No Dice; BU Comeback Too Little To Late

Despite pumping 22 shots on BC goalie Joe Woll in the third period and scoring two extra attacker goals in the last two minutes, BU was unable to overcome a sluggish second period that saw the Eagles scored twice on their way to a 3-2 win and a birth in the championship game.

Bobo Carpenter is stuffed on a second period power play
shot by BC goalie Joe Woll
(Photo by Matt Dresens)

BC’s two goals in the second both came from a bit of a distance. First, Julius Mattila wristed home his eighth goal of the year from above the circle to Jake Oettinger’s glove hand 1:58 into the period. By all accounts, it was a rather weak goal for Oettinger to allow.

Midway through the frame and with BU on the power play, BC turned the tables and took a Terrier turnover in the neutral zone and went the other way. From the top of the dot, Ryan Fitzgerald ripped home his first of two on the night, shorthanded.

“I thought the shorthanded goal really changed the complexion of the game,” said Coach Quinn. “ We had a good first period, we played well, we had some great scoring chances. The second period starts, we give up a goal we’d all like to have back and to me, the back-breaker was the second goal, the shorthanded goal.”

BC scored just 58 seconds into the third period on Fitzgerald’s second of the game from Chris Brown and Matty Gaudreau on a nice passing sequence.

The Terriers finally came to life midway through the third and played with a bit of deprecation and effort, something that was clearly lacking in the second period. They had a pair of power plays that generated some good looks, but still, nothing was getting past Woll, who made 42 saves on the evening.

Finally, Jordan Greenway poked home a chance from the top of the crease to cut the BC lead to 3-1 with 2:24 left and Jake Oettinger off for the extra attacker. Clayton Keller seemed to lose the handle on the puck at the side of the cage and the puck centered to Greenway in a scrum, where he was able to force it past Woll for his 10th of the year.

1:02 later, Keller cashed in on a dagger to Woll’s blocker side, making it a one-goal game with 1:22 left. It would be the closest the Terriers would come.

“We did some crazy things there with the goalie pulled twice,” added Quinn. “We had chances to tie it, but again, I mentioned this the past few weeks, playing with fire and we played with an inferno tonight.”

With 9.8 left, BU had and offensive zone draw that BC center Ryan Fitzgerald turtled on, completely covering up the puck, but no whistle was blown for delay of game and the clock ran out. Following that, a complete line brawl broke out that had Brandon Hockey and Casey Fitzgerald getting into the closest thing to an actual fight I've seen in a college hockey game.

Tomorrow night, BC will be playing for their lives against Lowell in the Hockey East Championship game. They must win to make the NCAA’s. BU is safe and will in all likelihood be shipped west to Fargo.