In sports, there are winners and there are losers. As hockey fans were reminded this weekend, sometimes there are also ties.

If you only saw the first period of Saturday evening’s draw between the Boston University men’s hockey team and the University of Massachusetts, you would say the game was dominated by the fresh, young Terriers.

BU’s early goals in the first period helped to set what was supposed to be a commanding tone for the rest of the game. Unfortunately, that tone faltered in the second period, and after the Terriers watched UMass score twice in the third period, they were lucky to walk away with a tie.

As BU coach Jack Parker said in his press conference after the game, “You have to give UMass a lot of credit for just hanging in there and playing hard throughout. We did not.”

BU started this season ranked 14th in a USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll, behind three other Hockey East teams: Boston College, University of Maine and University of New Hampshire. In this week’s poll, the Terriers were ranked 8th in the nation.

Two weekends ago, the team traveled to St. Louis and won the Warrior Hockey Ice Breaker Tournament, beating No. 13 University of Wisconsin and No. 19 University of Notre Dame. The weekend before that, BU beat the University of Toronto 9-3, outshooting the Varsity Blues 41-7 in the last two periods.

How in the world could they not beat a low, unranked team like UMass, who is projected to be near the bottom of HE when the dust settles on this season?

Looking at the box score, the Terriers did outplay the Minutemen. BU beat UMass in shots and faceoffs, and neither team scored on power plays. In terms of passion, however, after the first period, BU appeared to be simply skating through the motions, figuring that they could coast in on their 2-0 lead over a team who has not won a game this season.

They were wrong.

While a team like the Minutemen may appear to be not of the same caliber as the Terriers, it is important to remember that in HE even the lowliest opponents are better than most. Often, if it were not for a teams’ location in the Northeast, it would fare better in any other conference. That crucial fact is something that appeared to be forgotten by the BU squad Saturday.

BU captain Chris Connolly commented following the game, “We let them hang around and were looking to score more goals instead of tightening up defensively. It cost us a point. That’s a game we should have closed. We need to learn from that.”

The team does need to learn from that and remind themselves that the little guys can be just as important opponents as the big guys. With the conference as tough as ever this year and BU starting off with a young, yet aggressive and hungry team, there is certainly no time to let up.

As one person said to me after the game, BU’s play in the second and third periods was, “unenergized.” The squad seemed to lose interest in playing a team from a school more appropriately referred to as ZooMass. While the Minutemen were having a party around the goal, the BU defense was struggling to catch up.

From a school that has won five national championships, 12 conference titles and 29 Beanpots, this is unacceptable. BU is a school that actually has a rich athletic and academic history to show off to potential recruits. UMass can only entice recruits and their families with the damaged caused by the previous evening’s frat parties, as well as video of their last riot. BU has a coach who has won the NCAA’s Coach of the Year three times and has coached multiple NHL stars. UMass has his former assistant.

Even though BU may be that much better than UMass, the NCAA titles and the HE championship trophy will not simply be handed to any team. Hard work and a constant focus on the goal of winning games must be ideas in player’s mind at all times; even when the game doesn’t seem to count. There are always points on the line.

“I don’t want us playing on our heels,” said UMass coach Don “Toot” Cahoon. “If we play on our heels, our youth will show. I want to see us playing on our toes.”

Parker’s former assistant may have accidentally given the Terriers the best advice possible when talking about UMass, a team which has not had a lead at all this season. He reminded the BU squad that to win it you have to want it.