Less than a month after being hospitalized after an off-campus attack, Kevin Schaeffer made his return to the ice for the No. 9 Boston University hockey team in grand fashion.
The senior defenseman scored an empty-netter, his second goal of the year, to cap off BU’s 3-0 win over host Dartmouth College in the Ledyard Bank Classic. All three BU goals came in the third period, as the Terriers (7-4-5, 4-3-4 Hockey East) gave backup goaltender Karson Gillespie more help than he would need. The junior goalie recorded his second win in as many games this year and BU’s first shutout since John Curry’s mid-November win over Providence College, 1-0.
The Terriers’ first goal came 9:26 into the third frame, after BU killed off a 5-minute major on a suspect contact-to-the-head call against Boomer Ewing.
Ewing kept the puck in at the blue line and sent it down low to Matt Gilroy on the right side. Gilroy slipped it middle to a streaking Luke Popko, who sent the shot from the top of the crease just under goalie Mike Devine’s glove.
The Big Green (5-6-2, 4-4-2 ECAC) responded, sending a barrage of shots onto the BU net. Gillespie fended each off en route to his second career shutout. Then BU struck again, as Chris Higgins carried the puck down the left boards against two defensemen.
Holding onto the puck until his help arrived, Higgins dropped a pass behind him to Gilroy, who was trailing the play.
Gilroy, now playing full-time on defense after moving up to forward earlier in the season, sized up the net and tucked a wrister between the left post and Devine with 3:38 remaining.
Dartmouth pulled Devine with just more than two minutes remaining in the third frame but couldn’t manage much pressure on Gillespie with an extra skater. But with 2:03 remaining, Schaeffer flung a clear down the ice that snuck into the left side of the unoccupied net.
The Terriers lost, 4-3, to St. Lawrence University in the tournament’s first round a night prior, falling on a penalty shot in overtime.
