Twenty great minutes sustain a team not.
The Boston University (13-8-2, 7-6-0 Hockey East) hockey team learned that not-so-ancient proverb the hard way last night, losing 3-1 to Boston College (13-5-3, 9-3-1 Hockey East) at Walter Brown Arena.
BC forward Dave Spina scored twice and added an assist, while goalie Matti Kaltiainen stopped 25 of 26 shots, edging out his BU counterpart, Sean Fields, whose 28 saves weren’t enough.
The first period was a superbly played blur, with both teams making rush after rush. Despite BU having the edge, BC got on the board first, with Ben Eaves wristing a tough angle shot off of a carom from the backboards for his 10th goal of the year. Spina and defenseman Andrew Alberts assisted on the power play tally.
From there, the Terriers controlled play, getting what would prove to be their best chances on a four-on-three power play with four minutes left in the frame. Kaltiainen came up biggest when his team needed him most, turning each grade-A chance BU had away, and keeping the slate clean.
‘Matti was very, very strong in goal, especially when they had a four-on-three,’ said BC coach Jerry York.
BC took a one-goal lead into the dressing room, despite BU’s domination, and came out a different team. The Terriers did too, as they were unable to answer the defensive changes made by the Eagles staff.
BU managed a feeble four shots on net in the second frame after peppering Kaltiainen with 17 in the first. In contrast, BC put the puck on Fields 13 times in the second, and ran their lead up to three goals before all was said and done.
It took 17:51 of play in the middle period, but BC added its second when Tony Voce slid a pass through the crease for Spina to tuck away in the empty net. The power play came about because of an unfortunate too-many-men-on-the-ice call that came when sophomore forward Justin Maiser hopped off the bench only to find the puck at his skates.
A second strange penalty resulted in BC’s third goal. Freshman forward Brad Zancanaro took a tough hit from BC’s Ty Hennes, losing his helmet in the process. Zancanaro got tied up with Hennes, unable to either get back to his headwear or the BU bench, as rules mandate a player must do. Hennes’ appeal to referee Scott Hansen paid off, as the official blew the whistle directly after Hennes motioned to him.
On the ensuing power play, Spina put in his second of the night, taking a pass from a double teamed Eaves and flipping a backhand above Fields stick shoulder.
While BU’s early season discipline problems could be evoked, BU coach Jack Parker couldn’t fault a discipline breakdown on this night. He also wasn’t faulting Hansen and his crew for BC’s power play opportunities.
‘Zancanaro was playing the guy, loses his helmet and he’s still defending the guy, and he’s gotta do one of two things, he’s either gotta disengage and go pick up his helmet or he’s gotta go to the bench,’ Parker said. ‘To do either one of those things he had to get by the guy he was covering. He couldn’t get to the other side of him and he couldn’t get to the bench either. You cannot blame the referees for either penalty.’
Parker wouldn’t come out and say it, but his tone wasn’t so kind toward Hansen when he discussed the 10-minute misconduct call on sophomore forward Brian McConnell that came as the players lined up for the faceoff after Spina’s second goal.
‘I asked the referee what it was all about, if he was swearing at him, and he told me, ‘He tapped his stick at me and stared at me,” said a still surprised Parker.
The third period saw BU come out energized, but it ended up being too little too late. After senior center Brian Collins won the faceoff forward, senior captain Freddy Meyer skated in from the right point and dug out the puck, wheeled and fired a quick shot between Kaltiainen’s pads, cutting the lead to two goals and igniting a frenzy in Walter Brown.
In the end, it wouldn’t be enough. The Terriers saw two similar strong chances slide harmlessly away from senior forward John Sabo and junior forward Frantisek Skladany when both players, in separate instances, minutes apart, skated in on the net only to lose control of the puck trying to transfer from backhand to forehand.
Unsurprisingly, there were some fireworks as the game came to a close. Voce was involved in a couple altercations, escaping unpenalized after spearing Meyer in the gut, and getting involved on the game’s last shift with Collins. The senior assistant captain for the Icedogs, normally a mild-mannered presence, had to be steered clear of the BC bench as the whistle blew. All that leads one to believe that there will be more than a couple of altercations when the teams go at it again tonight at Conte Forum in this year’s final regular season matchup of the two Commonwealth Ave. rivals.