Men’s Hockey: Bruins Prospects Shine in Frozen Fenway Victory

By: Marisa Ingemi

It’s been a good week to be a fan of Boston University hockey, but from a future perspective, it might also be a good time to be a fan of the Boston Bruins. Both BU prospects on the Terrier roster had huge days at Frozen Fenway, combining for three goals in the victory.

Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, who picked up a hat trick on just Thursday against Union at Agganis, scored the first two goals of the game in a 5-3 win over UMass to now have eight on the year, just two less than his freshman total last season.

“He’s a little bit more agile, he’s a little bit more elusive,” Quinn said of JFK, “Slippery would be another good word to use. The thing he looks like he’s done is he’s picked up half a step of quickness.

“You want to talk about an elite player and an elite person, he’s as good as everyone thinks he is, and he’s probably a little bit better.”

The Terriers center was followed up by a goal from Charlie McAvoy, Boston’s first round pick in the 2016 draft coming off a gold medal at the WJC as an alternate captain. He picked up a rebound on a power play that extended the Terrier lead to 3-0 at the time against a UMass team that has struggled against Hockey East opponents.

“We don’t really focus too much on who the opponent is, it’s more what’s going on in our locker room,” McAvoy said. “We’ll approach it like we do every game and obviously respect them, but I think it’s going to be a big week of work in practice for us. I think we’ll go into that weekend feeling good.”

UMass would get on the board late that period and eventually add another to cut the lead to one in the third period, but led by the two Bruins prospects, BU never surrendered the lead.

“From our side, I think we just got to keep going along,” Forsbacka-Karlsson said. “You can’t really let a goal like that get in year head. Just take the next shift and keep going.”

For both prospects, they’re beginning to play some of their best hockey int their time at BU. McAvoy had an outstanding tournament and is starting to establish himself as one of the best defenders in the nation, while JFK’s break out in the past two contests bodes well for a Terriers team starting to turn a corner.