Men’s Hockey: BU Drops Tight Contest to BC
By: Jake Reiser
The Battle of the Green Line finally commenced on Friday night, as the Boston University Terrier traveled to Kelley Rink at Conte Forum on Boston College’s campus to take on the Eagles. After a thrilling weekend where BU beat Harvard and UMass Amherst, the Terriers came into the weekend hungry for more against at No. 3 ranked Boston College team.
The first period consisted of tight wall battles, big hits and only one tally. On Boston University’s second power play of the night, a boarding call against Eagles defenseman Steve Santini, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson found the puck in the middle of a slot and wristed a puck over BC starter Thatcher Demko to make it 1-0 Terriers. (Fill in at the end of the game, PP goals/opps, can find it on the bottom of the second page of the BU notes and update with tonights results).
What came in the second period was a tremendously different game, and a lot of Terrier penalties to kill. On a BU power play, Danny O’Regan tripped Austin Cangelosi on a breakway, garnering a penalty shot. With a lot of stick handling, Cangelosi put it past Boston University’s starter, Sean Maguire, tying the game. Only 17 seconds later, on a delayed call against Ian McCoshen, the puck slid through a scrum in front and past Demko, the goal to Ahti Oksanen. That goal was the senior’s 100th career point in a Terrier uniform.
Zach Sanford found the twine behind Maguire at 5:18 pulling the puck out of a scrum, catching Maguire down and roofing a backhander top-shelf. BU’s penalty kill had their work cut out for them in the second, first a Doyle Somerby tripping, then a Matt Grzelyck tripping, 22 seconds of an overlap 5-on-3 chance for the Eagles. While the Terriers killed Somerby’s penalty, Colin White wristed one through traffic to put Boston College up 3-2. The second would come to a close with that score.
After a back-and-forth second period, the third would prove to be much faster and quite decisive. At 14:37, Eagles defenseman Michael Kim would storm the BU crease, knocking Maguire over and receiving a goalie interference minor. On that power play, a scrum in front of the net and a sliding Boston University player would end up with a confounding Terrier goal. After some review, it was upheld, the credit to Matt Lane.
“The power play has been pretty good over the course of the last month and a half. Obviously when you get three [power play goals], that’s a great sign,” coach David Quinn said.
But in the end, it was the Boston University penalty kill who couldn’t hold it tight. On a contentious Carpenter tripping call, Ian McCoshen slammed a one-timer through a Miles Wood screen past Maguire for a 4-3 BC lead. Boston College ended the game 2-7 on the power play.
Quinn said, “You can’t take seven penalties against this team.”
McCoshen added another goal on a chip-shot 175-foot empty netter, sealing an Eagles 5-3 victory.
“A frustrating loss. I think we took a little bit of a step back tonight,” Coach Quinn said. “Certainly not the way we want to play or we need to play if we’re going to have success moving forward.”
The rivalry moves to Agganis Arena tomorrow night, where the two teams face off with a 7:00p.m. puck drop.