This time, things were supposed to be different.
This time, the Terriers were supposed to turn their season around. This time, Boston College would be without the services of its most potent weapon. This time, the Eagles looked beatable – or at least manageable. This time, every Terrier was healthy and ready to go. This time was supposed to be devoid of letdown, laziness and – most of all – losing.
This time was just like every other time.
The Boston University hockey team watched helplessly as its season slipped even further into the abyss over the weekend, dropping a pair of games and the season series to BC, and falling to eighth place in Hockey East, just three points ahead of last-place Northeastern University. Just a reminder – the last-place team is the only one left out of the conference tournament in March.
The Terriers (6-8-6, 3-7-2 Hockey East), who entered the weekend with high hopes and a completely healthy roster for one of the few times this season, saw their prospects brighten further when they learned that BC forward and Hobey Baker candidate Ben Eaves would miss both games with a knee injury. But even without their best player, the No. 2 Eagles (15-3-3, 8-1-2) rolled over BU by a score of 5-1 on Friday night at Conte Forum and 3-2 Saturday at Walter Brown Arena. The weekend sweep marked the sixth straight regular season loss for BU against its Commonwealth Avenue rival.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the outcome of both games hinged on goaltending. What may surprise people is which netminder was well-oiled and which got his doors kicked in.
BC goalie Matti Kaltiainen – usually singled out as the Achilles’ Heel on a team armed with every other weapon necessary for a national championship run – allowed just three goals on 52 shots over the weekend. That’s from the same goalie who allowed nine goals on 53 shots in Beanpot and Hockey East Tournament losses to BU last season.
At the other end of the ice, BU goalie Sean Fields was reeling from a bad case of deja vu. Exactly one week after allowing three goals on four shots before being pulled to start the second period against Northeastern, Fields gave up three goals on three shots to start the second period Friday against BC. And again, BU coach Jack Parker relieved him of his goaltending duties.
“I thought we didn’t get great goaltending and that hurt us badly,” Parker said Friday night. “[Kaltiainen] made a couple of unbelievable saves on us that would’ve gotten us back in the game, and the game was over. We get one goal, and we gave up a couple of real easy ones.
“I don’t know if they exploded [on offense],” he added. “We exploded in the cage.”
Fields found himself out of position on numerous occasions Friday night, and the Terriers found themselves in a 3-1 hole just 3:45 into the second period. Fields then found himself on the bench and perhaps out of a secure job as No. 1 goalie.
But sophomore backup Stephan Siwiec allowed a soft goal of his own when he misplayed a puck in the corner and was unable to get back into the crease before freshman forward Adam Pineault slid home his third goal of the season.
BU senior forward Kenny Magowan’s first-period goal would be the Terriers’ only tally of the night, and Pineault would add one more in the third to finish the four-goal BC win.
But other than the goaltending, Parker did not seem too displeased with his team’s effort.
“You can’t play too many teams when you go 1-5 [on the power play] and they go 1-10, that takes away offense as well as everything else,” Parker said, also admitting the difficulty of playing hard despite such a daunting deficit. “We reverted back to taking six penalties in that third period, which is absolutely obscene.”
Saturday’s rematch in front of a capacity crowd at Walter Brown was a continuation of Friday’s first period, with the Terriers controlling play for a vast majority of the 60 minutes. But just minutes after a strong penalty kill ignited the Terriers and the crowd, BU’s penchant for penalties came back when Dan Spang took an unnecessary high sticking penalty that led to a power play goal by BC defenseman J.D. Forrest.
BU was unable to get on the board in the first period, despite some help from the Eagles. BC committed six penalties in the first, giving BU numerous power play chances, including a 40-second five-on-three and 1:42 of four-on-three time.
The Terriers got, in an unfortunate way, even more help in the first period when BC sophomore forward Patrick Eaves took a slapshot to the chest just below his throat from less than 10 feet away. Eaves would receive stitches to close a serious laceration on his upper chest before being taken to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for X-rays on what was believed to be a bruised sternum.
After a quick BU rush to open the second period, Siwiec – starting in place of Fields – allowed what he called “a really bad goal on my part,” when BC’s Stephen Gionta tossed a wrister from a terrible angle that found a gap between the post and Siwiec’s left pad to put BC up 2-0. A questionable disallowed goal scored by Kenny Roche further dampened the spirits of the Walter Brown faithful.
But early in the third with the lead down to 2-1 after a late second- period David Van der Gulik goal, Kaltiainen made perhaps his best save of the night, moving across the crease and denying Mullen with the tip of his right toe. Then, BC’s Ryan Murphy tucked home his fourth goal of the season from the side of the net, bouncing the puck off Siwiec’s left pad to give BC a 3-1 lead. A Mullen goal with 6:20 to go gave the Terriers some life, but it was too little, too late.
“We’re squeezing the stick awful hard, no question about it,” Parker said of his players’ frustration. “We’re not getting to the rebound, we had a lot of chances. We got 34 shots, maybe we should have got 44 shots … We might have played 10 games so far this year where we had two goals or less, that’s been our problem all year long.
“That’s been one of our problems all year long,” he added.
The Terriers’ total of six wins through 20 games matches the 1987-88 season, when they were 6-11-3 through 20 contests, and is the fewest since the 1961-62 season, when the Terriers were 5-14-1 at the same point in the season (BU was forced to forfeit the first 15 games of the 1972 season for using an ineligible player).
“It’s always nice to get a regular season sweep from these guys,” Forrest said. “It’s hard against any team and especially against BU.”
This time may have been just like every other time. And if nothing changes, then in a few short months, that time could be worse than any time before.