DURHAM, NH — After flashing back to its December doldrums earlier in the week, the Boston University men’s hockey returned to the form it had shown during the first round of the Beanpot when it took on the University of New Hampshire Friday evening.
The only problem? It took until the second period for that form to truly show up.
While the Terriers did not play their worst period of hockey during the first frame against the Wildcats, they still gave up three goals – a deficit that they could not overcome despite a 40-minute comeback that went down to the final seconds of the contest.
With that in mind, here’s a look at what went wrong, and right, during the 4-3 loss at the Whittemore Center.
Minuses
Shorthanded goals
BU won the opening faceoff during last night’s game, and they held possession for the first minute or so even drawing a penalty 1:49 into the game. That positive start changed, however, when the team gave up its ninth shorthanded goal of the season.
First, the puck flipped through senior captain Garrett Noonan’s legs. Then the Terriers could not catch up to Wildcat forward Jeff Silengo, whose breakaway chance was blocked by sophomore goaltender Matt O’Connor. UNH’s Dan Correale picked up the rebound, though, and put it by O’Connor glove side.
With its nine shorthanded goals allowed, the Terriers are tied for the most allowed in the nation with Army.
“You can’t start the game giving up a shorthanded goal,” said BU coach David Quinn. “We think that it’s just all offense, and we have to make better decisions on the offensive blue line when we have a power play.”
Matt O’Connor
Goaltending was not the reason why the Terriers lost Friday evening – giving up a shorthanded goal and a power play goal were.
Nonetheless, O’Connor did not have his best game as he gave up multiple rebounds, giving the Wildcats extra opportunities in close. In fact, two out of the three goals UNH scored during the first period came when O’Connor let up a rebound that another player picked up and put by him.
“That’s not my first inclination after the game,” Quinn said of O’Connor’s performance. “As a coach, a lot goes on during the game, and you think one thing when the game ends and then you find out a lot more after you watch the film, so that’s not something that I thought after the game, so maybe I’ll feel different after I watch the film.”
Pluses
The first line and Evan Rodrigues
All three of the Terriers’ goals came from the first line as junior wing Evan Rodrigues, freshman center Robbie Baillargeon and sophomore wing Danny O’Regan registered a total of six points during the game.
Rodrigues, in particular, had one of the better outings of his season as he had his second consecutive multipoint game. The left wing scored his fourth goal of the game with eight seconds left to the first and assisted on O’Regan’s goal halfway through the second.
“We are three guys who have some pretty good chemistry and have been keeping it simple,” Rodrigues said. “I think that was key tonight.”
Comeback mentality
BU could have given up after allowing three goals in the first 18 minutes. Instead, the team scored with fewer than 10 seconds left in the first and out-skated the Wildcats for the next 40 minutes.
One of the best examples of this was the final seconds of the game, when, with O’Connor pulled, the Terriers continued to pound the net. UNH had three chances to score an empty-net goal, but could not get through a BU team that blocked off every attempt. As the buzzer sounded, BU was still pushing for an equalizer. What it came down to, though, was UNH goaltender Casey DeSmith having a solid end to the game.
“It’s frustrating because I think we’ve been playing a lot better lately, other than the consolation game in the Beanpot, then we don’t’ seem to get rewarded for it,” Quinn said. “We’ve made a lot of strides, we’ve played a lot more purposeful, we’ve been a lot more mature as a hockey team over the last month and we don’t’ have a lot to show for it.”
We lead all of college hockey in shorthanded goals. Way to go DQ! The DQ system is working great.