Men’s Hockey: Terriers come up short, swept by UMass Lowell

By Owen Gund

The Boston University Terriers (3-5-0, 2-4-0 HEA) continued their early-season struggles in a 2-1 loss to UMass Lowell (4-1-1, 2-0-0 HEA) at Tsongas Center on Saturday. The Terriers, playing without five of their top forwards, still managed to make it a close game.

“We had just enough guys to play with some injuries,” BU head coach Albie O’Connell said after the game. “We don’t have a full complement of guys, and we’re not here to make excuses, but I was proud of the 21 guys that dressed tonight.” 

River Hawks head coach Norm Bazin said the pace was not as high as Friday’s game.

“I thought both teams had a little bit less in the tank than they did last night, but whenever you can get two wins in the same weekend, you’ve got to enjoy it,” Bazin said.

With 8:42 to go in the first, just six seconds into the BU power play, it appeared that freshman forward Tyler Boucher had gotten the Terriers on the board. 

Boucher collected a feed from sophomore forward Dylan Peterson in the slot and rifled one over the glove of UML senior goaltender Owen Savory (19 saves). However, the officials determined that BU junior forward Jamie Armstrong had cut across the crease illegally, and overturned the goal for goaltender interference. Coach O’Connell disagreed with the call.

“I saw the video and didn’t see much,” O’Connell said. “[Armstrong] didn’t impede him from stopping the puck at all. The blocker got clipped a little bit, but that had no effect on the play.” 

With 1:28 to go in the first, sophomore defenseman Ben Meehan put Lowell in front. Meehan collected a cross-ice pass from his defense partner Nick Austin and fired a wrist shot over the glove of Drew Commesso (26 saves) for his first career goal as a River Hawk.

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After the game, Bazin said that he was excited to see Meehan get his first goal.

“Good for him.,” Bazin said. “His father was a great player, and he’s going to be a very good player also. I’m very happy for him.”

UML took a 1-0 lead and a 14-3 advantage in shots on goal to the locker room after one period of play. 

BU failed to generate any scoring chances in the opening ten minutes of the second period, and the team relied on Commesso to stay in the game.

With 4:48 to go in the second, the Terriers had an opportunity to tie it up when Lowell’s junior forward Blake Wells was sent off for high sticking. 

One minute later, however, the Terriers gave up a shorthanded goal. After some sustained pressure in the offensive zone, sophomore forward Nick Zabaneh coughed the puck up on a failed exchange with junior defenseman Alex Vlasic. Sophomore forward Nik Armstrong-Kingcade stole the puck at the blue line and found River Hawk captain Lucas Condatta on a partial break. The senior forward picked his head up and snapped one off the far post and in to put the River Hawks up a pair.

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“We had a guy lose the puck at the blue line on the power play,” O’Connell said after the game. “It very easily could have been a tie game if we execute, but they made a play, went down to the other end, and scored.”

The River Hawks peppered Commesso with a barrage of shots in the final three minutes of the second, but the sophomore netminder stood tall and kept the River Hawks from adding to their lead. 

The Terriers had an opportunity to cut into their deficit when Armstrong-Kingcade took a boarding penalty with 10:47 to go in the game. BU failed to generate any scoring chances on the ensuing man advantage, and the power play got cut short after Peterson took a penalty for playing with a broken stick.

As the game winded down, BU continued to struggle to generate any sustained pressure. With two minutes remaining, the Terriers pulled Commesso for an extra attacker and made the game interesting.

With 1:35 to go in the game, junior defenseman Case McCarthy collected a cross-ice feed from junior forward Robert Mastrosimone and wired one bar down to put the Terriers within one.

The Terriers peppered Savory in the final minute, but failed to come up with the equalizer as the River Hawks walked away with a 2-1 win.

BU drops to 3-5 on the year and will look to get back on track in a two-game road swing against Northern Michigan. Puck drop for Friday’s matchup is at 7 p.m at Berry Events Center.

Featured Image by Patrick Donnelly

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