Cohen, Bonino, lead Terriers to close win

Rollhiser (photo) makes 39 saves in a 6-4 win

Rollheiser, who has yet to lose a game this season, received kudos from head coach Jack Parker.


“I thought our best player tonight was our goaltender. He had a lot of tough saves, and he saw a lot of rubber.”-USCHO


Tonight the Terriers started the scoring just three minutes into the game, when Ross Gaudet streaked down the left wing boards and drilled the water bottle inside of the Merrimack net.


The Warriors tied the game with little under 13 minutes left in the period. Eric Gryba fell down at the Terrier blue line which allowed Merrimack forward Carter Madsen to skate in on Rollheiser and score on the back hand.


BU got it's lead back just over five minutes later on the power play. Kevin Shattenkirk slid it over to Bonino who then found Vinny Saponari in front of the net. From there Saponari found a wide open Colby Cohen for his first goal of the game.


Photo of Colby Cohen (25) finding Vinny Saponari's back handed pass in front of the net.


In the second, the Terriers looked slow and tired. They looked like a team that had just played the night before (which they did). Luckily for Merrimack, they had Friday night off so the could rest.


The Warriors took full advantage of the slow Terrier play and just 32 seconds into the into the period, Stephane Da Costa found the back of the net. Da Costa got a perfect pass from Chris Barton that made Rolleiser go down and Da Costa roofed it.


BU would once again take the lead, this time on a five on three advantage. Kevin Shattenkirk and Colby Cohen connected on a one timer that gave Cohen his second goal of the game.


Merrimack would yet again tie the game in the second. Skating four on four, Joe Cucci tipped in a Chris Barton shot at 10:59.


The third period is where the Terrier exploded on offense.

“We didn’t play any offense in the first two periods except on the power play,” Bonino said. “It took us much too long to get adjusted to their forecheck.”- USCHO

Ten minutes into the third frame the Terriers took the lead for the last time on the night. Freshman and last week's Hockey East Player of the week, Wade Megan through a puck on net that Joe Pereira nailed home.


BU jumped out to a two goal lead, when Chris Connolly hit the post with a Bonino rebound. The puck hit Merrimack goal tender Andrew Braithwaite in the skate and slid across the goal line.


With Braithwaite pulled, the Warriors came with in one when Chris Barton scored. With 4.8 seconds left Vinny Saponari iced the game away with an empty net goal.


After the game was over Parker was not happy.

“We’ve got a long way to go to be poised again and to be thorough again,” Parker said. “I thought that we had turned the corner after we got from the break. So it was a step backward, but not a costly step backward.” -USCHO

Next Friday the Terriers head over to Boston College for the final meeting of the regular season with the Eagles. Game time 7:30. Saturday BU plays Hockey East leading New Hampshire. Game time 7:00


USCHO recap and box score 
WTBU recap
The Terrier Hockey Fan Blog recap
Boston Globe recap