Terriers deflate late in the second en route to blowout loss

By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Regardless of how the Terriers finished the first semester or how disappointing some of their results were, one thing they could take pride in was that they never rolled over and played dead. Even if they didn’t come back for the win or even a tie, they at least kept competing and didn’t quit.

In Saturday night’s 6-1 loss to Brown University, that wasn’t the case.

“It was a pretty good hockey game until they made it 2-1,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “Then we just kind of deflated. I thought our compete level was 80 percent of Brown’s compete level. They went after us and kept after us and won every battle.”

Echoing audio clips that became all too common last season, Parker couldn’t find an explanation for why his team didn’t fight back.

“I thought we competed like heck when we got behind in the past,” he said. “The beginning of the game, we were down and we came back. I have no idea what happened.”

Much like in their first encounter – a 4-4 tie on Nov. 27 at Agganis Arena – the Terriers and Bears looked evenly matched through the game’s first 30 minutes. But then BU nemesis Harry Zolnierczyk snuck a wraparound by Kieran Millan with 6:20 left in the second, and the floodgates opened.

Bobby Farnham made it 3-1 four minutes later when he tracked down his own rebound and chipped it in, and then David Brownschidle added another when he found a loose puck in the slot and whacked it into an empty net.

“I think it was much more obvious tonight that one team was playing real hard and was determined to make things work,” Parker said. “It was a lack of determination by one club and an overall team determination by the other club.”

Junior co-captain Chris Connolly, who returned to the lineup after missing five games with a broken finger, said the team lost its focus as the game went on because they were too concerned with what was happening after the whistle. The Terriers knew from their first meeting with Brown that it was going to be a physical game, but the Bears still succeeded in getting under their skin.

“I think we started getting a little frustrated with some of the play after the whistle and we got caught up in that,” Connolly said. “Throughout the year, we’ve been a pretty resilient team and able to come back from one or two goals no problem, so tonight was kind of odd for us.

“I think we put up 30-something shots, but they were all from the perimeter. We weren’t getting anything in close, in the area Coach likes to call the grade-A. We weren’t digging and battling like they were. They got some lucky chances and some lucky bounces, but they were creating those opportunities. And we weren’t.”

Connolly said the only thing the team can do is move on and not let themselves deflate again.

“I think the guys just to need to refocus and get back to the way we were playing at the beginning of the year,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do about this one right now. Hopefully we learn from that and in the future when we get down again, we can be that resilient team that comes back in the third and gets a goal or two back instead of deflating like we did tonight.”

Of course, getting off to a good start wouldn’t hurt either. The Terriers have given up the first goal in seven of their last nine games – one of many reasons they’ve gone 2-5-2 during that stretch. They’ll look to buck that trend Sunday when they face No. 12 University of Notre Dame, who lost to Minnesota State University 4-3 on Saturday, at 6 p.m. ET.