By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — The No. 10/11 Boston University men’s hockey failed to hold onto a two-goal third-period lead and had to settle for a 3-3 tie against the No. 12 University of Notre Dame in Sunday’s Shillelagh Tournament consolation game. The Fighting Irish won the shootout to take third place in the tournament, but the game will go down as a tie for NCAA purposes.
Through two periods, it looked like the game was going to be a much needed bounce-back win for the Terriers (8-5-6), who suffered a 6-1 shellacking at the hands of Brown University in Saturday’s tournament opener. Despite being outshot 21-9 through two frames, the Terriers held a 3-1 lead heading into the third.
“I was really pleased that we competed and we played harder and we played a lot smarter,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “We were the opposite. We outshot the team the other night, badly, and lost. Tonight, we got outshot, but played pretty hard.”
But 6:09 into the third, Notre Dame (12-7-3) freshman forward T.J. Tynan centered a pass for classmate Anders Lee on a 2-on-1, and Lee was able to poke it past junior goalie Kieran Millan (39 saves) to cut the lead to one.
The Fighting Irish continued to pour it on as the period progressed, ultimately outshooting BU 20-7 in the third. Led by some big saves from Millan, the Terriers weathered the storm, though, and even earned a power play with 3:55 to go that gave them a chance to ice the game.
Instead, a turnover at the offensive blue line led to a 3-on-2 shorthanded rush for Notre Dame that ended with sophomore defenseman Sam Calabrese rifling a one-timer into the back of the net to tie the game.
“We made a couple mistakes on backchecks and a bad turnover on the power play,” Parker said. “We should’ve won that game, because of where we had it at the end. Maybe they should’ve won it because they had more territorial advantage, but we should’ve won that game because it’s 3-2 us late in the game and we’re on a power play. We didn’t take care of the puck.”
The Terriers took a 1-0 lead 6:41 into the game, marking just the third time in their last 10 games that they’ve scored the game’s first goal. Sophomore defenseman Sean Escobedo threw a shot on net that senior forward Joe Pereira tipped over the shoulder of sophomore goalie Mike Johnson (16 saves) for his team-leading eighth goal.
The Fighting Irish knotted the game with 4:15 left in the first when Lee fed Tynan on a 2-on-1 for a one-timer that Millan had no chance of stopping. The goal tied Tynan with Denver’s Jason Zucker for the rookie goal-scoring lead with 14.
Unlike Saturday when BU struggled to respond to Brown’s goals, the Terriers answered right back. Just 46 seconds after Tynan’s tally, freshman defenseman Adam Clendening gathered a rebound in the right circle and flicked a shot past Johnson for his second collegiate goal.
Freshman forward Justin Courtnall got the Sears Centre Arena on its feet and gave BU some more momentum midway through the second when he leveled senior forward Ryan Guentzel through the glass in the right corner of BU’s zone. Less than three minutes after a 15-minute delay to replace the glass, junior forward Chris Connolly upped BU’s lead to 3-1 when he found a loose puck in the slot and got just enough on the shot to flip it over Johnson and into the cage.
“The delay kind of helped us,” Parker said. “We were getting a little tired and legless, so I thought it was good for us. Then we came out and got a goal to boot.”
The Terriers had chances to net an insurance marker, including the power play late in the third and a point-blank chance for freshman forward Sahir Gill midway through the third that Johnson denied with an incredible sprawling glove save, but Notre Dame’s relentless pressure as the game wore on ultimately broke BU.
“All things considered,” Parker said, “with the bodies we had and the bodies we had out and what happened to us with the way we didn’t compete last night, the fact that we kept working hard tonight was real good.”
Glass suspended indefinitely for missing team meetings
Junior forward Andrew Glass, who did not make the trip with the team, has been suspended indefinitely for “missing meetings and being late,” Parker said.
Chiasson misses game with bruised knee, expected back next weekend
Sophomore forward Alex Chiasson, BU’s leading scorer, missed Sunday’s game with a left knee contusion. Chiasson bruised the knee in the first period of Saturday’s loss to Brown, and Parker said it got progressively worse as the game went on, ultimately forcing him to leave the game for good in the third. Parker said Chiasson could barely walk Sunday morning, but that he shouldn’t need to do anything other than ice it and give it time to heal. Parker said it’s “nothing serious” and that he expects Chiasson to be able to play next Sunday at the University of Vermont.
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