BURLINGTON, Vt. – Fog lay thick on Vermont’s Chittenden County last night, extending east from Burlington to the Connecticut River.
And it still sits over the Boston University men’s hockey team.
After a string of four ties that saw BU go from dismal to dominant over the course of two weeks, the No. 9 Terriers went to the University of Vermont last night to convert on all the momentum that was hidden by those even scores. They left the recipients of a 2-1 loss that came in the final four minutes, to an unranked Catamounts team with a future just as cloudy as that of the Terriers.
Ties force a team to wait and see what develops. Like watching a Polaroid as it morphs from a gray blur into distinguishable shapes and colors. But losses demand answers, gripping for reasons behind their existence.
And sometimes, as was the case last night at the Gutterson Fieldhouse, the answers don’t come. The fog just lingers, sitting over a BU team that could either explode or crawl out of it.
“This is a tough place to play, this is a good team,” said BU coach Jack Parker, whose team moves to 2-2-4 (2-2-3 Hockey East). “We’re happy to go four straight at home now after being on the road. In general, we’re still trying to find out who we are, still trying to get offense going. But I like this loss more than a few ties we had earlier, as far as team effort.”
The Terriers controlled the game for most of the first period, leaving it tied, 1-1, with a 13-8 advantage in shots. And aside from a few bursts of momentum they gave to the Catamounts (4-4-1, 2-1-1) in the form of power plays, they never fully gave up control of the game.
Not until Ryan Gunderson fired a shot from the left point with 3:47 left in the game, on the man-advantage. His shot, going toward the right of net, ricocheted off Dean Strong’s stick in front of the net and right past John Curry’s right shoulder.
“They set the play up pretty well, shot the puck to my left and I had to honor the shot because it was going to the right of the net,” Curry said. “Then the guy just tipped it in. Great set-up by the D-man and even better job tipping it in.”
Curry had, to that point, provided another game just like the ones he has during this foggy period, making 22 saves on the night and taking the night’s third star. While the team has struggled to find its identity-and with that, goals-he’s given them the time to do so, with sorcery that could put David Blaine out of business.
He let up the first goal 7:34 into the first, when Chris Myers ripped a shot at net on the power play. With Vermont crammed in front of the net, the puck deflected off Mark Lutz’ stick and sat in the crease. Brian Roloff then dove to knock it in and even the score.
The tally made BU’s first goal, on the first shot of the game, a wash. Just 1:22 into the first, Ryan Weston controlled a bouncing puck near the blue line and let loose a slapper. It snuck past Vermont goalie Joe Fallon, whose goals-against average (at 1.88 going into the game) puts him at fifth in the nation.
“Every game we’ve played over the last couple years it’s either been a tie, or a close one,” said Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon. “Two goals is the max score, and that’s a credit to both goaltenders. I think they both played exceptionally well, but we were fortunate-it’s a game of inches-to win.”
But the game got more physical as it went on, and both teams skated equally, matching charge with charge. But finally, after Vermont’s Dan Owens broke free with the puck on a breakaway-after Curry had already stoned a recent one-on-none-Eric Gryba took him down with what Parker called a “smart” penalty.
On the ensuing power play, Strong snuck the puck past Curry, and BU couldn’t recover.
“Our offense hasn’t been clicking, our defense hasn’t been putting the puck on the net,” said BU captain defenseman Sean Sullivan. “It’s just an all-around effort to score some goals but that will come. We’re in a slump right now, but hopefully we’ll jump out pretty soon.”
Sneddon tried to assess the win for Vermont, and what brought it on, for a Catamount team that had lost four of five games before last night. But nobody seemed to really be able to pinpoint why it came.
“Anytime we go up against BU it’s playoff hockey,” Sneddon said. “We challenged the guys tonight, said it was gonna be a very important game for our confidence, and really a statement to ourselves because we have so much respect for Boston University and the way they play hockey.
“It was a great college hockey game and we capitalized on the power play late and that was really the difference,” he continued. “I really liked our jump tonight, we pressured them in their zone very well, and that might have been the difference, keeping them from getting speed coming out of the zone.”
There were a few other things he credited as difference-makers-inches, forward pressure, play in the corners.
But in terms of BU’s season, the fog remains to be lifted. The difference-makers, good or bad, have yet to come.
“We’re .500 right now with two wins and two losses after eight games,” Curry said. “So you don’t want to panic yet, but we gotta get a little more fire in our stomachs, I think. We have two big games, we can get back on the right track.”