Men's Ice Hockey Readies for 98th Season

Photo by: Matt Woolverton

October 3, 2019 | Men's Ice Hockey

2019-20 Prospectus

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BOSTON - October is here and the Boston University men's ice hockey team is gearing up for its 98th season of play.

Second-year head coach Albie O'Connell has welcomed 13 newcomers to the program after a 2018-19 season that saw the Terriers come up an overtime goal short of the Hockey East championship game. A heralded 11-member freshman class has joined the roster in addition to a pair of graduate transfers. BU returns seven players who tallied 10 or more points last season and that group includes three defensemen.

Senior Patrick Curry has taken over the captaincy with classmate Patrick Harper and juniors Logan Cockerill and Cam Crotty all earning an 'A' on their jersey. Curry is the leading returner in both points (26) and goals (13) while Harper has the most career points with 78 (27g, 51a).

Cockerill has been a key member of the Terriers' lineup since he arrived and Crotty established himself as one of the top blueliners in Hockey East.

"We're hungry to play," said O'Connell. "The guys are in really good shape and had a good summer. The leadership group has done a good job. We're ready to go for Saturday [at Union for the season opener]."

In addition to the freshman class, which had six members selected in the 2019 NHL Draft, the team brought in some experience with graduate transfers in the way of forward Alex Brink and goaltender Sam Tucker, who were ECAC rivals at Brown and Yale, respectively. Many of the newcomers will fill important roles this season so getting them acclimated as quickly as possible was the team's top priority.

"The older guys have been trying to get them comfortable," said O'Connell. "From day one in the summer, they welcomed them, and that has transitioned nicely into the fall. Curry and the captains have done a really good job of making them feel part of the team right away. With 13 new guys, we need them to hit the ground running."

As for other returning forwards, the team suffered a tough blow in September when junior Ty Amonte suffered a season-ending injury. Amonte exhibited a knack for big goals over his first two seasons and was expected to shoulder more of the scoring load as an upperclassman. Sophomores Jack DeBoer and Matthew Quercia were regulars in the lineup as freshmen while classmate Jake Wise is healthy after missing the majority of his rookie season due to injury. Other than Curry, no current Terrier has played in more games than senior Gabriel Chabot, who has played a key bottom-six role, and junior Jake Witkowski adds key depth up front.

The team welcomes six freshman forwards to the mix and it's possible that there will be at least one on each of the lines on game nights. Jamie Armstrong, Markus Boguslavsky, Robert Mastrosimone, Ethan Phillips, Sam Stevens and Trevor Zegras have all exhibited the ability to shine at the college level and many of them will see significant ice time.

On the blue line, Crotty and fellow juniors David Farrance and Kasper Kotkansalo will be leading the way. All three have at least 68 games under their belt and have the ability to make an impact on both ends of the ice. Farrance had 20 points as a sophomore including 16 assists, which is the most of any returning Terrier. Crotty was invited to Canada's World Junior camp last season and of all the returning d-men in Hockey East, no one had more assists in conference play last season than Kotkansalo.

Sophomore Hugo Blixt played in all but one game as a sophomore, giving the Terriers four experienced blueliners in addition to freshmen John Copeland, Sean Driscoll, Domenick Fensore, Case McCarthy and Alex Vlasic.

"As we enter the season, we're focused most on being systematically sound," said O'Connell. "You're never going to be perfect early, but we need to make sure we're ready from the defensive side of the puck. The offense will take care of itself as long as there is a focus on playing in all three zones. It looks like we're going to have a good d-corps. Really good skating and depth there."

In goal, the Terriers will need to fill the void left by three-year starter Jake Oettinger. Sophomore Vinnie Purpura joined the team midway through the 2018-19 season and saw time in four games, including two starts. Tucker has 51 starts under his belt as a Bulldog and was a 2019 All-Ivy honoree after posting a .917 save percentage. Senior Nico Lynch rounds out the group.

"We're looking forward to some healthy competition in goal," said O'Connell. "Sam's had a solid career thus far and Vinnie's flashed some potential. They are different types of goalies and we think both can be successful this season."

The Terriers will officially kick off the NCAA men's season on Saturday when they visit Union for a 4 p.m. start. The game will be on ESPN+.

RETURNING PLAYERS - 2018-19 Stats (Hockey East Stats in dark gray/Career Stats in light gray)

##	Player	POS	YR	GP	G	A	PTS	PEN/MIN	PP	SH	GW	+/-	SOG	GP	G	A	PTS	PEN/MIN	PP	SH	GW	+/-	SOG	GP	G	A	PTS
11	Patrick Curry	F	SR	38	13	13	26	16/32	3	1	0	+2	96	24	7	8	15	9/18	2	1	0	-3	60	107	20	27	47
21	Patrick Harper	F	SR	38	6	14	20	3/6	0	0	1	+2	50	24	3	6	9	3/6	0	0	0	E	29	96	27	51	78
4	David Farrance	D	JR	37	4	16	20	4/19	2	0	1	E	64	23	4	7	11	3/17	2	0	1	+1	42	68	7	22	29
3	Ty Amonte	F	JR	37	8	8	16	15/41	1	2	3	-6	56	24	4	5	9	9/18	0	1	3	-4	37	73	14	11	25
9	Logan Cockerill	F	JR	37	4	7	11	11/33	0	1	1	+1	55	24	4	4	8	7/25	0	1	1	+2	41	74	12	19	31
26	Kasper Kotkansalo	D	JR	38	0	11	11	8/16	0	0	0	-8	34	24	0	10	10	5/10	0	0	0	+2	20	78	2	15	17
5	Cam Crotty	D	JR	38	5	5	10	11/33	1	0	0	+2	62	24	2	3	5	7/25	0	0	0	-6	40	72	6	12	18
19	Jack DeBoer	F	SO	30	1	4	5	2/4	0	0	0	-1	18	18	1	0	1	1/2	0	0	0	-5	13	30	1	4	5
20	Matthew Quercia	F	SO	36	1	1	2	14/28	0	0	0	-3	30	23	0	0	0	12/24	0	0	0	-2	22	36	1	1	2
10	Gabriel Chabot	F	SR	38	1	1	2	3/6	0	0	0	-7	21	24	0	0	0	2/4	0	0	0	-4	13	101	5	9	14
12	Jake Wise	F	SO	12	0	2	2		0	0	0	-7	18	10	0	2	2		0	0	0	-6	17	12	0	2	2
33	Hugo Blixt	D	SO	37	0	2	2	6/12	0	0	0	-2	11	23	0	2	2	2/4	0	0	0	-1	6	37	0	2	2
29	Vinnie Purpura	G	SO	4	0	0	0		0	0	0	-6	0	2	0	0	0		0	0	0	-2	0	4	0	0	0
22	Jake Witkowski	F	JR	14	0	0	0		0	0	0	-4	10	9	0	0	0		0	0	0	-2	4	22	0	2	2