The Boston University men’s hockey team battled to a 3-3 tie with Providence College on Saturday night. BU (13-9-1, 10-6-1 Hockey East) outshot Providence (10-10-4, 8-6-3 HE) 31-29 despite lagging behind the Friars for much of the game.
BU’s entire third line had a hand in the first goal of the game, late in the first period. Freshman forward Sam Kurker found his classmate Matt Lane with a well-placed cross-ice pass in the neutral zone, and Lane carried it down the wing. He shot low on Providence goalie Jon Gillies, producing a rebound that came right to senior center Ben Rosen as he crashed the net and knocked in his third goal of the year.
The lead was short-lived. Less than two minutes later, senior defenseman Sean Escobedo went to the box for interference, and 11 seconds into the power play, PC defenseman Myles Harvey fired a low slap shot that found its way through O’Connor’s five-hole.
After a series of careless passes in the first – on two, BU gave the puck away at their defensive blue line only to catch a lucky break when Providence went offsides – the miscues finally hurt the Terriers early in the second. Kurker lost the puck at BU’s blue line and PC forward Steven McParland picked his pocket, drove in on net and stuffed the puck past O’Connor without much difficulty.
Midway through the period, freshman defenseman Ahti Oksanen was rocked by a big hit along the boards near Providence’s bench. He skated off gingerly, although he returned a few minutes later. Shortly afterward, with a Friar already in the box, freshman defenseman Matt Grzelcyk was knocked into the boards by PC forward Noel Acciari, who went to the box for elbowing.
BU tied it up in the waning seconds of the 5-on-3. As Grzelcyk and Privitera played catch and the impatient crowd started calling for them to shoot, Grzelcyk finally fed Nieto in the corner, and he snapped a one-timer into the top right corner before Gillies could get over.
Providence grabbed the lead back on a goal by sophomore wing Shane Luke. Luke and his center, Ross Mauermann, were alone coming into BU’s zone, and Luke snapped a high shot past O’Connor for the 3-2 lead.
Then a strange situation worked in the Terriers’ favor as they tied it up at 3. As his line worked the puck around the zone, senior wing Ryan Santana was pinned against the Providence crossbar by Steven Shamanski. As freshman center Danny O’Regan wound around the net and stuffed the puck past Gillies, Santana couldn’t get out of the crease in time, so the play was originally called no goal.
After review, though, it was determined that Santana was impeded while trying to get out of the crease, and the goal counted. The score remained 3-3 through the end of regulation and through an overtime period where the best chance came late on a close-range shot from Hohmann.
You know BU is playing short-handed when Ryan Santana is skating second line. He plays hard and has improved immensely, but does not have the talent typical of a Top Six BU forward. That said, Santana likely earned a Paw on a great short-handed blocked shot.
Another Terrier of Note who had a crucial turnover leading directly to a Providence goal BUT other than that one bad play had his best outing as a Terrier is rising freshman Sam Kurker. While still well behind fellow Freshman Forwards Danny O’Regan and Matt Lane, it is obvious that practicing against a higher caliber opponent has helped Kurker as he is spades ahead of where he was at the beginning of the season.