Third Period Outburst Lands BU Back In Win Column

Keiffer Bellows and Chase Phelps
celebrate after Phelps scored in the
second period.
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

After battling to a 4-4 come-from-behind tie last night at Agganis, BU once again found themselves facing a multi-goal deficit in the second period of tonight’s eventual 8-4 win that saw seven different Terriers score at the Whittemore Center.

“Our morale and our psyche was pretty fragile,” said Quinn. “Last night getting down 2-0, tying it, then going down 4-2, then battling back to get a gutsy point. And then tonight, obviously we get behind 1-0, behind 3-1, tying up, going down 4-3, making 4-4 right before the end of the second. You know, playing the third period that we did again tonight. To do what we did says an awful lot about that group of guys in that locker room.”  

Looking at a 4-4 game at the start of the third, Patrick Harper scored his second of the night just 3:30 into the final frame. Charlie McAvoy made a strong rush up the far side before dishing to Harper in the slot, where the freshman buried the eventual game winner.

Three minutes later, Kieffer Bellows potted his second goal in three games to add some much-needed insurance. From behind the goal line, Bellows was able to wrap in a bank shot, off UNH goalie Danny Tirone and in.

“We’ve had a lot of good third periods,” mentioned Quinn. “I think under the circumstances, that was the best third period this season. We needed something good to happen. Last night we had something good happen, but we didn’t get the win. Tonight we needed something good to happen and get the win and that’s what happened.

Way back in the first, UNH opened the scoring on Jason Salvaggio’s first of two, midway through the opening period. Minutes later, John MacLoud netted his first of the year from the left point to tie the game 1-1. Just as BU was getting some sort of momentum, the nation’s leading scoring Tyler Kelleher ripped home his 20th goal of the year on the power play to give the Cats a 2-1 lead headed to the second.

2:59 into the third, Salvaggio added his second on a rebound to Jake Oettinger’s right.

Before the Terrier offense could really kick into gear, it continued to draw from unexpected sources. Chase Phelps went post and in from the left hash mark on Tirone after a great feed from Keiffer Bellows. It was his second goal of the year.

Roughly two minutes later, Patrick Harper collected his own rebound out of a scrum in front and tied the game on his first of two. It was his 10th of the year.

Just as BU looked to have crawled out of the cellar (once again) UNH answered. Justin Fergona and Ara Nazarian broke in two on one. From the top of the circle, Fergona slid a pass over to Nazarian, who toasted Oettinger blocker side.

Dante Fabbro scored the game’s most pivotal goal with less than two minutes left in the second period. At the top of the far circle, Fabbro snuck in a low warm-burner of a shot past Tirone to knot the game 4-4.

Bobo Carpenter notched his 13th of the year at 16:27 of the third period and Clayton Keller added an empty-net goal to round out the scoring.

This was BU’s first win at the Whitt since November 2012, when UNH was ranked number one in the country.

With a BC tie against Vermont, BU is two points behind the Eagles with two games to play. BU will face Notre Dame at home for a pair, while BC will square off with Lowell in a home and home next weekend.