Photo by: Matt Woolverton
Looking Forward to 2019: Terriers Ready to Embrace Their Better Half
January 6, 2019 | Men's Ice Hockey
By Scott Weighart – GoTerriers.com Staff Writer
BOSTON – On New Year's Day, Boston University first-year coach Albie O'Connell met with his team for the first time since the holiday break.
Well, not quite ALL of his players. Freshman Joel Farabee and sophomores Logan Cockerill and Shane Bowers were still out in British Columbia competing in the World Junior Championship. Farabee and Cockerill suited up for Team USA and will be coming home with silver medals while Nova Scotia native Bowers played for Canada.
Meanwhile, O'Connell pulled his players into the locker room to take stock before resuming play following a 6-8-2 start to the 2018-19 season. It had been a roller-coaster semester, as the Terriers began the year 0-4 before enjoying a four-game unbeaten streak… only to struggle through a 1-4-1 stretch followed by encouraging and decisive wins over UMass Lowell and Dartmouth before the holiday break.
"I think there were definitely some frustrations early, especially in the first weekend when we thought that we could've come away with a big win on the road [at Minnesota State]," O'Connell said. "There's just some learning for me as far as future scheduling. We played the U.S. team the night before we played Merrimack in their home opener. We played a track meet here, and they sat idle, but I can take that forward in putting together a schedule that puts the team in the best situation."
Somewhat similar to the first semester of last season, the Terriers have struggled to have all cylinders firing every night. When they've had great goaltending from junior netminder Jake Oettinger, sometimes the skaters have not been able to find the net. But BU also lost three games when they scored three goals but gave up at least four. Still, the trend has been largely positive.
"I think we made good strides. We were 0-4, and then we went through a good stretch, only to go through a stretch where we couldn't score. We caught a hot goalie overseas [as Union goalie Darion Hanson made 39 saves in the Friendship Four Final in Belfast], and then [Boston College goalie] Joe Woll was tremendous in this building, and he was tremendous the next night too, as was Oettinger. We've played some good hockey, but the consistency level of individual and team have to match up and connect. When that happens, we play really well."
As junior forward Patrick Curry pointed out, the team had some adjustments to make with a new head coach as well as seven new players on the roster this fall. "Obviously, it wasn't the way we wanted to start out," Curry said. "We have a very young team and a new coach. There's a lot of moving parts. It wasn't the greatest, but we went out a high note with two wins before the break."
So what did O'Connell have to say to the team on the first day of the New Year?
"I said that we've got a lot of hockey ahead of us. We play a lot of good teams in conference and non-conference: We play Quinnipiac, Harvard, and Arizona State, and we play UMass, Providence, and Northeastern—teams that are high in the PairWise Rankings. If we have good results, we can make some noise nationally. But we've got 68 days until the regular season ends, so we don't have a lot of time. We have to be alert and ready to go, on and off ice—developing good habits and making a commitment to each other and to the program to make this thing good."
BU co-captain Dante Fabbro echoed the sentiment. "There are just tendencies that we need to work on," said the defenseman, who enjoyed the opportunity to play in Switzerland on Canada's Spengler Cup team over the break. "From the start of the season to just before Christmas, you could definitely see our team starting to shape and mold into the team we wanted it to be. There are still a lot of things we want to work on, but we have all the right personnel in the locker room. It's up to us to execute and perform out there."
It's worth noting that the personnel have changed a bit over the break with one player leaving the program and another arriving. It was surprising news when freshman defenseman Dominic Vidoli decided to leave the team to play for Sioux City in the USHL. Coming to the Terriers right out of high school, Vidoli was adjusting to the college game but clearly had upside.
"It was disappointing that Dom left," O'Connell said. "Dom is a really good kid—high character, good student. He started off injured for the first two months of the season. When he came back, he played six of nine games and we liked the way he finished. He's a really good skater, and we expected him to push for more minutes, but he wanted to go to juniors and maybe end up transferring somewhere. It was kind of out of the blue."
What led the freshman to walk away from college hockey for the time being?
"I think the biggest thing was that he was hoping to be a top-four defenseman for us right away, and that's not easy for anyone," O'Connell said. "Patience is sometimes not on our side with athletes nowadays, but we certainly wish him luck."
On a more upbeat note, the team was delighted to bring in another goaltender in Vinnie Purpura. The native of Lemont, Illinois, had committed to the Terriers last spring, and O'Connell had hoped to have him for this season all along.
"We wanted to bring in Vinnie, but he wanted to go back to juniors and play one more year. But then he got traded, and the situation was a little foggy for him—splitting time when he was supposed to be getting all the games—typical junior hockey stuff. We were excited for him to come in during the break. It's good for the program to have stability in net."
As big as Oettinger is, Purpura is an inch taller… and actually a little older. He'll also be the first BU goalie since Rick DiPietro to catch with his right hand. "He's got some athleticism," O'Connell said. "He uses his body well—big kid, 6'6. He catches with the opposite hand. He's got the ability to make big saves, but he's pretty calm and cool in the net. He takes up a lot of space and plays good angles and has good rebound control. I wouldn't say that he's super-polished but pretty polished for his age."
O'Connell will allow Purpura some time to get comfortable in practice, but Terrier fans should expect his debut at some point in the coming weeks.
However, we are very unlikely to see more of freshman forward Jake Wise this season, as the third-round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks will be undergoing shoulder surgery later this month.
That said, there are high hopes that many Terriers are poised to break out for the second half. "The freshmen are kind of no longer freshmen," O'Connell said. "Hopefully they can make strides like Cockerill and Bowers did last year. We're looking for that."
O'Connnell cited graduate student Max Willman—a transfer from Brown this season—and forward Patrick Harper as two players to watch. Harper missed the last few months of the season due to illness last year, and he only seemed to enjoy a true return to form in his last game or two of the first half.
"Those two guys can singlehandedly change the offensive complexion of the team. Willman's had great chances, hit a lot of pipes, hasn't had a lot of puck luck but is getting more comfortable and getting more chances. Harps, once he scored that goal against Dartmouth, he just turned electric and was all of a sudden making plays. Had an assist and walked a guy, so it was just confidence with him. Once one would fall, we knew he'd gain confidence.
"Pat Curry and Ty Amonte have been able to elevate their games, as has Farabee in the second half of the semester. A couple of others can join the crowd."
"There's definitely a lot of guys who could stand out," Fabbro said. "You've got Joel Farabee, and I think [sophomore defenseman David] Farrance is going to make a huge jump this second half. With Harper getting his goal in the last game, you're going to start to see him break out in the second half, and Bowers as well. If all of those guys get better, it's going to be a heck of a last bit here."
So far the Terriers seem intent on revisiting the script of last season. They were 8-10-1 in the fall semester but ended up with an 11-2-3 run in their last 16 games before running the table to win the Hockey East Championship and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Curry acknowledged that there does seem to be a strong resemblance between the two seasons. "It does. Last year was almost a worse situation because we had played more games [before the break]. We'll have just as much of an opportunity to do the same thing, especially having more games now."
So now is the time to make good on their New Year's resolutions once again. "You can look back at a handful of games, and we had a chance to win a lot of them," Curry said. "Our record could be completely different if we got a few pucks to go in when we needed them, but honestly there's nothing we can do about that now. It's behind us, and we're not going to focus on that. But it's good that we've been in contention in a lot of our games.
"We've played very well; we've played winnable hockey. We've just got to do a few extra things, whether it's getting the puck out in a timely manner or bearing down on a chance late. If we can do that in the second half, we can be one of the best teams in college hockey."
If all goes well, BU will once again refer to the spring semester as their better half.
BOSTON – On New Year's Day, Boston University first-year coach Albie O'Connell met with his team for the first time since the holiday break.
Well, not quite ALL of his players. Freshman Joel Farabee and sophomores Logan Cockerill and Shane Bowers were still out in British Columbia competing in the World Junior Championship. Farabee and Cockerill suited up for Team USA and will be coming home with silver medals while Nova Scotia native Bowers played for Canada.
Meanwhile, O'Connell pulled his players into the locker room to take stock before resuming play following a 6-8-2 start to the 2018-19 season. It had been a roller-coaster semester, as the Terriers began the year 0-4 before enjoying a four-game unbeaten streak… only to struggle through a 1-4-1 stretch followed by encouraging and decisive wins over UMass Lowell and Dartmouth before the holiday break.
"I think there were definitely some frustrations early, especially in the first weekend when we thought that we could've come away with a big win on the road [at Minnesota State]," O'Connell said. "There's just some learning for me as far as future scheduling. We played the U.S. team the night before we played Merrimack in their home opener. We played a track meet here, and they sat idle, but I can take that forward in putting together a schedule that puts the team in the best situation."
Somewhat similar to the first semester of last season, the Terriers have struggled to have all cylinders firing every night. When they've had great goaltending from junior netminder Jake Oettinger, sometimes the skaters have not been able to find the net. But BU also lost three games when they scored three goals but gave up at least four. Still, the trend has been largely positive.
"I think we made good strides. We were 0-4, and then we went through a good stretch, only to go through a stretch where we couldn't score. We caught a hot goalie overseas [as Union goalie Darion Hanson made 39 saves in the Friendship Four Final in Belfast], and then [Boston College goalie] Joe Woll was tremendous in this building, and he was tremendous the next night too, as was Oettinger. We've played some good hockey, but the consistency level of individual and team have to match up and connect. When that happens, we play really well."
As junior forward Patrick Curry pointed out, the team had some adjustments to make with a new head coach as well as seven new players on the roster this fall. "Obviously, it wasn't the way we wanted to start out," Curry said. "We have a very young team and a new coach. There's a lot of moving parts. It wasn't the greatest, but we went out a high note with two wins before the break."
So what did O'Connell have to say to the team on the first day of the New Year?
"I said that we've got a lot of hockey ahead of us. We play a lot of good teams in conference and non-conference: We play Quinnipiac, Harvard, and Arizona State, and we play UMass, Providence, and Northeastern—teams that are high in the PairWise Rankings. If we have good results, we can make some noise nationally. But we've got 68 days until the regular season ends, so we don't have a lot of time. We have to be alert and ready to go, on and off ice—developing good habits and making a commitment to each other and to the program to make this thing good."
BU co-captain Dante Fabbro echoed the sentiment. "There are just tendencies that we need to work on," said the defenseman, who enjoyed the opportunity to play in Switzerland on Canada's Spengler Cup team over the break. "From the start of the season to just before Christmas, you could definitely see our team starting to shape and mold into the team we wanted it to be. There are still a lot of things we want to work on, but we have all the right personnel in the locker room. It's up to us to execute and perform out there."
It's worth noting that the personnel have changed a bit over the break with one player leaving the program and another arriving. It was surprising news when freshman defenseman Dominic Vidoli decided to leave the team to play for Sioux City in the USHL. Coming to the Terriers right out of high school, Vidoli was adjusting to the college game but clearly had upside.
"It was disappointing that Dom left," O'Connell said. "Dom is a really good kid—high character, good student. He started off injured for the first two months of the season. When he came back, he played six of nine games and we liked the way he finished. He's a really good skater, and we expected him to push for more minutes, but he wanted to go to juniors and maybe end up transferring somewhere. It was kind of out of the blue."
What led the freshman to walk away from college hockey for the time being?
"I think the biggest thing was that he was hoping to be a top-four defenseman for us right away, and that's not easy for anyone," O'Connell said. "Patience is sometimes not on our side with athletes nowadays, but we certainly wish him luck."
On a more upbeat note, the team was delighted to bring in another goaltender in Vinnie Purpura. The native of Lemont, Illinois, had committed to the Terriers last spring, and O'Connell had hoped to have him for this season all along.
"We wanted to bring in Vinnie, but he wanted to go back to juniors and play one more year. But then he got traded, and the situation was a little foggy for him—splitting time when he was supposed to be getting all the games—typical junior hockey stuff. We were excited for him to come in during the break. It's good for the program to have stability in net."
As big as Oettinger is, Purpura is an inch taller… and actually a little older. He'll also be the first BU goalie since Rick DiPietro to catch with his right hand. "He's got some athleticism," O'Connell said. "He uses his body well—big kid, 6'6. He catches with the opposite hand. He's got the ability to make big saves, but he's pretty calm and cool in the net. He takes up a lot of space and plays good angles and has good rebound control. I wouldn't say that he's super-polished but pretty polished for his age."
O'Connell will allow Purpura some time to get comfortable in practice, but Terrier fans should expect his debut at some point in the coming weeks.
However, we are very unlikely to see more of freshman forward Jake Wise this season, as the third-round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks will be undergoing shoulder surgery later this month.
That said, there are high hopes that many Terriers are poised to break out for the second half. "The freshmen are kind of no longer freshmen," O'Connell said. "Hopefully they can make strides like Cockerill and Bowers did last year. We're looking for that."
O'Connnell cited graduate student Max Willman—a transfer from Brown this season—and forward Patrick Harper as two players to watch. Harper missed the last few months of the season due to illness last year, and he only seemed to enjoy a true return to form in his last game or two of the first half.
"Those two guys can singlehandedly change the offensive complexion of the team. Willman's had great chances, hit a lot of pipes, hasn't had a lot of puck luck but is getting more comfortable and getting more chances. Harps, once he scored that goal against Dartmouth, he just turned electric and was all of a sudden making plays. Had an assist and walked a guy, so it was just confidence with him. Once one would fall, we knew he'd gain confidence.
"Pat Curry and Ty Amonte have been able to elevate their games, as has Farabee in the second half of the semester. A couple of others can join the crowd."
"There's definitely a lot of guys who could stand out," Fabbro said. "You've got Joel Farabee, and I think [sophomore defenseman David] Farrance is going to make a huge jump this second half. With Harper getting his goal in the last game, you're going to start to see him break out in the second half, and Bowers as well. If all of those guys get better, it's going to be a heck of a last bit here."
So far the Terriers seem intent on revisiting the script of last season. They were 8-10-1 in the fall semester but ended up with an 11-2-3 run in their last 16 games before running the table to win the Hockey East Championship and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Curry acknowledged that there does seem to be a strong resemblance between the two seasons. "It does. Last year was almost a worse situation because we had played more games [before the break]. We'll have just as much of an opportunity to do the same thing, especially having more games now."
So now is the time to make good on their New Year's resolutions once again. "You can look back at a handful of games, and we had a chance to win a lot of them," Curry said. "Our record could be completely different if we got a few pucks to go in when we needed them, but honestly there's nothing we can do about that now. It's behind us, and we're not going to focus on that. But it's good that we've been in contention in a lot of our games.
"We've played very well; we've played winnable hockey. We've just got to do a few extra things, whether it's getting the puck out in a timely manner or bearing down on a chance late. If we can do that in the second half, we can be one of the best teams in college hockey."
If all goes well, BU will once again refer to the spring semester as their better half.
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