BU lost 4-0 to Sacred Heart on Tuesday night at Agganis Arena. Here are the top five moments I picked out from the game.
5. Tucker stands tall on odd-man rush after odd-man rush
In what would become a theme throughout the game, the Terriers got caught sleeping numerous times in the first period, giving up several odd-man opportunities. However, Tucker bailed his team out each time, highlighted by his pad save on David Cotton’s shorthanded breakaway opportunity minutes before the McIlmurray strike.
4. McIlmurray gets Sacred Heart on the board early
Austin McIlmurray got the Pioneers up and running on the power play with his tenth goal of the season. Ethan Phillips’ stick broke in the seconds leading up to the goal, making for a de facto 5-on-3-and-a-half. The Pioneers worked the puck to McIlmurray at the point, who unleashed a one-timer that found its way through Phillips, a crowd in front, and Sam Tucker.
3. Tucker sprawls to keep the Terriers in it
Late in the second period, Jack DeBoer went off for an interference penalty. On the ensuing power play for the Pioneers, Sam Tucker had to come up with some key stops to keep BU in the game, highlighted by several saves in quick succession, including a sprawling glove save to keep it a one-goal game at the time.
2. Trevor Zegras comes up empty on a breakaway
With the Pioneers rushing into the Terrier zone early in the second period, a stick-check from David Farrance broke up the chance. The d-man sent a stretch pass down the ice to the Zegras, who was trailing the play. The freshman phenom with tons of tricks up his sleeve walked in alone on netminder Josh Benson, but his shot missed the net as SHU maintained its 1-0 lead.
1. Sacred Heart blows it open late
After a relatively dominant second period for BU, the tide of the game completely shifted in favor of Sacred Heart for the final twenty minutes. Jason Cotton scored about midway through the third before Ryan Steele quickly followed up with a goal of his own. Eventually, Vito Bavaro added insult to injury and put the game on ice with 12 seconds to go.
I think it was glenn who said, “Vinnie, if we don’t beat SHU convincingly, that will be ultra-lame. I think it will be over after the first period.” Hmmm
In addition to the game, what was also “ultra lame” was the entire defense, with Koncansalo and McCarthy being particularly brutal
I do not even want to think about what cornell will do to us. They are as big as SHU and far more skilled
Well, it looks like, for all intents and purposes, that another season is basically over by Thanksgiving. 4-5-5.
Meanwhile, Jerry’s boys up the street keeping marching along. And don’t give me this crap they haven’t played anyone. They beat the nobodies and we lose to them.
It’s hard to ignore what other teams in the area are doing, Vinnie. I think the record is harsh to how they’ve played overall, but at least recently, their play deserved to go 1-1-1 against teams they probably should’ve beaten. Tough stretch for these young Terriers, but there’s still time.
Hi Vinnie and yes, I said exactly that. Last night was an absolute disaster. I have no other thoughts.
Hate to say Vinnie might be right. Sad night for sure. Did the fact that Sacred Heart had 15 upperclassmen make the difference ? Maybe. When you have a program that has mostly students that only care about their pro careers and not a college education this is what you have. WE are a very average team that M-A-Y have a chance for the Beanpot. The D has gone completely out of wack. Maybe need new assistant coaches for next year at least. I don’t know. Glory day I remember may be gone forever.
It does look like there needs to be a culture change SOCC, and as Colin pointed out, I think they’re making steps along that inevitably slow process. The defense was starting to make strides but I don’t know what happened last night. Bad night all around.
These last three games were a disaster. Giving Vermont a point at home! Yes, SH played a good game but to get shutout at home. It was definitely a trap game and BU fell right into it. This team is talented. Is it an age thing? I think we have to look at the coaching too. This could be the start of a long winless streak with Big Red, Harvard and NU looming. TK our!!
The Vermont tie should have been the slip-up of this homestand, TK, but instead it’s only the second-worst performance (after this SHU loss, obviously). Sometimes talent isn’t everything. This stretch will show a lot, but if the national polls are out of the question for BU, really the only one that matters aside from pride and respect is the Northeastern game. And that’s on home ice too. They need a response.
We did not show up last night and we did not play well against Vermont. I’m hearing a lot about how can we win with such a young team and we have too many one and done player’s. If you listen to coach a bunch of our players who are playing now will be around for a while. I like the makeup of our team . I like our coach and our assistant coaches. I try to always be positive it’s hard when a team overlooks there opponent like we did last night but those things happen. I have patience in dealing with this team. One move the coaching staff made that I don’t understand and in looking at it in hindsight might not be fair but I don’t get benching Gabe Chabot on a night when no one was moving there feet Gabe could have given you some jump. I can agree with all if we play the way we did last night Saturday it will be a long night. Go bu🐾
I think the pieces are there Colin – the key is to let guys grow, and I think, for example, giving Stevens the minutes he’s had will go a long way by the time he’s an upperclassman. Same with Quercia, Armstrong, etc. I didn’t love the Chabot decision either. You have to believe he’ll be back on Saturday.
We better hope that a bunch of players who are playing now will stay for a while. Its tough to lose 10 players, as the Terriers did last year, and be competitive against anyone even though we replaced some of those lost with 5 or 6 NHL draft picks. This program will never see glory days again until they recruit players who are willing to stay AT LEAST 2 or 3 years so there is enough time to build up enough talent and experience to play at a high level in Div. 1 hockey. I’m not sure this coaching staff has the ability to do that.(we’ve heard this before that the players will stay and it doesn’t happen.) Actually their record considering all this is not bad, except for this game they have competed well with a very young team
Good insight Vito, and I’m with you. It’s a process, and you need guys to buy into that process long-term. I like your last point especially – this is the first dud they’ve really put up, and while the opponent makes the loss feel worse, the fact that such a young team has only been totally out-played once is relatively encouraging.