Men’s Hockey: BU Freeze Minutemen at Frozen Fenway
By: Jake Reiser
BOSTON, Mass. – With the sun shining, the ice frozen, and an abundant amount of snow, the No. 5 Boston University Terriers took to Fenway Park, where they played the University of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen. The Terriers took the confidence from their 5-4 OT win over Union three days ago, coupled it with their players from the World Junior Championship returning, and turned it into a 5-3 win. Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson had yet another multi goal game, and Charlie McAvoy tallied one as well. Freshman netminder Jake Oettinger made his first game appearance in as many weeks as his last game at BU, stopping 26 of 29 pucks.
There was concern before the game and during warmups about the position of the sun and how it would affect both goaltenders. However, as Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna spoke about after the game, the Red Sox did a sun study to see where the position of the sun would be and by the start of the game, the level of the sun was at an acceptable point for the teams.
“For the first period, it was interesting because it was like that shadow in baseball, that 4:00 start here at Fenway, you get the shadow and you had it in a hockey game,” Coach Quinn said.
With chippy play back and forth for most of the first period, it was JFK who got BU on the board with 28 seconds left in the first frame, speeding by the defense and shoving a backhander on UMass goalie Ryan Wischow. He’d score his second one of the game on a backhand tap right in front of the net, bringing the Terriers lead to two.
On the powert play, Charlie McAvoy spanked a one-timer past Wischow, hitting a home run in his celebration to make it 3-0 Terriers. That’s when UMass started to come back. Griff Jeszka threw one in on Oettinger from the goal line that snuck right through the Minnesota native and into the net. Then, a shorthanded goal from Ray Pigozzi, a backhander on a feed from captain Steven Iacobellis cut the BU lead to just one. That was short lived, as the Terriers got two right back, including a backhand shot from Chad Krys and a rebound goal from Gabe Chabot. Iacobellis tipped one past Oettinger late, but by then, it was clear Boston University would have a victory.
“It was really special. Playing here was a blast and it’s something I’ll remember for a long time,” McAvoy said.
“Just been a really uncharacteristic week for us, but I’m really proud of our team, played a UMass team that continues to compete and make it difficult,” Quinn said. “It was a great night and a fun night but you can’t lose sight of the fact that two points were at stake and it’s a very, very meaningful game.”
The Terriers are next in action on January 13th, when they start a home and home matchup of the Green Line Rivalry against Boston College.