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Pluses and Minuses: No. 3 Terriers fall to Union in season-opener

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Freshman defenseman Charlie McAvoy scored his first collegiate goal in BU’s loss to Union. PHOTO BY JUSTIN HAWK/DFP FILE PHOTO

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — In its first game to start the season, the No. 3 Boston University men’s ice hockey team faltered and lost to Union College 5-3 on Saturday night.

The Terriers (0-1-0) were fast and physical in their debut but ultimately had their shortcomings catch up to them. BU head coach David Quinn said he liked the way his team competed and was curious, as coaches are in their first game with new teams, as to how it would play, but noted that there were certainly things it could improve upon.

Here’s what went right and wrong for the Terriers:

Pluses

Doyle Somerby

Junior defenseman Doyle Somerby picked up two assists in the loss and was a driving force on offense for the Terriers tonight. For more on the blue liner, read Sarah’s sider here.

Net-front presence

When the Terriers scored on Saturday night, they scored from in close. Each of their three markers came right by the goalmouth.

Senior assistant captain Matt Lane first put BU on the board 15:20 into the period after he picked up a try from Somerby and tucked it past Union netminder Alex Sakellaropoulos. Then, just 2:20 later, freshman forward Ryan Cloonan nabbed his first goal of the season when he jammed the net and forced the puck past the goalie.

With the Terriers trailing 3-2 in the third period, rookie defenseman Charlie McAvoy found the scoresheet for the first time this season as well when he danced in close and put the puck away to tie things up.

“Lane, today, his goal doesn’t happen if he doesn’t get to the goal like that and beat his guy to the net,” Somerby said. “Just trying to get pucks to the net as much as we can.”

Sean Maguire

Though he let in four goals, Maguire kept his team in the game when Union began turning the heat up in the second period. He faced 10 shots in the first, allowing one goal about six minutes in, but then gave the Terriers a chance to take a 2-1 lead going into the intermission.

And while the shot total for the second period wasn’t all that different from the first (12), the Dutchmen fired 24 shot attempts at the net compared to their 16 in the first, four of which had been blocked by the defense.

“He played really well,” Quinn said. “Any team’s going to have success, you need great goaltending, and even though we gave up four, I thought we had a great performance by Sean tonight.”

One of Maguire’s key saves came in the middle frame when he robbed freshman Brett Supinski in the slot. When that happened, Sakellaropoulos said he realized it was going to be a goalie battle.

“It really was until the third period,” he said. “He played one great game, and I just had to one up him, I guess.”

Minuses

Defensive zone coverage

According to Quinn, BU’s biggest problem in the loss was its d-zone coverage. The team wasn’t as tight as he’d like it to be in its own end, which led to some prime scoring chances for the Dutchmen.

“There was just way too much puck-watching and just trying to do too much,” he said. “I mean, we were acting like the puck was a magnet. We’d watch one guy play his man and all of a sudden, five guys start gravitating towards him and don’t know what’s going on around him.

“The good news is it’s very correctable.”

Penalties

The Terriers also had some trouble with sending guys to the box. BU took seven penalties over the course of the night and found themselves killing six of them, as Union’s freshman Mark Dufour went off at the same time as sophomore defenseman John MacLeod for roughing.

The Dutchmen ended up converting once on the power play for their opening goal of the game with 24 seconds left of shorthanded time for BU to kill. In total, the Terriers were shorthanded for just over 12 minutes.

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