Men’s Hockey: Terriers unable to complete comeback bid against UMass Lowell, lose 5-3
By: Denny Hackett
Despite a strong second and start to the third periods, Boston University (4-8-2) fell to Hockey East rival UMass Lowell (8-6-1) on Friday night 5-3 at Agganis Arena.
In a surprise turn of events junior defenseman Chad Krys missed Friday’s contest against the River Hawks with an undisclosed injury.
After the game BU head coach Albie O’Connell said that Krys would miss the rest of the semester with his injury. “He should be back by second semester,” he added.
The remainder of O’Connell’s postgame comments can be found here:
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It did not take long for the River Hawks to get on the board in the first when forward Chris Schutz opened the scoring just six minutes into the game. Just seven minutes later forward Connor Sodergren put Lowell up 2-0.
Despite a lopsided start on the scoreboard, O’Connell and the team were confident with the way they played in the first.
“I think the guys were pretty confident in the room and felt like they played a decent period,” he said.
That confidence showed for the Terriers going into the second period. Five minutes into the period sophomore forward Ty Amonte netted his third goal of the year. Soon after however, defenseman Anthony Baxter extended the River Hawk lead to 3-1 after thirteen minutes of action in the second. But the Terriers cut into the lead again after defenseman Cam Crotty scored his first goal of the season.
Crotty also added five blocks in the win and after the game O’Connell said, “Cam’s been rock solid all year. He’s been one of our best two way players all year. It was nice to see him get a goal.”
The Terriers started the third just as they did the second, with a goal that in this case tied the game up at three. On a power play just four minutes into the period, Bobo Carpenter netted his team-leading seventh goal of the season. Unfortunately for the Terriers, Lowell retook the lead just three minutes later when defenseman Seth Barton scored his first goal of the season for the River Hawks. Then after pulling goalie Jake Oettinger with under two minutes to play, forward Charlie Levesque silenced the Terriers’ hope for a comeback with an empty netter to put them up 5-3.
Despite not scoring a goal on Friday, freshman forward Joel Farabee was all over the ice for the Terriers. In addition to his two assists, Farabee blocked 4 shots for BU.
Despite a slow start to the season, O’Connell is still confident in his team and likes the direction their play is going.
He said, “I like our team, I like the way we play. I don’t like our record right now but I like the way we’re playing and where we’re going.”
The team will look to bounce back tomorrow night, when they travel to Lowell for the back half of this weekend home-and-home series.