Men’s Hockey: Terriers snap six game losing streak
By: Denny Hackett
Jake Oettinger’s electric performance in net propelled the Terriers (11-15-3) to a 2-0 win over UCONN (10-18-2) on Saturday.
Friday’s matchup with UCONN saw the Terriers score two goals in the third period before losing in overtime in Hartford, the Terriers shored up their defense in a strong effort to rebound from a string of six losses in a row on Saturday.
Junior goaltender Jake Oettinger was excellent in net for the Terriers on Saturday. During the game he stopped all 26 shots he faced en route to his second shutout of the season in his 100th game in a BU uniform. With the shutout, Oettinger moved to second place on the Terrier’s all-time shutout list with 11 and sits behind just Jack Ferreira and John Curry who are tied at 13 shutouts apiece.
After the game Oettinger reflected on playing his 100th game and said, “It’s crazy that it’s already been 100 games, it feels like I was playing my first one yesterday. It was definitely a cool milestone and nice to get a win in the 100th game.”
The first two periods on Saturday were a defensive struggle and neither team could find a way past the opposite goalie. Through much of these first two frames, the referees let the players play and refused to call several blatant penalties against both teams. By the end of the third period, the referees did call several penalties that eventually lead to a 4-3 power play for the Huskies.
The 
Terriers flipped a switch in the third period to wrestle the game away from UCONN. Just 1:16 into the period, Ty Amonte scored his sixth goal of the season and gave BU a 1-0 lead to finally break the deadlock. For the rest of the game Oettinger took over in net and solidified an already outstanding performance.
After the game Head Coach Albie O’Connell said, “Jake was dynamite in the third period, he made a couple saves on a breakaway and then a couple down the stretch where he kept it at 1-0.”
For the remaining 18 minutes Oettinger faced two breakaways and turned aside both of them to preserve the lead for the Terriers. Then with just 3:18 left in regulation, Joel Farabee put the game out of reach with a shorthanded goal, his eleventh goal of the year, to effectively win the game for the Terriers.
O’Connell was proud of his team’s defensive performance and said, “I think overall it was one of our better team defensive efforts on the year. Guys were committed to doing the right thing and playing the right way, and it was a lot of buy in so it was a positive sign for sure.”
The Terriers travel to Burlington next weekend for a series against the University of Vermont.