Men’s Hockey: Terriers travel to Durham, take on Wildcats in conference play
By Brian Lombardo
The Terriers (1-4-1, 1-2-1 HE) will be on the road this Saturday in their only game of the weekend visiting the University of New Hampshire (1-4-1, 1-1-0 HE) in a clash of conference foes.
Like the Terriers, the Wildcats have struggled in the early going playing a difficult out of conference schedule starting the season with an 0-3-1 record. UNH lost both games of a weekend series to Colgate on the road and then played to a tie and lost to Colorado College in Colorado Springs.
Upon returning home to Durham the Wildcats began their conference play hosting UVM and UMASS. Beating Vermont 3-2 then losing to UMASS 5-1. With no common opponents on the season it’s tough to stack these two teams up against one another. With identical sub-500 records this weekends clash can bring some much needed confidence in the early going in conference play.
The Terriers are coming off their first victory of the year last Saturday when they beat Northeastern 4-1 at Agganis Arena. When asked, Terriers head coach Albie O’Connell said the team looked much improved from the first couple of games of the season.
“We played hungry offensively, the power play looked better. We shot the puck more. We played a lot more simple, it was a big key.” said coach O’Connell.
The win against No. 13/14 Northeastern was a convincing one for the Terriers. BU held the Huskies to 1-6 on the powerplay and played some big minutes on the kill in the third when the game was still close.
Coach O’Connell said he knew the Wildcats are better than their record shows, he said his team is going to have to come out strong and remember to stay focused to play a full 60-minute effort against UNH especially since the Terriers will be on the road.
“The two biggest areas that we’ve had tough times with are our decision making with the puck, turning it over, and the ability to manage the rush defensively.” said O’Connell.
Overall coach knew the season was still young and his message to the team in the locker room has remained the same for a few weeks: “keep trying to get better and build off last week.”