Uncategorized

UPDATED: Terriers fall to Huskies, 6-5, despite late comeback

 By Annie Maroon/DFP Staff
Despite a three-goal third-period comeback, the No. 9 Boston University men’s hockey team fell again at the hands of former Terrier Vinny Saponari, who scored the deciding goal late in Northeastern University’s 6-5 win on Friday.

BU goalie Sean Maguire had a rough game without much support from his defense, allowing those six goals on 38 shots. His opposite, Chris Rawlings, let in five goals on 34 BU shots.

“I was very disappointed in our demeanor out there, our confidence level out there,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “It seems like we’re jumpy now. It seems like we’re afraid it’s going to go wrong, and it does go wrong.”

After a strong shift in the Huskies’ zone in the first period, freshman defenseman Ahti Oksanen got caught too deep in the offensive zone as a pair of Huskies came back the other way against his partner, senior Ryan Ruikka. Northeastern senior Robbie Vrolyk got around Ruikka for a shot that Maguire couldn’t handle cleanly, and the puck flipped over him and into the net.
BU (12-8, 9-5 Hockey East) tied it up quickly, though, when freshman forward Danny O’Regan fed a cross-crease pass to junior Matt Nieto, who one-timed it into an open net with Rawlings out of position. The goal came in the waning seconds of a BU power play with the Huskies’ Braden Pimm in the box. 
Then, with Northeastern defenseman Colton Saucerman in the box, junior assistant captain Garrett Noonan kept it rolling for BU. At the top of the circle, Noonan took a pass from low in the zone and ripped a wrist shot over Rawlings to make it 2-1.
Northeastern (7-10-2, 4-8-2 Hockey East) tied it up again with 2:34 remaining in the second. When BU couldn’t clear away the rebounds after Maguire kicked out on a series of shots, Husky forward Adam Reid eventually flipped one top-shelf.
Less than a minute later, Oksanen lost the puck behind the net and Northeastern freshman Kevin Roy took control of it. He also flipped a shot, this one a backhander, over Maguire before the goalie could get back in position.

“When they got possession of the puck in our zone, they threw it behind the net and we just couldn’t seem to keep them from getting it to the crease,” Parker said. “We wound up on the wrong side of them a lot.”

BU failed to register a shot through the first several minutes of the second period. In that time, Northeastern stretched its lead to 4-2 when junior Cody Ferriero stuffed in a rebound that had been bouncing around in front of Maguire.
The Terriers’ pace picked up somewhat after that, and they finished the second period with 22 shots after beginning it with eight. However, Northeastern had the bulk of the chances from prime real estate in front of the net, and they made Maguire work much harder than the Terriers did Rawlings.
With about four minutes remaining in the second, Ferriero carried the puck in on Privitera, who went down to block the anticipated shot in a manner that’s served him well this season. This time, though, Ferreiro hung onto the puck, maneuvered around him and shot high over Maguire to make it 5-2.

That kind of play was characteristic of the game, as Terrier defensemen found themselves out of position at the wrong time or simply made a series of bad decisions.

“We wound up letting them sift through our 2-on-1 too,” Parker said. “I don’t remember too many 3-on-2s or 4-on-3s, but there were a lot of 2-on-2s that turned into something awful for us, whether it be a goal or just a real good chance, because we just didn’t read it or play it right. And we backed off, backed off, backed off. We had a lot of defensemen get beat on one-on-ones tonight.”

The game was far from over, though, as the Terriers answered less than a minute into the third period. O’Regan found sophomore forward Evan Rodrigues wide open between the circles and hit him with a pass, and Rodrigues had all the time in the world to fire a shot over Rawlings for his fourth goal of the year.
Then BU caught a bit of luck. Off the faceoff, Grzelcyk controlled the puck and passed across to Noonan, who fired the puck into the crossbar. But on its way back out, the puck hit Rawlings in the back and rolled into the crease, where Rodrigues poked it in for his second goal of the night to make it 5-4.
Fittingly, it was Rodrigues and O’Regan who teamed up to tie the game at five, 6:36 into the third. After an initial shot on net, Rodrigues took the puck below the goal line and tried to stuff it in. He failed as Rawlings got over just in time, but the rebound came to O’Regan on the other side of the net, and he tapped it in.
But perhaps even more fittingly, it was Saponari, just as it was on the last day of the regular season last year, who put the Terriers away, sliding the puck past Maguire with just 2:03 left in the game for a 6-5 finish.

Parker said the defense was the team’s biggest problem, as it has frequently been in recent weeks, and that that has to change Saturday night against the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.

“We’ve got to solve that problem,” Parker said. “We’ve got to solve that quickly, because we’re playing the hottest team in college hockey [Saturday] night.”

Comments are closed.