Men’s Hockey: Vlasic, Terriers salvage point in overtime loss to BC

By Patrick Donnelly

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The No. 15 Boston University Terriers (6-2-0) fell to the top-ranked Boston College Eagles (11-2-1) by a final score of 4-3 in overtime at Conte Forum on Friday night as their five-game win streak came to a close.

Overall, BU head coach Albie O’Connell was pleased with his team’s performance on the night.

“Tough ending, obviously, but I really liked the way we played,” O’Connell said. “I thought we battled hard and we showed a lot of resilience.”

The Terriers were without some key players in senior captain Logan Cockerill, senior assistant captain David Farrance and freshman goaltender Drew Commesso. Meanwhile for the Eagles, sophomore forward Alex Newhook drew back in for his second game of the season, while senior assistant captain Logan Hutsko did not play.

As for an update to Cockerill, Farrance or Commesso’s status? O’Connell offered a simple “no,” following the game.

The Terriers continued to be without junior forward Jake Wise and sophomore forward Ethan Phillips as well.

O’Connell did not worry about who was not available for his team tonight.

“[Farrance] is one of the best players in the country, so would we have liked to have him? Yeah, we would, but we were missing a lot of other guys too,” he said. “So I’m just proud of the group that played.”

Sophomore goaltender Ashton Abel got the start for the Terriers, making 29 saves on 33 shots. It was his first action since Feb. 22, 2020. Meanwhile for BC, sophomore netminder Spencer Knight got the nod, stopping 21 of 24 shots.

“I thought overall Abel gave us a solid night in the cage on balance – he hasn’t played since February,” O’Connell said.

BC got the scoring started with 7:35 to go in the first period thanks to junior forward Jack McBain.

Sophomore defenseman Drew Helleson sent a wrist shot towards goal and McBain was able to get a stick on the before it got to Abel, who could not squeeze the five hole as the puck trickled into the back of the net.

Late in the opening frame, BC went to the power play looking to extend their lead, but BU was able to make the penalty kill.

The 1-0 lead for the Eagles held heading into the second period.

Early in the second frame, the Terriers answered.

Sophomore forward Sam Stevens picked up the puck, attempting a wraparound shot, but the play was broken up. Fortunately for BU, junior forward Jack DeBoer came flying in at the right time and buried the puck into the back of the goal to tie the game at one goal apiece.

Moments after DeBoer’s equalizer, the fourth line came up big again for the Terriers.

DeBoer drove wide and shielded the puck from the BC defender before swiveling it to sophomore forward Markus Boguslavsky. Boguslavsky uncorked a wrist shot that labeled the top right corner of the twine to give BU a 2-1 lead with 14:31 remaining in the middle stanza.

O’Connell seemed to like what he saw from the fourth unit.

“I thought out fourth line was terrific there, scoring two goals,” he said. “They played the right way the entire game.”

BC immediately went to the man advantage, but BU managed to kill off the penalty before once again going down a man.

Just after the midway point of the second period, the Eagles pulled back to even.

After a broken passing sequence on the power play, Newhook found himself with the puck on his stick below the goal line. He slipped a feed to sophomore forward Matt Boldy, who put it by Abel to make it 2-2 with 8:04 remaining in the second frame.

Following Boldy’s equalizer, the Terriers got a power play of their own, but came up empty.

Late in the dwindling moments of the period, BC reclaimed the lead.

BU senior blueliner Joseph Campolieto coughed the puck up to BC freshman forward Nikita Nesterenko, who broke in on Abel, but could not bury the chance. Campolieto could not recover, and the BC forecheck forced a net-front scramble, where freshman forward Colby Ambrosio cleaned up the rebound, making it 3-2, Eagles, with 2:24 left in the second.

BC’s one-goal cushion held as the two sides headed to the locker room after 40 minutes.

BU got an early power play opportunity in the final 20 minutes of regulation and managed capitalized this time.

Freshman defenseman played pitch and catch with sophomore blueliner Alex Vlasic at the point. Vlasic took the pass from Jarman and sent a wrister in on Knight, who could not track the puck through the maze of traffic in front of him as it found its way into the back of the net.

Vlasic’s first collegiate goal tied the game at three goals a side with 14:44 remaining in regulation. With the assist, Jarman tacked on his first collegiate point.

O’Connell said it was nice to see Vlasic get rewarded.

“I think Vlasic was terrific tonight,” he said. “He’s been terrific since getting back to campus. He had a good summer.”

Late in regulation with under three minutes remaining, BU got a golden opportunity to take the lead late on the power play as Eagles freshman forward Trevor Kuntar went to the box for goaltender interference.

BU came up empty on the power play, but Knight was forced to make a nice glove save on sophomore defenseman Dom Fensore before the end of the advantage.

After 60 minutes of action, the teams headed to five minutes of three-on-three overtime.

The extra frame was relatively uneventful before the intensity ratcheted up in the final minutes.

In the closing seconds, Helleson took the puck in his own end before skating on a coast-to-coast rush, making a nice move to get around Fensore and getting Abel to bite on a deke, scoring and winning the game for BC with about one second remaining in overtime.

“It didn’t look like anything was gonna happen,” O’Connell said. “Then all of a sudden they made a good play.”

“Their guy made a big play . . . You’ve got to tip your cap sometimes.”

In the loss, BU managed to earn one point towards the conference standings, remaining unbeaten in regulation in their last six contests with their last regulation loss coming in the season-opener to Providence.

O’Connell said overall, the team’s game plan and effort was good.

“We’re going to take the positives out of what we did well,” he said. “We’ll watch the video tonight and learn more.”

The Battle of Comm. Ave. will resume tomorrow night in the rubber match. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at Walter Brown Arena.

Featured Image: Sophomore defenseman Alex Vlasic gets set before a faceoff in a win against Maine at Walter Brown Arena on Jan. 23, 2021. Photo by Patrick Donnelly.

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