Lookback: Build A Wall

Player of the Week
Jake Oettinger, 2-0-0, 66 of 67 saves
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

BU is currently riding a six game win streak, the longest streak since Jack Eichel donned the scarlet and white back in 2015. This past weekend, the Terriers swept Boston College for the first time since 2002. Things are going pretty well on Comm Ave right now, but before anyone gets too ahead of themselves, a quick look at the league standings shows BU is still three points behind the Eagles for first place. Granted, BU has two games in hand on BC, but the race is not even close to over yet.

The Terriers needed a standout performance in net by Jake Oettinger to stymie a BC offense that was scoring at a 3.39 goals per-game clip coming into the weekend. Oettinger allowed one goal all weekend, a brilliant power play set up by Casey Fitzgerald to Colin White backdoor on Friday night. In total the Lakeville, Minnesota native, stopped 66 of 67 shots in two games and was named NCAA Hockey's first star of the week.

Oettinger’s most impressive period was easily the third frame of Friday night’s game. BU was heavily outplayed, but Oettinger stood tall and turned aside all twelve shots he faced in that period to preserve a 2-1 win.

“I think it's big for a goalie to have calm body language,” said Oettinger after Monday night’s 3-0 shutout. “It helps the whole team in front of me. Just being a rock back there for those guys helps them. They just did a really good job in front of me tonight.”

Special Teams
The Terriers were perfect on the man advantage Monday night, scoring all three goals with an Eagle in the box. BU also killed six of seven penalties on the weekend and currently sits second in the nation on the PK at 89.92%, just a few percentage points behind Bemidji, at 90.29%.

“Special teams were huge. Obviously, we kept them off the scoreboard on our penalty kill and our power play gets a huge goal at the key time," mentioned Quinn on Monday.

At the Polls
Prior to Monday’s game, BU jumped from fifth to third in the USCHO poll. For the first time in their short college hockey history, Penn State was ranked number one. Denver was second and Duluth and Lowell rounded out the top five in that respective order.

Hockey East Scoreboard

Thursday:
Northeastern 3, at New Hampshire 5
Miane 3, at UConn 6

Friday:
Notre Dame 2, at Merrimack 1
Vermont 4, at Providence 3
Boston College 1, at Boston University 2

Saturday:
Maine 4, vs UConn 0 (Frozen Fenway)
New Hampshire 2, vs Northeastern 2 (OT) (Frozen Fenway)
Vermont 1, at Providence 4
Notre Dame 2, at Merrimack 4
Lowell 2, at UMass 1 (Non League Game)

Monday:
Boston University 3, at Boston College 0.