With a win and a loss, the streak ends at seven and the No. 16 Boston University men’s hockey team lives to see another day in second place.
It was an up-and-down weekend for the Terriers, who extended their nation-best six-game winning streak to seven with a 3-0 victory over the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Friday at Agganis Arena, and then saw that streak come to a halt just 24 hours later with a 5-1 loss to the Minutemen at the Mullins Center.
With the teams rolling in opposite directions before the series, the collision was long overdue. And despite the Terriers’ commanding 43-7-3 lifetime series lead, the Minutemen were able to take their first-ever season series over the Terriers with Saturday’s victory.
After a night when the Terriers (15-15-4, 13-9-3 HE) – who were aided by freshman Nick Bonino and his two third-period scores – decimated the UMass (11-14-6, 6-13-5) defense while stonewalling the Minutemen on the other end of the ice, it was a complete role reversal Saturday night.
The Terriers’ lock-down defense that’s been so integral to their late-season success was exposed to the tune of five goals on 15 shots, while the league’s highest-scoring offense was held to just one goal on the other end.
“I thought the energy level and the need to win every battle was a huge discrepancy between my club and UMass tonight,” said BU coach Jack Parker after Saturday’s loss. “I thought in general we had an off night, and they made us have an off night. They played well this weekend, and as I said [Friday], this club has been deserving to win for awhile and they haven’t won.”
And yet, despite the loss and the end of the streak, good fortune smiled on the Terriers yet again with the University of Vermont — BU’s counterpart in the second-place slot — losing to the University of Maine and Providence College tying Boston College, keeping the standings exactly the same as they’d been heading into the weekend.
“It would have been nice to extend [the streak], but once again we got some pretty good breaks with everyone else,” Parker said. “We’re still in second place, so maybe it won’t hurt us that badly.”
UMass, on the other hand, improved to 3-11-1 in their last 15 games Saturday by way of two power-play goals, a shorthanded score, an empty-net tally and an even-strength breakaway goal. The only offense the Terriers could muster was a one-timer by junior Brandon Yip in the closing minutes of the first period, while brutal turnovers hampered the defense throughout the game.
“It was as if we were shaving points for a while there,” Parker said of his team’s inept effort on defense.
But the night before, it was the Terriers who seemed to be at the top of the mountain, breaking a scoreless tie late in the second period to grab the lasting lead.
With just over five minutes remaining in the middle frame, Bonino carried the puck into the zone, sliding a pass over to Yip on the left side. Bonino was tripped on the play, leading to a delayed penalty on the Minutemen and a golden opportunity for the Terriers. Yip promptly sent the puck back to Bonino in the middle, where he fired a shot on UMass goalie Paul Dainton that junior Jason Lawrence redirected into the net for the score.
Bonino then tacked on two more goals for good measure in the third on two outstanding individual efforts.
With Red Line center Chris Higgins sidelined in the second with a concussion, the Terriers went to a three-center rotation that saw Bonino centering co-captain Brian McGuirk and assistant captain Ryan Weston at the 4:41 mark in the third. McGuirk slid a pass to Bonino from behind the net, and watched as the rookie shot and gathered his own rebound before beating Dainton stick side on the second effort.
At 8:28, Bonino capped the scoring with a highlight-reel goal that saw him carry the puck into the zone on the left side and deke three UMass defenders before placing a wrist shot above Dainton’s stick yet again.
