Men’s Hockey: BU Strikes Late, Earns Win over UVM

By: Jake Reiser

Last night against the University of Vermont Catamounts, the Boston University Terriers came out sluggish and unmotivated, leaving Coach David Quinn wholeheartedly disappointed in their performance. Were the Terriers quick learners in the second game of the home series?

The answer is yes, and in a come-back fashion, BU beat the Catamounts by a final score of 5-3

To start the scoring in the first period, Connor O’Neil sped by John MacLeod on the right wing and roofed a shot over the blocker of Connor LaCouvee to make it 1-0 Catamounts. Only two and a half minutes later, MacLeod turned over the puck on a defensive zone faceoff to the left of LaCouvee, and Brendan Bradley tallied his second goal in as many games through the five-hole to put UVM up by two.

Ahti Oksanen got the Terriers on the board in the first, as Matt Lane spun from the right side of Mike Santaguida to get the puck on net, and it trickled through to Oksanen, who had an easy tap-in.

“Mentally we stayed on it,“ Matt Lane said. “I think that shows the mental toughness of our team. We felt like they got a few bounces, they did bring some pressure, but in terms of our game plan, nothing changed, we just stuck with it.”

BU answered the bell very quickly to start the second period. A.J. Greer and Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson forced a turnover down low, and JFK fed it to an open Danny O’Regan in the slow, who put it home to tie the game at two. The Terriers had two chances on the man advantage in the second period to take the lead, but couldn’t muster any goals.

Doyle Somerby took a roughing penalty at 19:27 to leave the Terriers shorthanded to end the second and start the third, but Brendan Bradley went to the box for slashing just 35 seconds into the final frame. Despite the brief 4-on-4 and man advantage, BU still couldn’t take the lead.

The University of Vermont did, however, when Anthony Petruzzelli took the puck away in the defensive zone and went five-hole on LaCouvee.

With three and a half minutes remaining in the game, Boston University finally found the back of the net. Jordan Greenway protected the puck in the right-wing corner and fed it to Lane, who found a soft spot in the middle of the ice, and Lane ripped a one-timer over the stickless Santaguida’s right shoulder to even the score.

As the goal was scored, Santaguida crumpled in his crease, and despite what seemed like pleading to the trainer, was taken out of the game. Coach Kevin Sneddon said at the time of postgame that it was a lower body injury and that Santaguida was being looked at by team doctors, and wouldn’t speculate as to the specific nature of his injury.

Relieving Santaguida was Winthrop, Massachusetts native Pat Feeley. The 6’7″ junior netminder, who shares the title of tallest player in college hockey, made his career debut in the most dire of circumstances.

At 17:22, Brady Shaw ran over Doyle Somerby and to the dismay of the Catamounts, was called for a five-minute charging major, and after slamming his stick against the boards, was given a game misconduct.

“I didn’t see it; I don’t know whether it was a penalty or not,” said Coach Quinn.

For the first time this weekend, the Terriers bulged the twine on the power play, as Brandon Hickey flicked one in from the left side of the blue line, putting the Terriers up for good. Brandon Fortunato backhanded an empty net goal with 0.1 seconds left on the clock, the game seemingly over.

“There was more urgency [on the power play], they were shooting it, we just looked like a real power play,” Quinn said. “A nice bounceback win for our guys. I liked our game from start to finish, for the most part. At the end of the day, you know, you’re down 3-2 late in the game, and you break your power play slump, it certainly feels good. At the end of the day, we persevered and rebounded from a dismal effort last night.”

The game was Boston University’s last home game of the 2015 calendar year. They travel to Connecticut to take on two top-10 teams in the Yale Bulldogs and the Quinnipiac Bobcats next weekend.