Jerry York is hoping that, like a fine wine, his Boston College men’s hockey team will get better with time.<\/p>\n
Boston College — the nation’s youngest team, with an average age of 20 years and 140 days — continued to be hampered by its youth last weekend, dropping two games to the University of Maine. <\/p>\n
Half of the Eagles’ 24 players were born in or after 1986.<\/p>\n
The Eagles made some costly mistakes in the weekend’s first game, giving up three goals in the opening frame.<\/p>\n
For the team’s defense — comprised of five underclassmen (freshmen Anthony Aiello, Tim Filangieri, and Brett Motherwell, and sophomores Mike Brennan and Brian O’Hanley) and senior captain Peter Harrold – every game brings a new lesson. <\/p>\n
The blue line appeared to lack confidence on Friday, playing tentatively and failing to take control of their zone.<\/p>\n
York moved O’Hanley back to defense last weekend, hoping that the sophomore will assist Brennan and Harrold in bringing some much needed experience to the blue line. <\/p>\n
As a result, freshman defender Tim Kunes did not dress for the series.<\/p>\n
“We need [O’Hanley] back there,” he said. “I think with the development of [forwards] Joey Adams and Andrew Orpik, we can allow O’Hanley to go back on defense.”<\/p>\n
Most of the team doesn’t know what to expect from games in the Alfond Arena or from contests like the Beanpot.<\/p>\n
“With all the freshmen we’ve got, we’ve been working on [defense],” Cory Schneider told USCHO after last Monday’s Beanpot. “We’re going to give up more shots with kids playing in a big game like this.<\/p>\n
“All it takes is one, and one made the difference tonight,” he continued. <\/p>\n
“Hopefully we can tighten it up a little bit more and limit the shots the rest of the way.”<\/p>\n
The holes weren’t patched up between the Beanpot and Friday night, though.<\/p>\n
“We were just watching,” York said of his team’s first period play, “And you can’t play and watch.”<\/p>\n
Maine outshot BC a startling 40 to 21 in Friday’s game. <\/p>\n
The opening frame alone saw 17 shots from the Black Bears, compared to the Eagles’ three.<\/p>\n
Though BC brought more energy to its second and third period play, Maine walked away with the win.<\/p>\n
And though the Eagles put up much more of a fight Saturday, the Black Bears again walked away with a W to sweep the series.<\/p>\n
“We played way different [on Saturday] than we did [on Friday], even though the score was basically the same,” said York. “I told our players, ‘We may have found ourselves a team down the stretch here.'”<\/p>\n
The team needs conditioning, though, if it hopes to contend for championships.<\/p>\n
“It’s a process that we’re going through,” York said of showing his 10 freshmen the ropes.<\/p>\n
Developing his offense remains one of York’s chief concerns.<\/p>\n
While BC’s top line of left wing Chris Collins, center Brian Boyle, and right wing Stephen Gionta continues to be a powerhouse, the three other shifts (made up of all freshmen and sophomores, save for junior Joe Rooney) aren’t living up to their potential.<\/p>\n
The Collins-Boyle-Gionta line has combined for 56 points (24 goals, 32 assists) in the last 10 games.<\/p>\n
“We need more balanced scoring, for sure,” said York. “[We need to be] a little more accurate, a little quicker. Goal scorers find ways to beat good goaltenders.”<\/p>\n
The offense struggled to find ways to beat Maine freshman goalie Ben Bishop over the weekend.<\/p>\n
“He’s an excellent goaltender,” York continued, “And there’s a lot of those guys in our league, so you’ve got to find a way to get red lamps on them.”<\/p>\n
Harrold agreed, adding that he was happy with Saturday’s boost on both offense and defense.<\/p>\n
“It’s tough to lose two games on the weekend,” he said. “We didn’t do what we came up here to do, but we played well. We played with enthusiasm. That’s a bonus and we’ll try to carry that through to the next weekend.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jerry York is hoping that, like a fine wine, his Boston College men’s hockey team will get better with time. Boston College — the nation’s youngest team, with an average age of 20 years and 140 days — continued to be hampered by its youth last weekend, dropping two games to the University of Maine. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n