Losing two top stars would set most teams back a notch or two. Not with Boston University, where veteran coach Jack Parker's Terriers have begun rolling after hitting a rocky patch.

The true measure of any good coach is how he leads a team through adversity. Herb Brooks took an undertalented team plagued by a losing attitude and turned them into champions. Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma won the Jack Adams last season when he got his team to overcome the loss of its two biggest star and almost roar to an Atlantic Division title. Then there are coaches like Bruce Boudreau, who seemed more intent on making excuses for the Washington Capitals instead of finding solutions, or Randy Cunneyworth, who still can’t find a way to escape the drama in Montreal.

Just one day after Boston finished a weekend sweep of New Hampshire and Maine – giving them seven wins in eight games – leading scorer Corey Trivino was arrested after allegedly breaking into a female student’s dorm and sexually assaulting her. Parker wasted no time handing down his own judgment, dismissing Trivino from the team. Then, while he was at World Juniors, offensive sniper Charlie Coyle announced he wouldn’t be returning to the team for the spring semester. Coyle, a Minnesota Wild prospect who was believed to be in danger of being academically disqualified, fled to the QMJHL. And then the Terriers returned from Christmas break to be dumped right on the national stage, facing Notre Dame in the first nationally televised college hockey game on the Versus/NBC Sports Network.

Nothing like a few hundred thousand eyes to add scrutiny to an already crumbling foundation. The Terriers went out and were just dominated by the Irish, falling 5-2 in a game that probably wasn't that close.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh, no, my team thinks it’s not very good anymore,” Parker told NESN in a later interview.  

As Col. Potter of "M*A*S*H" fame would say, horse hockey!

The losses of Trivino and Coyle were just a blip on the screen for a team as knee-deep in talent as the one Parker gets to stand behind. As of Friday, Dallas Stars prospect Alex Chiasson, Chicago Blackhawks second-rounder Adam Clendening and San Jose Sharks draftee Matt Nieto were all averaging a point per game. Goalie Kieran Millan, a Colorado Avalanche prospect, is building a fourth straight solid year in Beantown with a 2.71 goals-against average and .918 save percentage. His backup, Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Grant Rollheiser, is undefeated in two starts. So the cupboard isn’t exactly bare.

Since the calendar flipped following that Notre Dame game, the Terriers have been unstoppable, disposing of red-hot Merrimack and Northeastern. Friday’s 6-1 win over Providence ran BU’s winning streak to four games. As a result, Boston has leapfrogged early-season favorites Boston College and Merrimack to snag the top spot in the Hockey East standings.

“We’ve come together nicely as a team,” Parker told the Boston Herald. "In general, we’re a pretty well-balanced team right now where team is the most important thing.”

That’s a lesson Parker picked up long before his 39^th year of coaching the Terriers. He has the ear of the team now, and soon if not already, the departures of Trivino and Coyle will be seen not as a hurdle the Terriers had to clear, but an opportunity for the rest of them to shine.

NOTES:

Highly touted North Dakota freshman Rocco Grimaldi will miss the rest of the season after having knee surgery. Grimaldi was ranked highly by NHL Central Scouting before falling to the second round, where the Florida Panthers took him in last summer’s draft. Grimaldi already was playing limited time for the Sioux due to the lingering issues with his knee, which was injured by taking a slapshot off his kneecap while wearing a cracked knee pad. … After breaking his wrist in a game against North Dakota last weekend, Minnesota forward Nick Larson will be out 4-6 weeks. Larson had just three goals and an assist in 21 games for the Gophers. … UMass-Lowell has made a midseason roster addition. Russian player Dimitry Sinitsyn, who had to return to Russia before playing in the USHL when his student visa expired, has now cleared all prerequisites and is enrolled for the spring semester. At just 17 years of age, Sinitsyn will become the youngest player in Division I hockey this season. …  Yale coach Keith Allain was reprimanded by the ECAC for lashing out at officials after the Bulldogs’ 5-4 overtime loss to Clarkson. As expected, no comment was available from Yale.

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