Escobedo's Late Goal Puts BU Past UMass

Matt Grzelcyk fiers a shot on the power
play in the second period.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

Today was Sean Escobedo's birthday. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say the lose puck at the top of the crease in which he banged home to win the game was the best gift he received all day. The goal came off of a rush into the UMass zone. Evan Rodrigues put a shot on goal that pin balled around the slot. There, a whole slew of players from both teams took whacks at it. Finally, Escobedo shoveled the bouncing rebound past Kevin Boyle with just 1:22 left.

Before Escobedo picked up his birthday gift, UMass took the lead in the first. BU badly out played the Minutemen for the opening portion of the frame, but Shane Walsh scored his first collegiate goal at 16:49 on the power play. The shot came from the far circle and beat Matt O'Connor short side.

UMass went up 2-0 in the second. Rocco Carzo was driving to the net on a partial break a way and was tripped up by Ahti Oksanen. Carzo was awarded a penalty shot on the play and quite frankly I don't know why. There was no way Carzo was "in alone" as the rule states a player must be to be awarded a penalty shot. Nevertheless, Carzo did in fact receive a free break a way and beat O'Connor five hole making it 2-0.

Less than five minutes into the period and only three minutes after Carzo's goal, BU finally got on the board. Wade Megan was able to find the back of the net out of a huge scrum in front of the UMass crease. It was Megan's third goal of the year and the assists went to Garrett Noonan and Evan Rodrigues.

BU leveled the score at the 14:46 mark of the stanza on the power play. It was not your typical power play goal with a nice setup and nifty passing. No, instead is was kinda fluky. Danny O'Regan tossed a shot/pass towards the front of the net from the high slot. Matt Nieto was able to get a stick on it while facing the goal and not really looking at the pass. The puck deflected off Nieto's blade, past Boyle and into the net to tie the game.

UMass seemed to carry the play in the opening half of the third, generating some good scoring chances all of which were stopped by Matt O'Connor.

For UMass, all was lost with 1:22 left as Escobedo buried the game winner.