Aram Minnetian Stands Out and Brady Berard Heat Up: Boston College Men’s Hockey Midweek Thoughts

The second half of the season is fully underway for the Boston College Men’s Hockey team, and there’s a whole lot to talk about based on what we’ve seen over the past few weeks. The Eagles have played five games since coming back from their month long break, dropping a strange game to Merrimack before picking up four straight wins to right the ship. BC is in a strong position both nationally and in Hockey East with a big series against BU coming up this weekend, so before we really get into what should be a great rivalry weekend, let’s take a look at some of what has really stood out over the past handful of games.

ARAM MINNETIAN TAKES A STEP

I thought that Aram Minnetian had a solid freshman season last year and got noticeably better as the season went on, but I did not expect him to take the kind of leap as a sophomore that we’ve seen from him. Minnetian has looked like the team’s best defenseman and one of their best players overall on a lot of nights, and the huge minutes that he has been playing on a nightly basis shows that the coaching staff clearly feels the same way.

If you ever want to see what a confident player looks like, just watch Minnetian for a few shifts in a row. On defense, he’s been great at anticipating passes in the neutral zone and killing off rushes before they even get going. He’s second on the team in blocks with 27 and he’s been a huge reason for the excellent team defense that we’ve seen from BC all season, both at five-on-five and on the penalty kill.

It’s offensively, though, where I think Minnetian’s game has really taken a step this year. Minneitan had nine points in 40 games as a freshman. He’s at eight already in 19 games this season, which is a nice improvement on its own, but just by watching him, you can see that the numbers don’t tell the full story.

His skating ability, which was considered a strength before he came to BC, really seems to have leveled up, and Minnetian constantly looks dangerous with the puck on his stick. He’s a one man breakout if he retrieves the puck in his own zone with some space and he’s always looking to jump up to join a rush. It doesn’t always work out for him – he got caught too deep on one play on Friday night’s game and Providence got a breakaway as a result – but he’s the kind of player who you want to take some chances to make some plays. It’s great to see him take this kind of jump from year one to year two and it makes for what should hopefully be an exciting next few months for him.

BRADY BERARD FINALLY GETS ON THE BOARD

I didn’t really have a ton of thoughts about Brady Berard coming into this season other than the fact that if he was doing his job well, I probably wouldn’t notice him all that much, The junior Providence transfer had just three goals and 11 points in total over his first two college seasons, so I didn’t have the loftiest of expectations at the start of the season.

And boy was I wrong. Berard has been an extremely useful player for the Eagles this season. He’s one of the first forwards over the board on the penalty kill and he’s been solid at even strength, which has helped BC’s fourth line as a whole look mostly pretty good. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen all year from Berard and I’m glad that he’s been able to prove my initial thoughts about him to be wrong.

Which is why it was so nice to see him finally get on the board with a goal in the team’s first game back against Merrimack. Berard’s shorthanded tally wasn’t just his first goal of the year, but it was his first point in general, which was a bit surprising considering how noticeable he was at times during the first half of the season. Not that you expect a fourth line player to be picking up a ton of points, but I would have assumed he at least picked up a cheap secondary assist somewhere. But no, the goal against Merrimack was the first time he showed up on the scoresheet at all throughout his first 17 games as an Eagle.

And then he followed it up with a goal in his each of his next two games as well. Hockey’s just a weird sport sometimes. Very happy for Berard finally potting a few, he’s been a really nice addition to the team and he deserved a couple of goals.

POWER PLAY MAKING STRIDES

One of the only real negatives to come out of the first half of the season was BC’s power play looking pretty bad for long stretches after it was such a strength last year. The Eagles man advantage was kept off the board in the loss to Merrimack, but they’ve scored a goal in each of their last four games and are now clicking at just a shade under 20 percent for the season. That’s certainly not amazing, but it’s a nice improvement from where they were not too long ago.

One interesting thing to track will be what they decide to do when Eamon Powell returns from injury. Powell had been the lone defenseman on the top unit before he got hurt, but Lukas Gustafsson has stepped into that role recently and has looked really good doing so. Gustafsson has a pair of power play assists over the last four games and has been making a case to stay in that spot even when BC’s captain returns to the lineup.

JACOB FOWLER CHECK IN

If you’ve been following this team for a while, you’ll remember the name Thatcher Demko. If you haven’t been, Demko was BC’s goalie for three seasons about a decade ago and (in my opinion) has a strong case for the best BC goalie of all time. Demko’s stat line in his final season was ridiculous; a .935 save percentage with 10 shutouts in 39 games and a 1.88 goals against average. He was so good in his junior year that he was named a Hobey Baker finalist. If you’re a bit newer, you know the name Spencer Knight, who put up two seasons with a save percentage north of .930 as an Eagle before going pro and had eight shutouts in his collegiate career that lasted 54 games.

Anyways, Jacob Fowler has played 20 games this season. He has five shutouts, a .934 save percentage, and a 1.70 goals against. Just to keep it fun, he’ll occasionally do this

If you’re a casual fan, a new fan, a diehard, or anything in between, I’m begging you to watch and appreciate what we’re seeing from Jacob Fowler – it’s not normal.