By Jake Seiner/DFP Staff
Two nights, two slow starts, but two very different outcomes –– that’s the story Friday for the No. 13 Boston University men’s hockey team.
Nobody noticed quicker than Northeastern University coach Greg Cronin that BU Friday would be very different than BU on Thursday, when the Huskies handed the Terriers a 4-2 defeat.
“I thought BU played with a lot of snap tonight,” the coach said following a 5-2 loss to the Terriers (19-11-8) Friday.
The BU win forces this Hockey East quarterfinal series into a deciding Game Three, to be played Sunday at 7 p.m. at Agganis Arena.
According to BU coach Jack Parker, that snap Cronin mentioned had been missing, especially at the beginning of games, lately for BU.
Tonight, in the minutes following the opening faceoff, it wasn’t a lack of emotion that put the Terriers in an early hole, but perhaps a bit too much.
The Terriers fell into an early 1-0 hole when consecutive BU penalties left NU (13-5-8) with 1:19 of power-play time, and the Huskies converted for a Brodie Reid goal 3:25 into the contest.
“I think we came out too jacked up,” BU senior Joe Pereira (2 goals) said. “We weathered the storm and refocused, and after they got that goal, we came back and scored.”
Ryan Ruikka came up with that score-knotting tally. Ruikka converted from near the right hashes, collecting a deflected pass from winger Alex Chiasson and ripping the puck by NU goalie Chris Rawlings. The goal was Ruikka’s second in two nights, and third of the season.
The score reversed the flow of play in drastic fashion. At one point, the Huskies held a drastic 9-1 shot advantage over the Terriers. By the end of the period, the NU advantage was down to 16-12, but those weren’t they eye-popping numbers on the scoreboard.
The Ruikka goal was the first of three first-period BU scores, marking the first time this season BU has scored three goals in the first frame of any game.
BU took the lead on a power-play tally by Matt Nieto three minutes later. Nieto ripped home the go-ahead score off a pass from junior Chris Connolly.
Four minutes later, BU scored its third goal of the period –– marking its first three goal period of the season. For the second straight night, it was BU’s fourth line with a first-period lamp lighting. Junior Kevin Gilroy did the honors, skating from behind the cage and spinning a snipe by Rawlings top shelf.
“I have to give credit to my fourth line for both nights,” Parker said. “They’ve really played hard. The last little while here, they’ve really been playing really hard.”
“You need those third and fourth line players to play big,” Pereira, himself a former fourth-line grinder, said. “That’s how you win hockey games in the playoffs.”
NU coach Greg Cronin pulled Rawlings in favor of freshman Clay Witt after Gilroy’s tally.
The squads played even hockey through the first 19:30 of the second period, but NU cut the lead to one with 25.2 seconds left. Freshman Jamie Oleksiak netted the goal, taking a point shot that left Kieran Millan looking like Bob Uecker trying to catch a Phil Niekro knuckleball. Millan tried to catch the floater, but whiffed with the glove, and gave Oleksiak his fourth goal of the year.
With 8:23 to play, senior Joe Pereira wrapped around a backhand attempt and then stuffed home the rebound by Witt. The goal extended BU’s lead to 4-2.
Pereira scored again on an empty net with 34.6 seconds to play, ensuring the senior at least one more game at Agganis Arena.
That final home game will come Sunday night, and will mark the fifth straight Hockey East quarterfinal series BU has taken to a deciding third game, and sixth in seven years.
“It’s why they’re cutting my chest open,” Parker said, referring to the heart surgery he underwent last summer.
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