Men’s Hockey: BU Wins Regular Season Opener, 6-2

On Saturday, October 8th, the No. 3/4 Boston University Terriers opened up their regular season slate with a 6-1 win over the Colgate University Raiders at the Class of 1965 Stadium in Hamilton, New York. Freshman Patrick Harper chipped in his first two collegiate regular season goals, while Jake Oettinger made 29 saves in his college debut in net.

The first period saw the Terriers kill a full two minutes of a 5-on-3 after senior captain Doyle Somerby and freshman Clayton Keller took slashing and interference penalties, respectively. Then, on BU’s second power play of the period after Colgate put too many skaters on the ice, Patrick Harper netted his first goal past Colgate starter Charlie Finn when Harper’s wrist shot beat Finn through a screen provided by sophomore Bobo Carpenter. On Boston University’s next penalty kill, juniors Nick Roberto and Nik Olsson found themselves in a staggered 2-on-1, and Roberto capitalized on a rebound from an Olsson shot to make it 2-0.

Harper had the only scoring of the second period, after the Terriers and Raiders skated 4-on-4 for almost two minutes, Colgate forward Tim Harrison was sent to the box a hooking penalty, and on the delayed call for Boston University, a tic-tac-toe play between Brandon Hickey and Keller eventually made its way to Harper, who whipped a shot through the glove side of Finn, increasing the BU lead to 3.

In a span of 2:13 early in the third, the Terriers would double their lead from 3 to 6. It started when freshman Gabriel Chabot sent a cross crease pass to Tommy Kelly, slamming it through Finn’s pads. Next, Keller nabbed his first career collegiate goal after he stood right in front of Finn deflected junior Brandon Hickey’s goal-line backhand shot into the net. Just 19 seconds later, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson finished BU’s scoring for the night, grabbing a rebound from a Doyle Somerby shot that Bobo Carpenter tipped, and sliding it into an open net. Colgate sent Bruce Racine in net in Charlie Finn’s stead after that goal, and despite Mike Panowyk wrapping a goal around the far side of Jake Oettinger to spoil a shutout, Boston University held on to win.

The Terriers travel to Denver next weekend to take on the University of Denver Pioneers in a two game slate. Puck drop is at 9:30p.m. for the first game between the two schools on Friday, October 14th.