Men’s Hockey: BU Splits Weekend with Yale, Quinnipiac
By: Jake Reiser
To close out the 2015 calendar year, the Terriers traveled to Connecticut to play two ECAC powerhouses in Yale and Quinnipiac.
The Yale Bulldogs came into the weekend sliding on a three game losing streak, two to dominant teams like Providence and Quinnipiac, the other to a surprising Princeton Tigers. The next day, BU would have to face the undefeated Quinnipiac Bobcats, a daunting task for this young team.
Like most weekends, the Terriers looked like two entirely different teams.
On Friday, Boston University played a completely uninspired and lackluster game, skating to a 3-2 loss at Ingalls Rink.
After no scoring in the first period, senior winger Ahti Oksanen slammed home a one-timer past Yale starter Alex Lyon off of a feed from freshman Jordan Greenway. Yale would tie the game on a Ryan Hitchcock rebound goal past sophomore BU netminder Connor LaCouvee.
The Terriers would lose one of the key pieces of their top nine, as Ryan Cloonan was given a boarding major penalty–a five-minute penalty– and an early shower for a game misconduct. Yale was quick to answer, and with 19.9 left in the second, John Hayden put one home to give the Bulldogs a one goal lead. Hayden would add another one as the major penalty expired, increasing the Yale lead to two.
With 4:30 to go in the game, Hayden ended back up on the sheet, this time for a tripping penalty. Coach David Quinn pulled Connor LaCouvee, and on that 6-on-4, Bobo Carpenter would tap one home to bring the Terriers to within one. Despite the effort, a comeback was not in the books for Boston University.
Less than 24 hours later though, a different Terrier team skated back out onto the ice, albeit against their other, tougher Connecticut opponent, the Quinnipiac Bobcats.
On Saturday night, the Terriers played a hard fought power game and handed the Quinnipiac Bobcats their first loss of the season by a final score of 4-1.
6:22 into the game, Sam Anas potted his 10th goal of the season for Quinnipiac past senior starter Sean Maguire. BU would answer back 8:20 later, when Jordan Greenway, inspired after being handed a contentious interference call, fed a puck from behind the goal line to senior Matt Lane, zipping it through Michael Garteig and in.
Going into that night, Garteig had a 209:33 shutout streak dating back to November 27 against the University of Massachusetts, and the Terriers opened that floodgate after Lane’s goal.
In the second, Charlie McAvoy skated through the neutral zone and pushed the biscuit to Connecticut native Robbie Baillargeon. Baillargeon slid into the offensive zone and, in an individual effort, backhanded a shot five-hole on Garteig to give the Terriers the lead.
7:29 into the third, the puck would find Bobo Carpenter’s stick at the top of the right circle, and he would wrist one through traffic past Garteig to put Boston University up 3-1.
Then, the penalty kill had to come up with a tremendous effort to kill off two separate John MacLeod penalties, one for interference and one for tripping. They did, ending the night 5-for-5 on the kill. Despite a mounting Quinnipiac comeback, with the Bobcats outshooting the Terriers 17-6 in the third period alone, BU would clinch the win on a Matt Lane empty-netter from the red line.
Boston University (9-6-3, 4-3-2 HE) does not skate in a game until January 7th, when they travel right down the road to Bright-Landry Hockey Center to take on the Harvard Crimson.