O'Connell returns to BU, joins BU coaching staff

Confirming reports posted here earlier this month, former BU captain Albie O’Connell is joining the Terrier coaching staff, replacing Buddy Powers.  Head Coach David Quinn told The Daily Free Press that O’Connell will be an assistant coach, but focused on recruiting where he has had an impressive track record in the past three seasons at Harvard and before that at Northeastern and Merrimack.

Quinn told the DFP that OConnell “has got his tentacles everywhere. There are really not a lot of places he hasn’t been or if he hasn’t been there he knows people who are there. He understands how important it is at our level to recruit. At the end of the day, that’s what it is about.”

O’Connell, who was a member of one of only four BU classes to win four Beanpot titles and also skated in two Frozen Fours, led the Terriers in scoring as a senior with 39 points and had a career total of 108 points (42G, 66A). After graduating from BU in 1999, he played in the ECHL and the British National League, where he led the Basingstoke Bisons in scoring with 74 points.

Quinn also revealed that former BU standout, U.S. Olympian and 17-season NHL forward Scott Young will assume the Director of Hockey Operation duties currently handled by Pertti Hassanen. Quinn said that Young, a first-round draft choice of the Whalers who won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins 1991 and Colorado in 1996, would be his “right-hand man in a lot of ways.”

● GoTerriers.com announcement and O’Connell bio

● Daily Free Press report

Looking back

The Los Angeles Times spoke with Long Beach, Calif., native Matt Nieto about facing the team he rooted for as a youth, the Kings, in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Women’s Team

The Terriers blueline for next season received a significant boost when defenseman Alexis Crossley revealed that she is transferring from New Hampshire to BU.  Crossley, who hails from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, played at Shattuck St. Mary’s prior to UNH, where she was a teammate of BU sophomore Rebecca Russo.

Last season, as a sophomore, she was an assistant captain and scored eight points in 25 games, missing time due to a broken collarbone. As a freshman, she was second on the Wildcats in scoring with a 7-17-24 scoring line and was named to Hockey East’s All-Rookie team.

● The New Hampshire report