“BU might be one of the best teams in the country right now.”
And with those words Saturday night, Northeastern University coach Greg Cronin verbalized what many Terrier fans might be reluctant to finally admit.
The Boston University men’s hockey team is a contender once again.
It might have taken four months, but at long last, the Terriers have righted the proverbial ship and appear ready to live up to their lofty preseason billing as the third best team in Hockey East.
Second place — where BU (14-14-4, 12-8-3 HE) sits in this morning’s conference standings — wouldn’t be so bad either.
Once lumped among the nation’s biggest underachievers, the Terriers carried their recent string of superb play into this weekend’s home-and-home series against No. 14 Northeastern, dismantling the Huskies to the tune of 7-4 and 3-2 victories Friday and Saturday at Matthews Arena and Agganis Arena, respectively.
“With the way we felt about ourselves first semester, it didn’t look too promising,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “[UNH coach] Dick Umile was talking to [BU associate head coach] David Quinn the other day, and [Umile] said everybody knew there was going to be a “market correction” for BU sooner or later. We’ve made a market correction to get us back to where we’re accustomed to being — fighting for home-ice and hopefully getting to the national tournament.”
“We knew we had a good team from the start,” said rookie center Nick Bonino, “but we got off on the wrong track. I think we knew all year we had the ability, and with hard work, we could get back into the race. It’s paid off so far.”
The sweep of the Huskies (14-13-3, 11-10-2), which assured BU a spot in next month’s conference tournament, saw the re-emergence of the Terriers’ vaunted Red Line: senior co-captain Pete MacArthur, senior winger Bryan Ewing and junior center Chris Higgins. The trio combined for an 11-point weekend that included six goals — none more important than the game-tying and game-winning strikes in Saturday’s third period.
A sluggish second frame Saturday left the Terriers trailing, 2-1, and in need of a serious jolt. Their senior leaders obliged. Just over three minutes into the final stanza, MacArthur backhanded Ewing’s pass from the left of the crease past NU goalie Brad Thiessen (32 saves) at the goalmouth. The assist marked Ewing’s 100th career point, but his contributions for the night were far from over.
At 11:54, the Plymouth native capped his line’s torrid weekend by snapping off a wrist shot from the left circle that beat Thiessen and, in the process, salted away BU’s sixth victory in as many tries — the longest active win streak in the country.
Cronin attributed the game-winner to a series of NU breakdowns.
“We had the puck at the blue line, we turn it over,” he said. “We had a trap going on and the guy missed the guy in his trap, and we didn’t staple Ewing when he had the puck.”
The Red Line’s heroics followed a productive second period for the Huskies, who used a power-play goal from freshman Tyler McNeely (11:32) and a go-ahead tally from defenseman David Strathman (17:12) to assume their lone lead of the weekend.
Bonino spotted BU goalie Brett Bennett (20 saves) an early advantage 5:06 into the first, when he sidestepped two NU defenders at the left circle and wheeled around the cage before tucking the puck inside the right post.
Friday’s highly entertaining series opener featured some chippy play (combined 24 penalties) and several quality scoring chances, as the teams traded odd-man rushes for the better part of what Parker labeled “a track meet.”
NU drew first blood at 10:36 of the first, when sophomore Chad Costello one-timed a McNeely feed past the stick side of Bennett (25 saves). BU juniors Jason Lawrence (11:47) and Brandon Yip (14:46) closed the stanza with unanswered goals, and Higgins put the finishing touches on a nifty a tick-tack-toe tally 3:19 into the second, made easy by tape-to-tape passes from MacArthur and Ewing.
McNeely’s 10th goal of the season at 15:48 pulled Northeastern within one, but the frenetic third period belonged to the Terriers, who overcame a 13-10 deficit in shots to pot four goals (two power play, one shorthanded) and outlast the resilient Huskies.
MacArthur’s power-play goal at 6:52, which lifted the Terriers to a 4-2 cushion, set up Ewing’s backbreaking shorthanded tally. After meeting freshman Kevin Shattenkirk’s backhanded pass in the neutral zone, Ewing motored into the NU zone and roofed a breakaway wrist shot over the outstretched glove of Thiessen (31 saves) at 8:20.
“Everything was running through my head,” Ewing said. “I knew I could beat him top glove — I had before.”
A pair of Joe Vitale goals over the final 4:30 kept the Huskies within striking distance, but BU followed each with empty-netters from Ewing and Yip, respectively.
Fresh off two losses to a BU club that’s hitting its stride in rapid fashion, a humbled Cronin compared the current Terriers to the team his Huskies saw back in early November.
“They’re playing very, very well and they’ve got four lines that come after you,” Cronin said. “You look at their depth chart and the point totals on each line, and it’s pretty impressive. They’ve hunkered down defensively and become a much more difficult team to play against.”
