Men’s Hockey: Terriers Clawed by Catamounts, 4-2
By: Jake Reiser
The Boston University Terriers came into last night’s game looking to start the weekend off right with a hopeful win over the University of Vermont after a tie in Red Hot Hockey last Saturday against Cornell. Unfortunately, Boston University played a slow game, and lost the contest 4-2.
“I actually thought we got off to a good start, we played well the first five minutes,” Coach David Quinn said.
The opening 10 minutes of the first period were solid for the Terriers, and they did capitalize. Brandon Fortunato pinched into the corner to the left of UVM starter Mike Santaguida to protect a puck shoveled from Mike Moran. Junior Mass. native Tommy Kelley covered Fortunato’s position at the top of the point, called for the puck and received it, and slapped a rocket above the glove of Santaguida to put the Terriers up 1-0. It was Kelley’s first goal since a 3-2 loss at Merrimack University on December 6, 2013.
“It’s always nice to see a guy get his first goal of the season, his first goal in a while,” Quinn said. “I was happy for him.”
Just over five minutes later, in the second penalty of a 5-on-3, the first being a Chase Phelps hooking and the second called on Brandon Hickey for elbowing, the Catamounts evened the score. Defenseman Alexx Privitera passed the puck to Anthony Petruzzelli, who wristed one from the top of the circle past Terriers starter Sean Maguire. A minute and a half after that tally, Doyle Somerby and John MacLeod had a bit of miscommunication, turned the puck over, and Jarrid Privitera slid one past a sprawling Maguire to put UVM up by one.
BU got chances in the second period, ending up with four power plays, but they couldn’t bulge the twine. Quinn said, “Lazy. Just lazy. No one’s standing at the net, just no urgency, just the basics of hockey.”
It took 7:12 into the third period for another goal, and on a Jordan Greenway feed, Matt Lane spun around to his forehand and show one low through Privatera to tie the game. The Terriers had momentum, but at 10:55, Liam Coughlin sent a spin-o-rama blind pass into the middle of the ice, and Brendan Bradley had a wide open net to put the Catamounts up by one once again.
South Boston native Liam Coughlin tagged an empty netter with less than a second to go in regulation for his first career goal, fittingly scored in his hometown.
“Just really disappointed with our performance tonight. Complete lack of emotion, complete commitment to physical play, just really disappointed,” Quinn said. “We’re an immature team. We’re not only young, we’re immature, and I’ve said that a few times this year. Hopefully they are quick learners and learn their lesson in a hurry.”
Despite the loss, this was BU’s seventh game of nine where it entered the third period with a deficit, yet only their second defeat.
Puck drop in the second game of this series at Agganis Arena versus the Vermont Catamounts is at 4:00 p.m., so the Terriers don’t have much time to learn from this setback.