Men’s Hockey: Minnesota State spoils O’Connell’s coaching debut

By: Brady Gardner

Traveling west for the official start to their regular season against no. 11 Minnesota State (1-0-0), no. 8/9 Boston University (0-1-0) put up a valiant effort against the Mavericks, but ultimately fell short, by a score of 4-3. It was the debut for BU’s first-year head coach Albie O’Connell, marking his first game behind the bench in competitive play following the departure of now-New York Rangers head coach Dan Quinn.

Parker Tuomie put the Mavericks on the board just past the halfway point of the first period, but the Terriers knotted up the score with just four seconds left in the first frame by way of a Dante Fabbro slapshot from distance.

The Terriers took the lead early in the second period when Patrick Curry put home a feed from David Farrance, but once again, the game became even just minutes later through a deflected shot that was credited to MSU’s Dallas Gerads.

BU retook the lead just over halfway through the second period when captain Bobo Carpenter converted one on the powerplay, the goal was assisted by Farrance, his second of the night.

“It was a big goal, and it’s nice to break your first goal on the power play so you get some confidence with it”, remarked O’Connell about the powerplay marker.

In the waning minutes of the second period, Parker Tuomie tallied his second of the game to bring the game level heading into the last 20 minutes.

In the final period of play, Dallas Gerads found his name on the scoresheet once again, scoring on a wrap-around that would prove to be the game-winner.

Allowing four goals would not have been the result junior netminder Jaker Oettinger was looking for, but according to O’Connell, the defensive difficulties began from the front. O’Connell said, “we left our [defense] a little high and dry at times.”

On a more positive note, BU’s penalty killing unit impressed all night, keeping the Mavericks off the scoreboard on all seven opportunities with the man advantage, including a five minute major.

Reflecting on his team’s success on the penalty kill, O’Connell said, “I think a lot of the penalty kill had to do with Jake [Oettinger] in the first period… we were a little bit disjointed, but as the game went on I thought we fore-checked well, I thought our face-off execution was pretty good, and in the zone we were good.”

The Terriers will look to split the weekend series with the Mavericks, returning to the ice at Minnesota State on Saturday, October 13 at 8pm ET.