By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff
For the first time in nine seasons, the No. 13 Boston University men’s hockey team has failed to advance to the semifinals of the Hockey East tournament. The Terriers fell to Northeastern University, 5-4, in Sunday night’s decisive quarterfinals Game Three.
“I thought the team that competed the hardest all the time won this game,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “I thought Northeastern played extremely well from start to finish. I thought they played extremely well from start to finish in all three games. The better team moved on.”
The Huskies led for the entire game, and with 3:14 left in the third, they appeared to have clinched the series with an empty net goal from Wade MacLeod. But BU would not go down without a fight. With 1:22 remaining in the game, sophomore forward Justin Courtnall brought the Terriers back within two when he slipped a puck between Northeastern goaltender Chris Rawlings and the left post. Then, sophomore forward Wade Megan brought the Terriers back to a one-goal deficit with a power play goal with 13.4 ticks left on the clock.
Despite the desperate comeback, however, it was too little, too late for the Terriers.
BU did not start the game as well as it finished. For the third time in the series, Northeastern scored first. Freshman forward Cody Ferriero capitalized on the power play when his shot from the hash marks of the left circle beat Millan high.
The Huskies doubled their lead 2:10 later when Brodie Reid marched in on a 4-on-2 and cut across the zone with Warsofsky in front of him. Reid ripped a shot from the high slot that beat both Warsofsky and Millan high glove-side.
“I thought we were very, very tentative to start the game,” Parker said. “I thought we were trying not to lose. A team that’s not really sure of themselves shows that, and I don’t think we’ve been sure of ourselves lately.”
After falling into the 2-0 hole, the Terriers cut the lead in half at 15:27 in the first period on a power play. Freshman defenseman Garrett Noonan sent a pass from the lower right circle up to freshman defenseman Adam Clendening at the point. Clendening fired toward the net, and freshman forward Matt Nieto tipped the puck past Rawlings.
But the Terriers would end the first period with a penalty on sophomore forward Alex Chiasson for hitting-from-behind. BU had to enter the second period with 24 seconds still remaining on the penalty kill. They took three more penalties compared to Northeastern’s one through the rest of the second period, and so the Terriers were unable to score all period.
With their backs against the walls, the Terriers came out on fire in the third period. They controlled puck possession through the period and opened the frame outshooting the Huskies, 5-0.
It was the Huskies, however, who struck first. Chiasson was sent to the box on a hitting from behind call, and Northeastern capitalized. With 13:12 remaining in the third, Reid blasted a shot from the blue line that Steve Silva tipped neatly into the space between Millan’s shoulder and the crossbar to put the Huskies up 3-1.
The goal was the only score for the Huskies that Parker said he thought Millan could possibly have had a chance to stop.
“To say he could have been better on that because he has been great for us all year, I don’t think we lost the game because he didn’t play well,” Parker said. “I thought he played well, real well. I thought we went out to lunch a few times on coverage in front of him.”
At 11:11, Chiasson got the goal back for the Terriers when he capitalized on the power play. Chiasson dug a puck out from underneath a pile of bodies and flipped it on his backhand past Rawlings. The goal came after a strong shift from BU where the Terriers simply refused to let Northeastern clear the puck.
But the Huskies would not go down and would not give the Terriers any remnant of hope. Reid scored his second goal of the night with 5:21 remaining when he stood undetected in the slot and simply roofed a shot unmolested past Millan, giving the Huskies a 4-2 lead.
In the end, BU’s Hockey East season came to a disappointing finish. This season’s squad will go down in the history books as a team that finished last in the Beanpot, failed to beat Boston College and lost in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East tournament.
Barring a still possible though unlikely NCAA berth, the loss also spells the end of both senior co-captain Joe Pereira and senior goaltender Adam Kraus’s careers.
“It’s going to be really hard to replace a guy like Joe, obviously,” junior co-captain Chris Connolly said. “He’s the epitome of a BU hockey player. He’s passionate and he loves this program more than anybody, so it’s really tough to see him go out on this note. As far as Adam, he couldn’t have been a better teammate. He’s been more than supportive the whole way and he’s just a great locker room guy.”
While Pereira will not be returning on the ice at Agganis next season, he still left his team with some advice for next season.
“It stings, it hurts, but there are a lot of good players coming back next year,” Pereira said. “I told them to remember how it feels and go win it all next year.”
Nearly nearly nearly an epic comeback. Next year.
What are the chances BU makes the NCAA tournament?
Zero
There is still a chance according to chn if Colorado college loses tonight and Dartmouth loses next weekend
What was being said by the coaches during the handshake mêlée?
Who was it that Clendening cheapshoted after the end of the game?
I hope Warso leaves. He offers nothing to the team except bad defense.
I just don’t like the Terrier’s defense. Half of them would be better off playing offense since that’s all they’re really concerned about. Too many odd man rushes occur due to a BU defenseman trying to press forward (poorly) and leaving his defensive partner stuck on the losing end of a 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 rush
so sad that our d is not good, our forwards for the most part look like a junior team most of the time. I am troubled with our first and second lines. They try playing tick tac toe too often, why not just put the puck on net and crash it. Ironic that the most hustle and energy (and scoring for time on ice) seems to have come from our fourth line. The guys I was sitting with said that they should have been our PP unit and should have been getting alot more time. Maybe next year they will be our second line? Sigh…
BU played poorly in their own end all season long. Last night was no exception. NU’s 3rd period PP goal was a direct result of poor decision making. Clendening had the puck in the corner and ringed it hard behind the net for an unsuccessful clear instead of making an easy D to D pass to Noonan who was all by himself. The turnover led directly to NU’s third goal seconds later.
BU was also the most penalized team in Hockey East this year. Chalk it up to youth, inexperience, poor coaching (or a combination of factors), but this year’s team never developed the discipline needed to be consistently competitive.
BU was also the most penalized team in Hockey East this year only because the players lacked the skill to match up against their opponents.
Clendening an “All American”?? who’s JP kidding? The kid is a give away waiting to happen. He is the definition of mistake prone. He can’t skate, makes poor plays and often seems like a deer in the headlights. Enough of hyping this B level player and WAYYYYY too much ice time. He also can’t control his temper or emotions and I don’t mean the rukus at the end of the last game alone either. Hey AC, I hear the Canadian Major Junior teams calling… answer it!
BU was the most penalized team in Hockey East during the first few months.
They ended up about the fourth most penalized.
Parker once said that he hopes his teams never win the Ceglarski Award, which goes to the least penalized team, because it would mean they weren’t playing aggressive enough.
Big difference between aggressive penalties and plain old stupid/dumb/lazy penalties (often at the worst possible times). I’m sure we lead the league in that stat (if they tracked it…). There are several players that never came close to being “aggressive”, nice talent, but no “fire in the gut”. but for pure aggressiveness and “want to win”, I’d go with #”s 6,7,8,9,11(P/T),13,16,18,19,21,22, just my opinion.