By Sam Dykstra/DFP Staff
DURHAM, N.H. – All undefeated streaks ultimately come to an end as the No. 2 Boston University men’s hockey team’s 10-game undefeated streak did Friday night against No. 7/8 University of New Hampshire at the Whittemore Center.
But it was the crushing fashion in which the Terriers (6-1-4, 4-1-4 Hockey East) fell to the Wildcats (6-1-3, 4-0-2 HE), 5-2, that had players, coaches and fans alike scratching their heads Friday night.
BU was dominated in all facets of the game by its northern host in their first matchup of the season. Perhaps the biggest deficiency came in the battle for shots, which the Terriers lost by an astound margin of 49-22, forcing junior goalie Kieran Millan to make a career-high 44 saves in his first losing effort of the 2010-11 season.
“That was the most lopsided 5-2 game I’ve ever seen,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “If it wasn’t for Kieran Millan, that game would have been 12-2. They looked like men playing with boys tonight. At least we kept them under 50 shots.”
The Terriers were the first to get on the board – on their first shot no less – as junior defenseman David Warsofsky snuck a laser past UNH netminder Matt DiGirolamo (20 saves) 2:26 into the contest.
Then, the Wildcats took over.
UNH scored four unanswered goals in their own building – including two off the stick of starting left winger Paul Thompson – to jump to a 4-1 lead. Warsofsky sniped another shot on a power play in the second to give the Terriers hope down 4-2, but a power-play goal by UNH forward Phil DeSimone extended the Wildcats’ lead back to its ultimate three-goal state.
Parker, who had previously mentioned that he believed his team had a solid week of practice leading into the series with UNH, placed the blame for BU’s poor performance Friday squarely on the fact that it did not look fully prepared to face a top-10 squad like UNH.
“In general, my team just wasn’t ready to play,” Parker said. “That shows up in losing faceoffs. That shows up in pucks bouncing off your stick. That shows up in not being able to get away from anybody in the corners. That shows up in not being able to stay with anybody in the defensive side of the corners. That shows up in a whole bunch of areas and looks like we just came up here and said, ‘I wonder what this is going to be’ instead of getting ready to play one of the best teams in the nation.”
Penalties certainly didn’t help BU either. The Terriers committed seven different penalties, all resulting in man advantages for the other side. None was bigger than sophomore defender Sean Escobedo’s 15 minutes into the first. Escobedo came crashing into DeSimone from behind and was instantly handed a game misconduct, leaving his team to go the rest of the way with just five defenseman.
Although BU forced UNH to go just 1-for-7 on the power play, the multiple penalties kept the Terriers from ever amounting enough of an attack that would keep the Wildcats on their heels. In fact, BU had just three power-play opportunities of its own and attempted just two shots on net during those advantages with one of those being Warsofsky’s goal in the second.
Despite the discrepancy in whistles for each side, don’t expect Parker to have any complaints with the way the referees did their job.
“I thought it was a well-refereed game,” Parker said. “We deserved all the penalties we got. We took some real stupid ones. Another reason they only went 1-for-7 on the power play was Kieran Millan because they had so many good chances.”
The Terriers will have to regroup going into Saturday’s rematch at Agganis Arena as they attempt to scrounge at least two points from the weekend’s home-and-home series, and if they’ve listened to their coach, they’ve already begun that process.
“I told them to get themselves ready and start now to get themselves ready because they didn’t get themselves ready coming up here,” Parker said.
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