Dom Fensore’s shot gets blocked on Saturday night. Photo by Jenna VanSickle.
BU suffered its worst defeat of the season thus far on Saturday night, losing to UConn 6-1 at Agganis Arena. Here are my three takeaways from the game – all opinions are my own.
Nothing going – or was there?
It’s easy to point to a 6-1 loss and say BU just didn’t have anything going right on the night. Obviously the four-goal third period made it pretty obvious that the Terriers were off their game, but there were points early on in this game where BU could have – and maybe should have – challenged for the lead. For example, David Farrance had a gaping net to shoot at on one rush in the first period, but fired it straight into Tomas Vomacka’s glove. The Terriers moved the puck well on their power plays and had good looks, but couldn’t find an end product. There was a time in this game where BU could have swung momentum (especially at home), but UConn was more opportunistic, and BU didn’t have an answer.
Again, Abel stays in for the rout
Ashton Abel allowed five goals last night, including three in the third period to make it a 5-1 game before Albie O’Connell pulled the trigger and sent in another goaltender. I found this interesting, especially since the same thing happened in the 5-1 blowout loss to Merrimack at home when Abel stayed in for the entire game, even when BU seemed to need a boost. I’m no hockey psychology expert, but I would think that in a game where your team just doesn’t have anything going, a goaltender change could wake them up. However, O’Connell and his staff left Abel in there to take the heat for his second home start in a row, and I can’t imagine anyone feels great about BU’s goaltending situation right now.
It’s not done, but not looking great
Looking at the playoff picture, BU is now down to sixth, four points away from dropping out of the Hockey East playoff picture but still only two points away from third place in the conference. Looking at the trio of games left on the schedule, though, it’s hard to be optimistic that BU will put together a late run up the league table. Boston College, who visits Agganis Arena next Saturday, just put up ten goals on Northeastern to finish off a series sweep. Northeastern is now in a race to make the playoffs, and with their recent success against BU in big games, we know they’ll be hungry going into the season-ending series with the Terriers. BU’s road ahead isn’t easy, so if they want to string some positive results together, they’ll need to be a lot better than they were this weekend.
The season’s third edition of BU-BC is next Saturday at 7 p.m.