captain Chad Krys.
Under a minute into the third period, the Terriers found on the right side of a two-goal lead — courtesy of a power play goal by Fabbro.
With Huskie forward Brandon Hawkins in the box for interference, Fabbro rifled a shot from the point that got past Primeau and gave BU a 2-0 lead only 53 second into the period.
Senior forward and captain Bobo Carpenter and Krys picked up assists.
Fabbro’s third goal of the season tied him with Carpenter for the team lead in goals. Carpenter broke the tie less than 13 minutes later.
At 13:09 in the period, Carpenter ripped home a goal from the middle of the right circle and gave BU a 3-0 lead for his fourth goal of the season.
Although Krys did not score a goal, his third assist on the Terriers’ final goal of the night at 17:18 on a short handed tally by Curry.
The Terriers started off the season winless in their first five games, so what changed Saturday?
“Just keep doing what we’re doing. I think [that] through the week we keeping telling everyone, ‘Keep it simple, don’t try to complicate the game,’” Fabbro said. “And I thought we did a great job of that tonight and Thursday.
Of course, Oettinger needed to do his part to maintain the lead for the Terriers.
Oettinger entered the contest with an .874 save percentage and allowed 4.34 goals per game which had him last in the league among qualifies in both categories.
The early season struggles were not lost on Oettinger.
“Obviously, I haven’t had much success so far this season,” Oettinger said. “So I was just trying to take it one minute at a time, and the guys played great in front of me so it was good.”
Saturday, the Lakeville, Minnesota, native was near-perfect, stopping 37 out of 38 goals he faced. According to O’Connell, he was “dynamite.”
Krys recorded three assists and has four points for the season, despite only playing three of the teams first six games.
“Chad is one of the best defenseman in the league offensively, he can really break out,” O’Connell said. “He does a really good job of keeping the group in the locker room light … He’s a junior, he’s scored a lot of points here [and] he’s had some ups and downs in his career so he’s got some poise and confidence to his game. It’s nice to have a couple of games under his belt because I think he can take off this year.”
With this being O’Connell’s first season, he is aware of how important the leadership core will be to the team’s success moving forward.
“We knew we had great leadership going in, and when you start 0-4, things can go sideways if you don’t have good guys in the locker room,” O’Connell said. “… I’m pretty fortunate in my first year to have those guys.”
