Special teams dominated the scene tonight. All three of BU's goals came via the man advantage and BC notched two of their own power play goals. BC also picked up another on a penally shot in the second period.
The Eagles scored the game winner with just 2:10 left on the power play. In game that saw the two teams combining for 13 power plays, it was the final BC man advantage that decided the game. Bobo Carpenter with one hand on his stick that was stepped on, causing a BC skater (the player is escaping my mind) to fall down. It drew a tripping call from referee Geoff Miller, who was the far ref on the play. Jamie Koharski, the other ref tonight, was right in front of the play and did not call anything. All of this led to Ian McCoshen riffling home the power play goal with a little over two minutes to play.
After a back and forth first period that saw both teams on the power play twice, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson cashed in on a nice play off the rush. Matt Grzelcyk found Ahti Oksanen from in the neutral zone and from just inside the blue line, Ahti dished to JFK. Once in the middle of the slot, Karlsson wristed home his sixth of the year to Thatcher Demko's blocker side.
BU took that lead into the locker room only to see it disappear on a penalty shot 2:01 into the second. Austin Cangelosi was able to beat the BU defense wide and with speed, cut to the middle. Danny O'Regan dragged him down in the slot and Cangelosi was awarded a penalty shot.
On the shot, Cangelosi came in slow, stick handled about 50 times before beating Sean Maguire (31 saves) low glove side. The play Cangelosi made to draw the penalty shot was a common occurrence all night. BU had a tough time dealing with BC's speed to the outside. At points, they were getting abused by the BC forwards.
Oksanen put BU back in the lead just 17 seconds after the Cangelosi goal. Oksanen shoveled home a feed from JFK, who while falling down made a pass back toward the front of the goal from below the line. Karlsson was tripped up in the process of passing to Oksanen that drew another call. The goal was the Finnish defenseman turned forward 100th career point as a Terrier.
Exactly three minutes later, BC scored the game's only even strength goal of the game. McCoshen sent a low, hard drive in on goal. Maguire kicked it out into the slot where Zach Sanford picked it up, moved out of the scrum in front and shelved a backhand from the bottom of the circle.
BC took their first lead with a little less than five minutes to play in the second. Ian McCoshen and Casey Fitzgerald set up Colin White with a cross box pass. The feed was too quick for Maguire to react in time and White caught and released a shot from in tight that went top shelf.
The third period seemed like death by a thousand paper cuts. BU needed a tying goal, yet they were outshot 18-8 in the period. Maguire made some really huge saves to keep his team in the game, but it seemed that the equalizer was never going to come. Then, finally BC took maybe the stupidest penalty of the game. Michael Kim ran the goalie and the door was suddenly open.
Charlie McAvoy found Matt Lane in the high slot for a one time bid. The shot hit Demko high in the shoulder, popped up, and then fell in behind Demko. That made it 3-3 with 4:10 to go.
That feeling of frustration turned to anger after the call on Carpenter that setup the BC game winner. You knew right after the call that BC was going to score. There was no doubt in my mind.
McCoshen added an empty netter with 13 seconds left from about 197ft away to pour some salt in those paper cuts.
Anyway, the two teams go at it again on the other side of Comm Ave tomorrow night.
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