Men’s Hockey: Terriers split weekend series with UMaine
By: Denny Hackett
This weekend, the Terriers split a two game series with the University of Maine Black Bears after seeing the best from their power play on Friday and the worst on Saturday.
On Friday, the Terriers took down the Black Bears 3-2 after scoring all three of their goals on the power play. The game went down to the wire after Maine tied it with just six minutes to go on a power play goal from Tim Doherty. Then, with just two minutes left to play, David Farrance won it for the Terriers on the power play off of an assist from Patrick Harper and Jake Wise.
After the game, forward Bobo Carpenter said the biggest improvement for the power play was, “The puck movement and working off of each other, that’s something we really were fighting with and now that we kind of have the feel for that it feels pretty good getting those goals.”
For BU coach Albie O’Connell, the turnaround for the Terriers after the first period was to shoot the puck more. He said, “It was frustrating because I think between periods I asked the guys who passed up a shot an about ten guys raised their hands, but I think they got the message.”
Carpenter and Farabee rounded out the goals for the Terriers while Jake Oettinger allowed just two goals on a total of 36 shots while manning the net on Friday night.
On Saturday, BU lost 3-1 after an outstanding performance from goalie Jeremy Swayman. On the night the Boston Bruins prospect stopped 40 shots and made some great glove saves. For Maine Chase Pearson scored two goals while Mitchell Fossier scored the game’s first goal on a power play in the first period.
Saturday’s game was the polar opposite of the game the Terriers played on Friday. Despite a lights out performance for the BU power play on Friday, they were completely blanked on the man advantage on Saturday. During game two of the series, the Terriers drew six power plays but did not score on any of them.
When asked about the power play after the game, O’Connell said, “I thought the breakout was poor, the drop was not well executed, that’s why in the last one we switched it up. When we did get in the zone we moved it around pretty good, we had some good looks but we shot the puck more last night.”
The Terriers brought the game within one during the second period after a goal from Carpenter but a Pearson empty-netter put the game away with 49 seconds left in the third.
At 12:27 in the first both David Farrance of BU and Simon Butala of Maine were given matching five minute majors and game misconducts for grabbing each other’s facemasks during a scrum in front of Oettinger’s goal.
O’Connell credited the loss of Farrance for the night as a major swing for the team, he said “It hurt our second power play unit, it hurt our ability to get out and put guys in a situation to play more minutes than they usually do.”
Carpenter was the lone Terrier to score a goal but both he and defensemen Dante Fabbro are on five game point streaks after the weekend series.
This week the Terriers will spend Thanksgiving break traveling to Belfast, Northern Ireland to participate in the Friendship Four Tournament alongside Yale, UCONN and Union College. The Terriers return to Boston when they take on the BC Eagles in a home and home series that starts on November 30 at Agganis.