UPDATED: BU ends regular season with 5-0 win over Northeastern

No. 19 BU (18-15-2, 15-10-2 Hockey East) won four of its last five regular-season games, surging to the third seed in the conference playoffs, where they’ll face Merrimack College in the quarterfinals.

The Terriers finished tied with Providence College and the University of New Hampshire, with 32 points, but held the tiebreaker to earn home ice. Meanwhile, Northeastern (9-21-4, 5-16-4 Hockey East) ended the season in 10th place and missed the playoffs for the second year in a row.

Freshman goalie Sean Maguire picked up his third shutout, stopping 24 shots, and O’Regan earned the game’s first star, scoring the game-winning goal and assisting on the next two.

The three-point night also moved O’Regan into a tie with Northeastern standout Kevin Roy for the lead in Hockey East rookie scoring. Both now have 34 points, and Roy has been out injured for the last four games.

The Huskies played most of the game significantly shorthanded. In addition to losing Roy, their leading scorer, they began the night with 11 forwards and lost a defenseman less than five minutes into the game, when Dustin Darou hit senior captain Wade Megan from behind and was ejected. That left them with just 16 players dressed for the remainder of the game.

“Four of those guys got an unbelievable amount of ice,” Parker said of Northeastern’s forwards. “[Vinny] Saponari, [Braden] Pimm, [Cody] Ferriero, and [Adam] Reid. They seemed like they were out there the whole time. It was amazing watching it. They were going out every other shift for a while.”

It took almost four minutes, but BU did score on the five-minute power play resulting from Darou’s hit. Sophomore forward Evan Rodrigues found O’Regan open near the right faceoff dot, and O’Regan whacked the bouncing puck past Northeastern goalie Chris Rawlings.

The Huskies registered just two shots in the first period, and it took them more than 18 minutes to get their first one. They came out stronger in the second, with 10 shots to BU’s nine. Few of those were quality scoring chances, and they couldn’t beat Maguire, but BU’s 1-0 lead looked narrow after 40 minutes of play.

“I thought they outplayed us in the second period,” Parker said. “I thought we were waiting for something bad to happen, it looked like, and then we came out and got the goal right off the bat in the third, and that kind of took the pressure off.”

That pressure-relieving goal belonged to Rodrigues, who made it 2-0 early in the third period. O’Regan threw the puck into the slot half-blindly from behind the net, and it hit Rodrigues’ tape. He fired high over Rawlings for his 12th goal of the year.

Then a pair of goals in the middle of the third gave BU breathing room. Junior forward Matt Nieto joined his linemates on the scoresheet when he drove out of the corner and wristed the puck past Rawlings for his 16th goal of the year, and his seventh in his last four games.

Less than a minute later, junior wing Sahir Gill was knocked down as he drove into the Northeastern zone, but he got to his feet in time to slap a low shot past Rawlings and make it 4-0.

With under three minutes to go in the game, junior defenseman Matt Ronan appeared to score his first collegiate goal, when his shot from the point wound up flying over Rawlings’ shoulder. Gill was credited with the goal, though, as he tipped the puck in front. Ronan still picked up his first career point on the play, an assist.

It was Gill’s third multi-point game of the year, and his first with two goals. He said he was relieved to score twice, but joked that the last goal should have been Ronan’s.

“I’d give it to him gladly if I could,” Gill said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have tipped it. But I was real happy for him. I’ve roomed for him for three years now, and it’s just — the way he comes to the rink every day with a positive attitude, how hard he works, I couldn’t have been happier for him.”

Gill said he thought the Terriers were focused more on team defense and less on individual play this weekend than in their first two games against Northeastern this season, both losses.

“I think you saw a lot more shots blocked, a lot more commitment to defense,” Gill said. “I think that’s a big key for us. We can’t let in five, six goals and expect to win a game. I thought a big thing for us tonight was not letting them come back in the game and getting that shutout.”