Men’s Hockey: Terriers fall flat at Maine, 8-1

By Owen Gund

ORONO, M.E — Not a whole lot made sense about the Boston University Terriers’ (19-12-3,13-8-3 HEA) 8-1 loss to the last in Hockey East University of Maine Black Bears (7-21-4, 5-17-2 HEA) at Alfond Arena on Saturday night. The night before, the Terriers played up to their talent level and sucked the life out of a building that is notoriously one of the rowdiest barns in college hockey.

On Saturday night, that same building exploded as the Terriers had to listen to the loudest goal horn in college hockey eight times. 

What went wrong on Saturday? “Everything,” according to Boston University head coach Albie O’Connell.

“It’s just disappointing,” O’Connell said. “I love this team. I hated the way we played tonight, hated the way we competed, hated our mentality, our details. We were bad. That’s about as bad as we’ve played all year.”

Maine got off to a hot start, nailing the Terriers in their own end from the drop of the puck. Eight minutes into the game, junior forward AJ Drobot got the Black Bears on the board. Graduate forward Keenan Suthers cycled the puck down low to his linemate, Nolan Renwick, who sent a centering feed into the slot. Drobot quickly one-timed the feed right through the wickets of Boston University sophomore goaltender Drew Commesso (10 saves) to put the host squad up 1-0

The Terriers pushed for the equalizer on the power play just a few minutes later, but Maine junior netminder Matthew Thiessen (32 saves) stood tall in the pipes and had a particularly notable save when he stacked the pads to prevent BU junior forward Robert Mastrosimone from tying the game.

The Black Bears made it 2-0 on a rebound goal by junior forward Matthew Fawcett, who banged the puck home right in front of the cage after Maine leading scorer Lynden Breen drove the puck to the net.

After that, the floodgates opened. Less than a minute after the second goal, freshman forward Nolan Renwick scored on another play where the Terriers failed to clear a rebound in front of Commesso.

Then just 18 seconds later, the Black Bears got yet another rebound goal to make it 4-0. This time, Terriers left Maine junior forward Ben Poisson alone in front of the net.

“Our net-front was about one of the safest places you could be in Maine. Really really soft,” O’Connell said.

The fourth goal ended Commesso’s night as O’Connell put sophomore goaltender Vinny Duplessis (20 saves) in the net to try to give his team a spark. Duplessis looked strong to end the first period, but he gift-wrapped Maine’s fifth goal two minutes into the second period. Senior Black Bear forward Jacob Schmidt-Svejstrup stole the puck from Duplessis behind the net and stuffed the puck into the open cage to give Maine a 5-0 cushion, killing any Boston University hopes of a comeback.

Senior forward Grant Herbert made it 6-0 at 8:19.

BU’s lone bright spot in the game was a lacrosse move goal from junior forward Wilmer Skoog at 15:29 to cut it to 6-1. It was a highlight-reel goal in a game where nothing else went right for BU.

Breen and Suthers added goals for the Black Bears to secure the 8-1 victory.

For the Terriers, this game was a missed opportunity to earn a home game in the Hockey East quarterfinals. Instead, the Terriers will travel to Harford, Conn., to take on the University of Connecticut Huskies at XCel Center.

With UConn next on the schedule, O’Connell hopes his team remembers this game against Maine and learns from it.

“We’re not burning anything,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve got to move past it, but we have to watch how uncompetitive we were. It was awful.”

Game time on Saturday is yet to be announced.

Featured Image: Junior forward Ethan Phillips (28) battles for a puck with Maine graduate defenseman Cameron Spicer (26) in a game at Alfond Arena on March 5, 2022. Photo by Patrick Donnelly.

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