Power Surge

Patrick Harper and Dante Fabbro celebrate
after Harper's first period power play tally.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

If there was anything to take away from this weekend, it was the power play. A season ago, despite having a wealth of talent on the man advantage, BU struggled to find the net. The Terriers had the fourth-ranked power play in Hockey East at just a 16.9% conversation rate. By contrast, Northeastern scored 30.1% of the time.

In two games this weekend (yes, one was an exhibition game), BU went 6 for 15 (40%) on the man advantage. That included both non-empty net goals on Saturday against Union and four against PEI on Sunday.

This early in the season those numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt. Usually, the power play is ahead of the penalty kill early in the year. It takes time for defensive units to gel and for players to learn their defensive role.

“I thought we did a better job in the offensive zone, using the points, using the back of the net,” said Coach Quinn about his team’s power play on Saturday night. “We didn’t do that early on. The fact that they seem coachable and are actually listening is an encouraging sign. And again… it's September 30th.”

Dante Fabbro and Patrick Harper were two key components of the man advantage on Saturday. Early on, both Harper and Fabbro were on their forehand side, essentially taking away the one-time option.

“We had a little powwow between the second and third periods about getting on their offsides,” mentioned Quinn. “Those two guys are so good at making passes and shooting the puck. It creates much more of a scoring threat [when they are on their offsides].”

The powwow paid off immensely as Harper made a cross-ice pass through a tight seam to Fabbro at the near side dot, where the sophomore d-man one-timed home the eventual game-winner.

“I know last year we struggled [on the power play] a lot because we held on to the puck too long,” added Fabbro. “I think our mentality this year is to shoot the puck, find those seams and attack the rebounds. I think so far so good.”  

Attacking a loose rebound is exactly what Harper did to score his first of two on Saturday. From the side of the net with Union goalie Jake Kupski down and out, Harper chipped in the loose change to tie the game 1-1 in the first period.

Red Light District (Goals scored on the weekend)
Two goals:
    Pat Harper
    Brady Tkachuk
One goal
    Dante Fabbro
    Shane Bowers
    Patrick Curry
    Chad Krys
    Brandon Hickey
Totals: 10 goals for, 7 goals against. 

At the Polls 
There was no USCHO poll this week. BU is still ranked second in the nation behind Denver. Minnesota is third, Harvard is slotted fourth and Lowell rounds out the top five. Currently, there are five Hockey East schools in the top 20.

Hockey East Scoreboard 
Saturday (all exhibition games except BU)
St. Francis Xavier 1, at UConn 2
New Brunswick 2, at Boston College 4
Acadia 2, at Lowell 4
PEI 1, at Northeastern 9
Queen’s 0, at Umass 1
Union 1, at BU 4

Sunday
Acadia 1, at Maine 3
St. Francis Xavier 3 at New Hampshire 3 (OT)
Waterloo 1, at Vermont 6
PEI 5, at BU 5 (OT)