Two-goal second puts No. 19 BU over Crusaders

Less than four minutes after the College of the Holy Cross tied up the game in the second period, Nick Roberto picked up a pass from the slot and just barely shot it wide of the net. The freshman forward continued to fight after the shot, however, as he picked up a rebound and placed it into a practically empty net to give the No. 19 Boston University men’s hockey team a 2-1 lead.

With that momentum behind them, the Terriers (2-0) held on Saturday evening to defeat the Crusaders (0-1). The 3-2 win at Agganis Arena gave BU a sweep of its first opening weekend’s games.

“It’s not easy to do in college hockey – to win two games in a weekend,” said BU coach David Quinn. “I really liked our progress from [Friday] night to [Saturday night].”

After a contest Friday where the Terriers struggled during the start of the game, BU came out strong against the Crusaders in their final game of the weekend. This more aggressive play manifested itself halfway through the first when the Terriers jumped on the board to take a 1-0 lead after senior captain Garrett Noonanpassed the puck up ice to Danny O’Regan. The sophomore forward then broke away from the pack and backhanded a shot past Holy Cross netminder Matt Ginn.

That lead did not make it past the first minute of the second period, however, as the Crusaders took advantage of a power-play opportunity to tie up the game. With freshman forward Robbie Baillargeon in the box for roughing, forward Mike McNamara scored his first collegiate goal. Just 13 seconds into the power play, McNamara picked up a rebound and notched it past BU sophomore goaltender Matt O’Connor to tie up the game.

Four minutes later, Roberto found the rebound from sophomore defenseman Ahti Oksanen’sshot, giving BU a 2-1 lead. Oksanen picked up his fourth assist of the season on the goal. He now has an assist on four of the Terriers’ six goals this season.

BU tacked on to their lead with its second power-play goal in as many games with five minutes left in the period when junior forward Cason Hohmann picked up a rebound off of a shot by Noonan.

“I think, at times, our power play is really, really good,” Hohmann said. “I mean we only had a couple days to practice it, so it can only get better, but it’s looked pretty good out there.”

Holy Cross attempted a comeback in the third when forward Adam Schmidt found the back of the net after sprawling out on the ice and hooking the puck by O’Connor. Despite the goal with 16 minutes left in the game, Quinn said that the Terriers handled play for the majority of the second half of the contest.

“I really thought after we made it 2-1, we really controlled the play after that,” Quinn said. “Unfortunately we weren’t able to get rewarded a few more times in the second period.

“Even in the third, I thought we were doing a good job and then they got the goal – it was kind of a flukey goal. A little bit of a broken play, and then we got the penalty right after that and weathered the storm there. I thought we regrouped a bit.”

Even with the two wins under his belt, Quinn still understands that the team has areas where it can improve.

“We have a vision of how we want to play night in and night out and how we ultimately want to look,” Quinn said. “I thought we took a big step forward toward that… I thought tonight, like I said, I thought there were a lot of signs of us moving forward, which I think we have to got keep going.”