“Labdien” means “hello” in Latvian.
But Jekabs Redlihs, Boston University’s rookie defenseman and a native of Latvia, didn’t need words to introduce himself to American college hockey.
Instead, Redlihs made acquaintances this weekend by leading the Terriers to the Ice Breaker Tournament championship, earning most valuable player honors and notching a goal and two assists in No. 4 BU’s 5-4 shootout win over No. 14 Northern Michigan University and 5-1 title-game pounding of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Redlihs’ pair of assists both came in Saturday night’s finale, but his most important contribution may have come on the blue line, where he and his mates limited RPI to just 15 shots. BU was at its stingiest in the first period, allowing only three tries on junior goalie Sean Fields while converting its dominance into a 3-0 lead.
Senior defenseman Mike Bussoli’s blast from the left point got the scoring started about midway through the opening period, set up by sophomore Bryan Miller and junior forward Mark Mullen.
Sophomore center David Klema gave BU a 2-0 lead about three minutes later, when he ripped a wrister past RPI goalie Nathan Marsters. John Sabo and Brian McConnell got the assists on Klema’s goal, though for the majority of the game Klema was flanked by Justin Maiser and John Laliberte.
Of the Terriers’ nine regulation goals this weekend, only one Terrier left Madison, Wisc., as a multi-goal scorer. McConnell’s goal with 5:02 to go in the first gave him that distinction, as the sophomore center one-timed a shot after Justin Maiser took a Redlihs pass behind the net and fed it to McConnell on the doorstep for the goal.
RPI started to make a game of it just 38 ticks into the second, when Danny Eberly beat Fields on the power play, the fifth man-advantage goal surrendered by BU in four periods. Exactly three minutes later, however, junior Frantisek Skladany would erase the mistake by opening the Icedogs’ lead back up to three with a wrist shot from the faceoff circle. Redlihs and senior defenseman John Cronin added the assists.
Maiser, in his first action of the season, capped the scoring halfway through the third from Klema and Laliberte.
It was the second consecutive year the Icedogs threw 41 shots at Marsters, but unlike last year’s hold-on-at-the-end 6-5 win, the Engineers never mounted a serious threat. Including last week’s exhibition game (59 shots) BU has now surpassed the 40-shot plateau each time it’s been on the ice this season, though Saturday night may have been the breakout game for those expected to be BU’s finishers, such as McConnell, Maiser and Skladany.
To get to the final, BU’s littlest man came up huge on Friday. After the Icedogs and Wildcats of Northern Michigan fought through regulation and an overtime session deadlocked at 4-4, 5-foot 5-inch Brad Zancanaro scored in the eighth round of a sudden-death shootout to advance BU to the final game. Because the tie was not settled in overtime, however, it will remain officially a tie.
BU is now 1-0-1 on the season.
Zancanaro had a goal in regulation, as well, which at the time evened the score at two apiece after McConnell’s first period tally. Laliberte added a shorthanded goal less than a minute after Zancanaro tied the game, but BU would lose that lead and fall behind, 4-3, until Redlihs forced overtime with less than seven minutes to play.
In the shootout, two of five shooters scored for each team, with the Terriers getting goals from Skladany and Laliberte. McConnell clanged a post in the first shootout session, but redeemed himself in sudden death by burning Northern Michigan goalie Craig Kowalski on the backhand.
Skladany was next, and though he missed, Fields made a big stop to keep the Terriers alive. Zancanaro made the most of the opportunity, holding the puck a long time before picking a spot over Kowalski’s glove and ripping a wrist shot to the back of the net. Fields then made the goal stand up, denying Dirk Southern with a pad save.
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Oddly, BU jumped a spot in this week’s USCHO poll, up to No. 4 despite losing the first-place vote it was given last week … Saturday night’s win was BU’s 1,200th all-time victory. After the game, Parker thanked his predecessors, Harry Cleverly (1945-62) and Jack Kelley (1962-72), although it is Parker whose 656 wins accounts for more than half of the all-time total … The Icedogs converted 3-of-14 power play chances this weekend, while opponents were 5-of-16. Neither Northern Michigan nor RPI scored an even-strength goal, however … Redlihs was joined on the All-Tournament team by McConnell and Fields. Fields needed to make just 35 saves in two nights for the honor … Redlihs’s effort was not only MVP-worthy, but it also earned him recognition as Hockey East’s Defensive Player of the Week.