By Scott McLaughlin, Cary Betagole and Jake Seiner/DFP Staff

Note: Grades are based on how each player’s performance thus far compares to what our expectations were for him before the season, with an ‘A’ exceeding expectations, a ‘B’ meeting expectations and a ‘C’ or ‘D’ being below expectations. Players are listed in numerical order.

Eric Gryba: B

Parker has repeatedly singled out Gryba as the only returning defenseman who has met preseason expectations. He’s been BU’s most physical blue-liner, and he’s done the best job of keeping guys in front of him, getting in passing and shooting lanes, and not turning the puck over on breakouts. He also leads the team in penalty minutes, though.

Kevin Shattenkirk: C

The junior captain leads the Terriers in points (14) and has done a very good job jumping up on rushes and quarterbacking the power play. However, he has regressed defensively. He’s been closer to the freshman who struggled 1-on-1 than the sophomore who rarely let anyone beat him, and he’s been plagued by bad breakout passes that have been easily intercepted. Also, as captain, at least some of the blame for the team’s attitude and focus issues has to fall on his shoulders.

By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff

1) No. 5/6 Boston College (10-3-2, 7-3-2)

The Eagles ended the first semester on a seven-game unbeaten streak and have clearly emerged as the best team in Hockey East. Yes, they’re technically second in the standings, but the standings don’t tell the whole story. BC is currently tied for first in the conference in scoring offense (3.67 goals per game), is second in scoring defense (2.60 goals allowed per game) and is first on the penalty kill (85.9 percent). That offense is arguably the most balanced in the league. It’s tied for fifth nationally despite not having anyone rank in the top 50 in points. Eight BC forwards have recorded at least eight points, led by junior Brian Gibbons’ 16 (5 goals, 11 assists), and each member of the Eagles’ top three lines has a positive plus/minus rating.

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Parker

Opening statement

I thought we killed penalties well. Six penalties, three shots. Thought we played pretty well in the first period, made two huge mistakes, and literally gave them two goals. And then in the third period, we were afraid to lose, so we lost. And we were a little exhausted, too. We self-destructed in the second period with all the penalties we took. We wound up with Gryba in the box for 10 minutes plus his two. We wore out Shattenkirk and Warsofsky and Escobedo and Nicastro killing penalties. And they were really legless in the third, I thought. But that team came out and played hockey in the third wanting to win, and our team came out, was afraid they were going to lose, so we lost.

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Gryba on motivating the team tonight

First thing we did was make sure that guys’ confidence wasn’t completely depleted after last night. We did some good things last night, and we needed to build on it. It was a little easier because we were playing BC tonight, to get guys fired up and to get guys focused and what not. They know what’s on the line, so it was easier for guys to come ready to the rink to play.

Bonino on BU’s struggles in the third period

It’s tough. It was a good game back and forth, a good hockey game. The third period, the puck just jumped into the net for them. That goal they got to break the tie, Shatty’s fronting and it just hits the stick and goes slow into the net. It’s just one of those games where we have our chances and they have theirs, and they end up scoring. I thought we played hard and battled to the end, but the puck just wasn’t going in.

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

Opening statement

Let’s start by saying that I thought we got beat by a really good college hockey team tonight. I thought they played extremely well. They’re very quick, they’re tenacious and they did a great job in front of their net defending. I thought we played hard tonight. I was happy with my team’s effort. We got a point last night in a game and outshot the team badly, and I don’t think we played very well because of our lack of tenacity. I thought we played pretty hard tonight. We made a couple of real bad reads to give them a couple of goals, but in general, we got good goaltending, we did a good job of killing penalties, and I thought we moved the puck real well. We got 10 shots on the power play and got some real opportunities, but the better team won tonight. I was real impressed with Boston College, very impressed with BC.

By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

York

Opening statement

Terrific weekend for our club. We’ve been on a little run here for the last three weeks where I’ve seen some improvement in a lot of different areas, but this weekend I thought we were very solid defensively. Both goaltenders played well. Our young defensive corps, I thought, made some good decisions with the puck. They managed the puck very well. I think that was the key to last night’s game, but also tonight’s game. We got exceptional goaltending and we really managed the puck well and were on breakouts. BU’s got some strong forwards and they won some 1-on-1 battles low and came out, but Johnny was right there for them. But for the most part, I thought we played pretty well defensively in front of John. The 5-on-3 certainly was key. Philip Samuelsson broke his stick and became a passenger and Johnny made some great saves. We got some fortunate bounces there, too.

The 1-0 game for a while, it looked like we were going to have a lot of trouble notching one, but then we got the first on and felt a lot better about it. That first shift of the third period, Edwin Shea got his first career goal. I thought Cam [Atkinson] had the goal. It hit the far pipe and came back out. Joey [Whitney] got a big goal and played a very good game for us. That was kind of a key goal for us, that third goal, because BU was still in reach. He got a lot of mustard on that shot, a cannon on the short side I think. But again, we always feel fortunate to come out of Agganis with a couple points, and I feel very proud of the effort we had tonight from our club.

By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff

One of the many things Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker has become famous for over the years is his ability to find a major fault line where fans and media only see a small crack, or perhaps nothing at all.

Friday night’s postgame press conference following a 3-3 tie with the University of Vermont was the perfect example. Given the Terriers’ domination in shot attempts (81-42), shots on goal (40-24) and grade-A chances (21-5), the natural expectation would be that Parker would be satisfied with how his team played.

Instead, Parker expressed the exact opposite sentiment in his opening statement.

“On paper, it looks like it’s an OK game for us,” he said. “We attempt 81 shots to their 42. Shots on target are almost 2-to-1. But in reality, it’s just covering up that we are not a hungry hockey team. We think it’s OK to just come out here and see what’s gonna happen. Huge points on the line tonight, and we were so far away from being ready to play this game. It was brutal. It looks like it’s OK even in the first period because of the shot chart and the opportunities.

“But in general, we were taking shots, we might as well have been in a pickup game at the Boston Skating Club. My team does not know how to get ready for a game. They hope the other team will suck. Or they think they’re all set because we just got a win and a tie over the Thanksgiving break. We continually spot teams goals in the first period. So in general, it was a masked performance tonight. It looked OK. A couple of our big guns absolutely stunk the house up.

“It’s what we are. It’s who we are. We’re not a hungry team. It’s not that [expletive] important. It’s not important. They don’t wanna do what you have to do to get ready for a game.”

After expressing content with his team’s attitude and practices over the last two weeks, Parker said that he could see the lack of preparation, desire and urgency starting to creep into the clubhouse before Thursday’s practice.

“I thought yesterday, I could see it,” he said. “Practice wasn’t too bad, but I could see it before. Guys are lounging around in the lounge, hanging around, shooting the breeze, playing ping-pong. It’s a half hour before practice, and they’re not getting ready to play, they’re not getting ready to practice. They’re not getting their mind on the big weekend.”

Parker struggled to find an explanation for this phenomenon, but said he doesn’t think it has anything to do with guys not realizing the importance of this weekend.

“They’d have to be insane not to realize how important this game is for their season,” he said. “They’re in last place. They’d have to be absolutely from another planet not to realize how important these two games are this weekend. It’s one thing to know it’s important. It’s another to get ready and make sure you’re gonna win.”

Senior assistant captain and defenseman Eric Gryba, who scored his first goal of the season in the game, agreed with his coach’s assessment of the team’s readiness, but also failed to pinpoint a reason for it.

“We weren’t ready to play . . . We’re just not doing the simple, little things,” he said. “Maybe that’s attributed to being a young team. Maybe it falls on the captain’s shoulders. Maybe we’re not doing a good enough job. But we have to make sure we’re ready for tomorrow night’s game.

“We need more of a sense of urgency to start winning games. A tie is not acceptable anymore. We need to start getting two points in a night.”

Shuffled rotation

Sophomore netminder Grant Rollheiser started for the second straight game Friday night, but Parker said the goalie rotation between he and fellow sophomore Kieran Millan will continue. Assistant coach Mike Geragosian wanted more time to work with Millan on a few things, so the coaching staff decided not to rush him to get ready for Friday’s game, according to Parker. Millan will start Saturday night against arch-nemesis Boston College.

By Cary Betagole/DFP Staff

Offense: B+

BU’s offense registered a respectable three goals Friday, but the story was their near misses. Vermont sophomore goalie Rob Madore made 37 saves, but greatly benefited from a couple friendly bounces off the posts and crossbar. Midway through the third period, everyone inside “The Greek” thought junior defenseman Colby Cohen had netted the go-head goal on a wrister from the top of the slot. As it turned out, Cohen’s shot deflected off Madore, and then off the left post, resulting in a no-goal

Defense: B+

BU coach Jack Parker wasn’t pleased with the play of many players, but junior captain Kevin Shattenkirk and senior defenseman Eric Gryba were two he was happy with. Not to mention Gryba netted his first goal of the season, to the uproarious pleasure of the Terrier faithful. “I’ve got that monkey off my back for this season,” he joked.

Goaltending: B-

Sophomore goaltender Grant Rollheiser made 21 saves on 24 shots Friday. Vermont’s two first-period goals came within 34 seconds of each other. On the first, Rollie didn’t have much of a chance, getting beat off a pass low glove side after stepping up to meet an attack in the center of the crease. But on the second, a lapse in concentration may have helped Brayden Irwin's shot from the left circle make it through to the back of the net.

Special Teams: C+

BU was perfect on the penalty kill Friday night, as Vermont went 0-for-3. But considering Vermont’s 9.6-percent season success rate ranks next to last in Division I, that should have been expected. The Terriers were 1-for-6 on the power play—Corey Trivino executed 14:42 into the third to tie the game at three. But in the waning moments of regulation and into overtime, the Terriers couldn’t take advantage of a Wahsontiio Stacey hooking call and score the go-ahead goal.

X-Factor: Falling behind… again

After outshooting the University of Vermont in the first period, 13-6, Boston University saw its momentum disappear with the Catamounts' two-goal surge. The Terriers were forced into a familiar situation, faced with a comeback attempt for the fourth game in a row.

By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff

1) No. 9 University of Massachusetts-Amherst (9-3-0, 5-2-0)

The Minutemen are simply the best team in the conference. In addition to having the best overall winning percentage and best in-conference winning percentage, UMass is the only team to rank in the top three in Hockey East in scoring offense (T-1st), scoring defense (3rd), power-play percentage (1st) and penalty-kill percentage (3rd). That potent offense is led by junior winger James Marcou and sophomore center Casey Wellman, who currently rank first and second in the nation with 1.92 and 1.67 points per game, respectively.

2) No. 14/15 Boston College (6-3-2, 4-3-2)

After starting the season with a .500 record through their first five games, the Eagles have gone 4-1-1 in their last six and have climbed into a second-place tie in the Hockey East standings. Highlighting that stretch were back-to-back blowouts of Northeastern (5-1) and Vermont (7-1). The Eagles boast the conference’s third-best offense and fifth-best defense. Arguably their biggest strength, though, is their 86.4-percent penalty kill, which is three points better than any other Hockey East team.