Saturday, November 5, 2011

Lowell All Over Terriers

Lowell players celebrate after
waxing BU 7-1 at Tsongas
Center
(Photo by Matt Dresens)
Riverhawks run circles around BU 


LOWELL- It was the worst game I can remember going to. The most lop-sided outcome that no one could have predicted. If I were to have told you before the game that the final score was going to be 7-1, most everyone would have said that BU had won. Well that was not the case. Lowell beat-up and kicked BU while they were down all night long.

The rout started in period one, but it was the Terriers who actually got on the board first. BU dominated the opening 16 seconds of the game and Corey Trivino scored at the 19:44 mark, on a deflection that beat UML goalie Doug Carr. I was actually sitting next to Doug's father at the game.

After that, it was all Lowell. Joe Pendenza tied the game minutes after Trivino's goal. It was the first of seven un-answered goals for Lowell. Pendenza beat Millan who had an all-around horrible night in net, to the glove side.

Less then a minute later, Derek Arnold put home a power play goal past Milan. BU got out of the period  facing a 2-1 deficit, despite only mustering three shots (one of which went in) on Carr.

The floodgates opened wider then the Merrimack River -which runs adjacent to Tsongas Center- in the second period. Scott Wilson scored less then two minutes into the frame and 11 seconds later, Dan Furlong potted his first goal of the year.

Terrence Wallin picked up Lowell's third goal of the period before David Vallorani scored his first collegiate goal, beating Millian short side. Kieran, who was off his game all night, never recovered from a play on the other side of the net and could not get to the post fast enough, allowing Vallorani to pick his spot.

Derek Arnold scored his second of the night at 3:56 of the third, beating Grant Rollhieser, who came in relief of Millan after the second. That closed the scoring for the night and to be completely honest, it could have been 10-1. Lowell hit a post in the third and had a goal dis-allowed in the second. Rollie actually made a pretty decent save on one Lowell opportunity in the closing minutes, too. Also, Millan was lucky on one shot that bounced up in the air and fell on his right leg pad and just stayed there in period two.

The entire night, Lowell out worked, out hustled, out battled and just wanted it more then the Terriers. It goes back to a phrase that my hockey coach uses all the time: "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

Jack Parker had this to say after the game: “The team in white worked like heck. They beat us to every loose puck. We made little dink plays at the blue line, turned the puck over and it went the other way. I thought it was a total breakdown from everyone on our team — from a discipline point of view taking stupid penalties and mouthing off to referees, from a stick your nose in there and compete point of view. Everybody. We just looked like a deer in headlights.”

Game Photos
College Hockey New's : The Take Away (its a recap)

More coverage in the coming days.

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