Men’s Hockey: Injuries Piling Up Before Well Timed Break

By: Marisa Ingemi

Sometimes, a long break is ill-timed, like when a team is on a win streak. While Boston University certainly isn’t struggling, a break with a growing list of injured isn’t a bad thing.

“It’s always tough to lose guys, especially like Clayton [Keller] and [Ryan] Cloonan,” said BU center Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson. “They’re really good players. Other guys always have to step up a little bit, and hopefully we’ll get those guys back in a little bit. Until then, there’s not much we can do but step up.”

BU will face Harvard tonight before taking a ten day hiatus from action where they will face a home and home series with Providence when they return. By then, the roster situation could look a lot more clear.

“With the injury situation, who can play and who can’t play, I’m not sure,” said head coach David Quinn. “We do have some injury issues, not that everyone else doesn’t, we’ve just gotta figure out what the deal is with injuries.”

John MacLeod will be back against the Crimson, Quinn confirmed, after missing the weekend series against UConn. Quinn also mentioned that Cloonan was “50-50” for returning, and Niklas Olssen and Clayton Keller were still a ways away.

That said, the Terriers have moved on to Harvard with the lineup that they have, and are looking for more productive from the bottom nine forwards.

“The other lines had some [shots] but obviously not to the same level that Greeway, JFK, and Harper did, but they had some,” Quinn said. “We’d like all of them to have 16 shots, but that would be a heck of a night. I thought for the most part the intent was good on Saturday night, we’ve just got to execute a little bit better.”

A huge night for the top line on Saturday night still produced no goals, and after the 4-0 loss, Quinn is still shaking things up with Connor LaCouvee earning the nod in net. While the injuries have mounted, the Terriers are still 5-2-1 in their previous eight contests and remain ranked seventh in the nation.

Harvard is just another one of those early season tests while BU tries to find its identity with a young roster lacking some of its top talent.

“We’ve got to build on the things we did will and add,” said Quinn. “Be a little bit more consistent. We’re around the net, we’re this close from doing exactly what we need to do. There’s got to be a little more purpose around the net.”