Friars top Terriers, 5-4

By Jake Seiner/DFP Staff

The No. 19 Boston University men’s hockey team couldn’t make a 2-0 first period lead stand, dropping a 5-4 contest to Providence College Friday night. The loss was BU’s second to the lowly Friars this season.

The Terriers (13-13-3, 10-10-2 Hockey East) struggled mightily to stay out of the penalty box, taking 12 penalties on the game to Providence’s six. The Friars (10-17-2, 5-14-2) went 3-for-12 on the man-up. BU finished 1-for-5 on the power play, including consecutive chances with PC a man down in the game’s last five minutes.

Whether BU coach Jack Parker thought the penalties were a result of his players’ effort or poor officiating is a matter of debate. His postgame press conference did little to help fans understand if their rage at the officials was justified in the coaches’ eyes.

“The story of that game was 12-6. That’s all I gotta say, boys,” Parker said after the game –– the only words he offered to the media.

Providence freshman Aaron Jamnick provided the game-winner for the Friars on the power play at 14:35 of the third period. Junior Kyle MacKinnon picked up three goals for the Friars, and sophomore Matt Bergland picked up PC’s other tally. Mark Fayne and Alex Velischek picked up a pair of assists each.

BU got goals from freshman Max Nicastro and juniors Colby Cohen, Nick Bonino and Kevin Shattenkirk. Bonino’s goal extended the assistant captain’s point streak to 10 games. Sophomore Chris Connolly added three assists in the losing effort.

The win was the Friars’ second in two games against BU this season.

The Terriers needed just two minutes to put themselves up on PC. Working from behind the net, BU senior Luke Popko flipped a pass to Nicastro just beyond the right faceoff dot. Nicastro put the puck and net, and the shot snuck through the pads of PC netminder Alex Beaudry (28 saves) to put BU up, 1-0.

About seven minutes later, BU extended the lead to two. After Vinny Saponari forced a turnover at center ice and held off a Friar defender to work the puck deep into the PC zone, the sophomore dropped a pass to C. Cohen at the left point. With traffic in front, C. Cohen ripped one of his patented slap shots upper-90 on Beaudry, and the netminder never saw the puck through the mass of bodies in front.

Providence responded in the second by scoring 2:14 into the frame. Junior Kyle MacKinnon picked up a goal after making a BU defender look foolish with a sweeping deke at the right faceoff dot and moving to the left hashes before smoking Kieran Millan (35 saves) back on the glove side.

The Terriers responded quickly with a goal of their own. After grabbing the rebound on a David Warsofsky point shot, Connolly flipped a pass behind the cage to Bonino, who netted the puck by Beaudry for his ninth goal of the year.

It wasn’t long before Providence cut the lead back to one, and again it was MacKinnon who netted the tally. The junior set himself up in front of the BU cage, and when Fayne fired a laser from center point, MacKinnon was ready to tip the puck by Millan to cut the BU lead to 3-2.

After failing to convert on its first six chances, the PC power play finally struck gold with just over 30 seconds left in the second. From center point, freshman Alex Velischek fired a shot wide that caromed off the boards behind the cage and skidded back out to the right post. Bergland had no difficulty getting to the puck and sneaking it by an unsuspecting Millan for his 10th tally of the year, tying the game at three goals apiece.

The Terriers took back the lead early in the third when Shattenkirk ripped a shot through traffic by Beaudry. The shot appeared to be tipped by a PC defender in front.

Four minutes later, the Providence power play re-tied the game when MacKinnon tipped in a rebound for the hat trick. The Walnut, Calif. native now has 12 goals on the year.

The loss drops the Terriers into a tie for fifth in Hockey East with the No. 18 University of Massachusetts-Amherst.