Willows far from weeping in Wildcat win over Terriers

Daily Free Press Admin

By Meredith Perri/DFP Staff

It took until halfway through the game for a team to take a penalty Monday afternoon at Agganis Arena. With the Boston University men’s hockey team holding the man advantage, it appeared as though the Terriers had a chance to break their 1-1 stalemate with the University of New Hampshire.The power play, however, fell flat with plenty of puck movement, but hardly any shots, and in the final four seconds of the advantage, sophomore wing Matt Lane sent a pass that would not make it to another Terrier. Instead, Wildcats wing Matt Willows picked up the puck and outskated the rest of the Terriers before notching his second goal of the game and registering the 10th shorthanded goal against BU this season.Willows breakaway became the difference in the second half of BU’s home-and-home tilt as the Wildcats defeated BU 3-1 completing the series sweep.The loss was BU’s 12th in its past 14 games.Monday’s game started out well enough for the Terriers as freshman wing Brendan Collier registered the first goal of his collegiate career to give BU the initial lead. Collier, who had three assists coming into the game, picked up the puck in the right corner of BU’s offensive zone with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first. From there, Collier made a quick release from the right circle that skirted by UNH netminder Casey DeSmith.

The celebration would not last for long though, as Willows scored his first goal of the game, and third of the series, about five minutes later.With UNH holding possession in BU’s defensive zone, the puck bounced off of sophomore defenseman Ahti Oksanen’s skate. UNH center Kevin Goumas found it and sent it over to Willows who deked around sophomore goaltender Sean Maguire and shot into an open net.Minutes later, Maguire stopped the Wildcats from taking the lead when he snagged a shot from UNH left wing Jeff Silengo from in close. Maguire, who made his first start since he gave up four goals during the Terriers Beanpot consolation loss to Harvard University last Monday, stopped a total of 35 shots, he could not stop Willows second goal of the game during the waning seconds of the Terriers power play.

Willows had a chance to complete a hat trick with 7:34 left in the game after freshman defenseman Doyle Somerby slashed Willows on a breakaway. Willows received a penalty shot, but he could not get it by Maguire who came out of his crease to cut down the right wing’s angle.That did not matter in the end, though, as Willow scored his third goal on an empty-net chance with 1:17 left in the contest.

Check out Tuesday’s Daily Free Press for the full story.