After a slow start, Boston University men’s hockey believes he’s on the right track again

“I think we’ve improved our differences and speed up,” said O’Connell, who has 14 players on his list selected from NHL teams. “Our defense has been much better. I think our pre-inspection has been much better.”

A healthy group also has a long way to go. Ahead Jay O’Brien returned to the lineup last week when he was out of eight matches due to injury. Hingham’s native player played all 16 matches in the shortened season 2020-21 as a second student and led the terrier with eight goals and eight assists. It didn’t take long to find his goal scoring, and he scored a goal and two assists over the weekend.

“It feels good,” said O’Brien, the Philadelphia Flyers’ first-round pick in 2018. “You never want to be watching from the stands, so it feels really good to come back when I just do what I can to try to help the team win.”

Senior striker Ty Amonte has also returned when he is out of the last two seasons with the exception of all but two games at the end of the season. Norwell’s native got a medical red shirt when he was away for the entire 2019-20 season.

“It’s great to see him there,” O’Connell said.

Terriers boast some serious size along the blue line Alex Vlasic (6-6), John Copeland (6-7) and Cade Webber (6-7). The McCarthy case skated with Vlasic in the first pair and have scored in the last four of five matches, including both games against UMass. Junior Domenick Fensore leads the team by seven assists and scores two goals.

“In the last 5-6 games, we haven’t given up very many shots.” said O’Connell. “If you can limit errors in games with puck management, I think we’re in the right place. We’ve defended pretty well, we’ve just given up on a few big games, and much of it is related to transfers.

Next up is the Home and Home series with Northeastern, which begins Friday night at the Agganis Arena. As a schedule error, the teams did not play last season and last encountered on March 7, 2020 in the regular season finals. Just a few days later, everyone’s season ended.

That marks the first encounter between teams in 622 days, the biggest difference between the two schools since 1946 (1,384 days).

The Huskies (8-4) have been kicked and were without attackers Sam Colangelo, Riley Hughes, and Dylan Jackson the last games, all of which are listed weekly. You Jackson also joined the group when he was injured against Lowell last weekend. It was not known if they would be available this weekend.

The next man to UMass

UMass (6-3-1) has also exploded and will leave for this weekend’s home-home series from New Hampshire (4-6-1) in the absence of four of their top six strikers.

“Next guys up. We have a good depth,” the coach said Greg Carvel. “These situations always give a chance to guys who think they’re not playing enough. Guess what? Now you better show it to me. That is the downside of such situations. Younger guys get experience and opportunities. ”

On the rise

UMass-Lowell rose to 15th place after winning Northeastern and Boston College last weekend, improving 6-1-2. Second year student Ben Meehan Walpole had four points in two games, including game winner Huskis in overtime, and was selected as Defender of the Week for Hockey East.

Senior Owen Savory stopped from 40 shots out of 43 to earn the conference goalkeeper of the week. His 1.31 goals against the average is number one in the league and second in the country. Next up, the River Hawks have a home and home series with UConn (8-5) starting Saturday afternoon in Hartford.

Follow Andrew Mahoney on Twitter @GlobeMahoney.