BU Upended by Catamounts

BU might have played their worst game of season tonight. They looked uninterested at times and really disjointed. The top line was completely inept and the defense was really no better. Without the play of Sean Maguire, Vermont could have could easily ran away with this one.

Chase Phelps gets sent for a ride by Rob Hamilton in the first
period.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

You have to give credit where credit is due, though. UVM did a marvelous job of trapping the Terriers in the neutral zone. This gave BU all sorts of fits as the Cats forced them to skate through three, four and sometimes even five players to just get the puck over the redline.

UVM was opportunistic, as well. With BU up 1-0 on Tommy Kelley's first goal in almost two years, Vermont tied things back up on the power play. Anthony Petruzzelli fired off a seeing eye, warm-burner of a shot that slipped by Maguire low to his blocker side. Maguire never saw the shot though a sea of traffic out front.

Less than two minutes later, UVM had the lead. Doyle Somerby made a horrendous turnover at his own blue line allowing Kevin Irwin to swoop in and steal the puck. Irwin slipped a pass over to former Terrier commit Jarrid Privitera and he beat Maguire five hole on a backhand shot on a essentially a breakaway.

It looked like once again that BU was going to get their ___ together in the third period as they have so many times this year. A hard working shift by Jordan Greenway, Matt Lane and Ryan Cloonan produced a goal with 12:48 to play. Lane had the puck facing center ice in high slot. All in one motion, he spun around on his forehand side and released a shot. It looked like he was going for a redirection, but the shot cleanly found it's way through, off the post and in behind UVM goalie Mike Santaguida. It was post redemption for Lane, who rang the iron on power play, earlier in the second period.

Matt Lane gets off a shot on an
odd man rush in the the third
period. UVM's Chris Muscoby
lays out to try and block.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

That's as close as BU got.

With less than 9:00 to play, BU's first line got caught out a little too long and the opportunistic Catamounts took full advantage. Liam Coughlin (another former Terrier commit) and Alexx Privitera, a former BU player, both set up Brendan Bradley for a tap-in goal. One person in the stands behind me said the BU defense looked like five trees trying to defend a hockey team.

I don't know if it was that bad, but Maguire was hung out to dry. No one picked up Bradley, who was all alone at the top of the crease and all he had to do was shovel the pass home.

UVM added an empty net goal with less than a second left to round out the scoring, 4-2.

BU has to find a way to beat the trap and really just come to play, tomorrow night. Nothing about their game (other than Sean Maguire and Matt Lane) looked sharp tonight. Passes were wildly inaccurate and some times it looked like guys didn't even want the puck. They would get and immediately just turn and throw it somewhere. Overall, it was just a very disappointing game.