The No. 12 Boston University men’s ice hockey team came into Agganis Arena Saturday night riding a wave of momentum after knocking off No. 6 Providence College 2-0 yesterday. The Terriers (4-5-1, 2-2-1 Hockey East) hosted No. 15 Northeastern University in the first half of their home-and-home series. BU was unable to come out victorious on their home ice and lost 4-1.
The last time these Hockey East foes played, the Terriers had a come-from-behind victory in the Hockey East quarterfinals. However, they were unable to repeat the script and come back in this intense game. Senior forward Nolan Stevens scored in the quarterfinals matchup for the Huskies (5-2-1, 3-0-0 Hockey East) and added three more goals in Saturday’s matchup.
“Obviously, Northeastern is just a better hockey team than we are right now,” BU head coach David Quinn said.
The Terriers managed to successfully kill off their first penalty of the night. However, freshman forward Bobby Hampton scored a backhand goal just seconds after the man advantage, his second of the season, at 11:44 in the first.
The Huskies added to their lead at the last second in the first period. Stevens took a pass from sophomore forward Matt Filipe and scored on a backhanded shot as time expired in the period.
“I knew it was running out of time, but I just wanted to make a play as quickly as I could,” Stevens said. “When it went it at first I didn’t think it counted.”
Period two started with the Terriers on the wrong side of a 4-3. Soon after, BU found itself on their first power play of the night and scored its first goal of the game.
Junior forward Jordan Greenway tipped in a pass from sophomore forward Patrick Harper by way of freshman forward Shane Bowers 2:09 into the second period to put the Terriers within a goal.
Stevens would strike again for Northeastern. He took a pass from freshman forward Zach Solow and Shea to shoot the puck past sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger. The goal gave Northeastern a 3-1 lead with just about halfway to play in the second period.
Seconds later, it appeared that the freshman forward Brady Tkachuk scored his first goal of his career. After a lengthy review, referees ruled that it was not a goal and the score would remain 3-1.
The Huskies would score one more time before the end of the period.
It would be none other than Stevens who picked up his third goal of the game in a hat-trick performance at 18:06 in the second to bring the score up to 4-1.
BU would be forced to play majority of the final stanza without senior forward and assistant captain Nikolas Olsson as he received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for contact to the head, less than five minutes in to the third period.
Senior defenseman and captain Brandon Hickey also received a 10-minute misconduct penalty.
Neither team was able to generate any additional offense and the score remained 4-1 in favor of the Huskies.
The Terriers will look to avenge the loss this Friday in the second half of the home-and-home series at the Matthews Arena.
“We’ll get back to work on Monday, because we play them again on Friday,” said Quinn “Keep working on things we need to work on to become a better hockey team.”
