After watching the Boston University hockey team pepper Concordia University goalie Philippe Ozga with shots just 17 seconds into Friday night’s exhibition tilt at Walter Brown Arena, the final outcome was predictable.
But the score wasn’t.
The Icedogs won, 2-0, as Ozga made 57 saves for the Stingers.
“We’re going to have to get a lot of shots to get a goal if we face goalies like that” said BU Coach Jack Parker.
“Their goalie played well, and I just hope next time we’re goal scorers and not just shooters,” said BU captain Freddy Meyer.
BU was clearly the more talented team, a fact compounded in the fatigued play of Concordia.
“They drove down from Montreal today,” Parker said. “They weren’t much of a challenge leg-wise, and I think that was the difference in the game – the speed was too much for them. I know what our guys would be like if we had an eight-hour bus ride up there; we’d be legless too.”
BU got on the board less than two minutes into the game when junior forward Steve Greeley knocked in a floating puck that rebounded off Ozga. The assists came from junior forwards Gregg Johnson and Frantisek Skladany.
From that goal, the Icedogs continued to attack, and managed 19 shots on net in the first frame, compared to only four by the Stingers.
Concordia’s only counter against the waves of BU forwards was physical play that ended up being penalized more often than not. The game’s most dominant trend was the habitation of the sin bin by Stingers.
BU added to the lead in the second, when freshman forward David Vander Gulik controlled the puck behind the net and brought it around to the front, scoring on a backhand to Ozga’s stick side. Freshman center Brad Zancanaro and junior forward Ken Magowan contributed the assists on the goal, which came at the 8:50 mark.
From there, the Terriers seemed, at times, to play down to the level of their competition, never stooping to sloppy play, but never raising their game to blow out the Stingers. The deceptive domination can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the great play of Ozga, the fact that it was an exhibition game, and the fact that the newcomers and the returnees have yet to fully mesh for BU.
One positive in the night stemmed from the testiness brought on by the physical play. The freshmen showed the willingness to join into the scrums that are all too familiar in hockey, sure to be noticed on a physical team like the Terriers that is always looking to fight its battles together.
Another positive coming out of those battles and scrums was the obvious leadership shown by BU’s new captain, Meyer. Always one of the team’s more penalized players in his first three years, Meyer not only went through the game without going off once, he was also pulling freshman defenseman Dan Spang out of a tussle in the first, showing the leadership and maturity that Parker said he counts on for his senior leaders.
Despite BU’s struggle to get the scoreline to reflect the game’s tone, Parker was happy with his team’s effort, and liked what he saw from the six freshmen who suited up.
The fact that it was a close game scoring-wise was good for us, and I got to see some of the freshmen for the first time in the lineup,” said Parker, who scratched both senior forward Ryan Priem and junior forward Mark Mullen so as to get a better look at the newcomers. “They played pretty well.”
While he said he is happy with the team’s performance, Parker is expecting a much different type of contest when the Icedogs travel to Wisconsin to play in the Ice Breaker tournament, hosted by the University of Wisconsin next weekend. A meeting with the Badgers would come in the final game, with BU matched up against Northern Michigan University in the first round game. There is also a chance BU will face Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the second game.
“It wasn’t like anything we’ll see next week, that’s for sure” Parker said.