Terriers and Catamounts play to 3-3 tie

Playing in its fourth consecutive overtime game, the Boston University men’s hockey team played to a 3-3 draw with the No. 19 University of Vermont on Friday night at Agganis Arena.

Despite outshooting the Catamounts(6-5-2, 4-4-2 Hockey East), 40-24, BU (4-7-3, 2-6-2) coach Jack Parker said after the game his team did not look “hungry,” and expressed displeasure at his squad’s effort.

“Huge points on the line tonight, and we were so far away from being ready to play this game,” Parker said. “In general, we were taking shots, we might as well have been in a pickup game at the Boston Skating Club.

“My team does not know how to get ready for a game. They hope the other team will suck, or they think they’re all set because we just got a win and a tie over the Thanksgiving break.”

BU sophomore Corey Trivino forced the game to overtime with less than five minutes left in regulation. With BU on the power play, freshman Max Nicastro ripped a one-timer on net. UVM sophomore goaltender Rob Madore jumped to make the first save, but left a rebound right at sophomore Vinny Saponari’s feet at the left doorstep. Saponari hit the left post with his put-back try.

The puck clanged off the pipe and fell at the top-right corner of the crease –– on the other side of a growing scrum of bodies atop the blue paint. Madore was the only one near the net who saw the puck, and clawed desperately to glove the biscuit through the mass of legs and skates.

However, Trivino beat him to the puck, swooping from the right wing and lifting the disc into the cage to tie the game at three.

“I thought Vinny actually scored,” Trivino said. “But it hit the post, so I just went in and chipped it in.”

Madore earned the game’s number one star, recording 37 saves. Madore shined in the third period, and before Trivino finally snuck one by the Pittsburgh, Pa. native, Madore made three official saves while avoiding a number of potential disasters on BU scoring chances by gathering loose pucks in front of the cage.

“He was a big factor in us earning a point tonight,” UVM coach Kevin Sneddon said. “The one goal they scored at the end there on the power play, I mean he did everything to keep that puck out of the net. Unfortunately, it just ended up in the right spot for their player for the rebound.”

With 21.2 seconds left in regulation, sophomore Chris Connolly slid a pass to junior Colby Cohen in the slot of the UVM zone. Cohen held momentarily, then fired a wrister that hit Madore in the right shoulder then clanked off the left post. Agganis Arena erupted and the Terriers began celebrating, but the ref near the cage quickly waved the apparent goal off.

A video review confirmed what the ref had seen, and the no goal call was upheld.

In overtime, BU junior Joe Pereira almost tallied the winner for the Terriers, but once again the post bailed out a UVM team that was caught on its heels for most of the third period and overtime. Pereira skated along the goal line to the UVM cage from the left wing and worked a forehand shot past Madore, but the wrister banged off the crossbar, denying BU a possible winner.

Vermont kicked off the scoring at 16:51 of the first when senior Colin Vock drove with the puck into the BU zone on the left wing. Vock blew past C. Cohen, then evaded BU junior Kevin Shattenkirk as the captain tried playing the body coming from the middle of the zone.

Once past Shattenkirk, Vock moved from the wing toward the net, and slid a pass to the top-right side of the crease just before getting decked by BU junior Nick Bonino. Left all alone inside the right circle, UVM freshman Chris McCarthy was left with the task of tapping the biscuit beneath the outstretched glove-side arm of BU sophomore goalie Grant Rollheiser. Vock and sophomore Matt Marshall were credited with assists on the goal.

Just over 30 seconds later, Vermont widened its lead when senior Brayden Irwin beat Rollheiser top-shelf from just inside the left faceoff dot.

BU climbed back into the game when senior defenseman Eric Gryba tallied his first goal of the season. With the teams playing 4-on-4 hockey, Trivino led the puck into the zone at the right wing. Trivino stopped at the right circle and zipped a pass to classmate Vinny Saponari at the left faceoff dot.

Saponari held momentarily, then sent a pass to Gryba, whose 6-foot-4, 219-pound frame was camped out on the right side of the UVM crease. Gryba tipped the pass around Madore for his third goal in 129 career games.

“I was thankful I didn’t miss from there,” Gryba said. “It was just one of those plays –– I just went to the net, stood there and put my stick on the ice. Vinny and Corey pretty much did the rest.”

Four minutes later, Vermont junior Wahsontiio Stacey put the Catamounts back up by two goals. Stacey put a slapshot on net as he wheeled through the slot, which was saved by Rollheiser. Nicastro, trying to block the shot, slid in front of Rollheiser just as the rebound bounced off the BU netminder’s pads. Nicastro redirected the rebound right to Stacey, who had floated to the right goal line, where Stacey threw the puck at an out-of-position Rollheiser and beat him 5-hole.

With just under six minutes left in the second, BU clawed back to within one goal. Sophomore Kevin Gilroy, seeing two white jerseys camped in front of the UVM cage, threw a pass at the opponents net.

Freshman Wade Megan managed to put the pass on net, but it was sophomore Ross Gaudet who got the goal after Madore left the Burlington native a juicy rebound at the right doorstep. Gaudet lifted a backhand over Madore’s sprawled body, bringing the tally to 3-2, Vermont.