Icedogs upend No. 5 New Hampshire

It may be the New Hampshire way to drive with courtesy, but the Boston University way befits its home state.

The Icedogs were fast and aggressive, getting to their destination as quickly (and sometimes rudely) as possible in an impressive 5-2 win over the University of New Hampshire last night.

‘No story, no excuses, Mike Ayers kept us in the game,’ said New Hampshire coach Dick Umile. ‘They just outplayed us.’

Senior captain Freddy Meyer (one goal, one assist) and junior forward Frantisek Skladany (one goal, two assists) terrorized the Wildcats, while junior netminder Sean Fields rebounded from his gaffe against Boston College, saving 19 of 21 shots for the win.

Despite a dominant first frame, BU (14-9-2, 8-7-0 Hockey East) headed into the first intermission trailing 2-1, as New Hampshire (16-5-3, 10-3-1 Hockey East) knocked home two goals on two of its only chances of the period.

Tyler Scott put the Wildcats up when he knocked a Jim Abbot rebound past Fields 4:32 into the game.

Junior forward Kenny Magowan evened things up. Magowan stickhandled in on New Hampshire goalie Michael Ayers, appearing to lose control, but having good fortune in the form of New Hampshire defenseman Mick Mounsey’s leg, as the puck bounced over Ayers.

Preston Callander restored the Wildcat lead when he circled the net and fired a wrister over Fields.

Despite the deficit, BU coach Jack Parker was happy with his team’s play in the first.

‘I’m real pleased with our effort I’m real pleased with our composure,’ Parker said. ‘Especially when we’re down 2-1.’

With six minutes left in the second, which was the most evenly played period of the game, BU knotted things up when sophomore Brian McConnell back from a one-game stint on the healthy scratch list and playing only his second game at BU on the left wing popped in a power play tally. After Meyer made a nice play to keep control of the puck, Skladany slid a pass to sophomore defenseman Bryan Miller, who carried the puck toward the net and passed to the middle, where the puck took a slight deflection off a New Hampshire defenseman’s stick and found a wide-open McConnell.

The game stayed tied until the 10:22 mark when sophomore center David Klema wowed the crowd with a brilliant goal that proved to be the game-winner. Sophomore forward Matt Radoslovich slid the puck to Meyer, who dropped the puck to Klema along the left boards. Klema took the puck and skated alongside New Hampshire defenseman Tim Horst, kicking it up a notch and speeding by the helpless Horst. Klema moved toward the net and took the puck to his forehand. Ayers took the move to mean Klema was readying a pass, and the second-year man quickly put the puck on his backhand and stuffed the puck home between Ayers’ pad and the post.

Meyer confirmed his status as the game’s number-one star when he hip-checked New Hampshire forward Colin Hemingway, stealing the puck in the process, and skated in alone on Ayers, ripping a perfectly placed slapshot glove side to give BU a two-goal lead.

Twenty-six seconds later, Skladany iced the game, taking a perfect feed from McConnell after Ayers saved Meyer’s shot which proceeded to deflect off junior forward Mark Mullen and stuffing it in the open net.

Special teams were a surprising positive for a BU team that had struggled all season on both the power play and the penalty kill. The Icedogs went 2-4 on the man-advantage, while holding the Wildcats scoreless on three power plays.

The three power plays against tied a season low for BU, and marked one more game that saw a mid-season emphasis on better discipline play a large part for the Terriers.

‘Everyone knows that’s a real focus,’ Parker said. ‘We’ve gotta stop [taking penalties]. Guys have been punished for that, guys have lost ice time for that, guys have lost game time for that. We’ve lost a lot of man-hours to penalties.’

The win stopped a three-game losing streak for the Terriers, and gave them a chance at a season sweep of the Wildcats in Saturday’s regular season finale at Durham’s Whittemore Center. It also kept the season’s goals alive for BU, as it enters a crucial stretch of games leading to season’s close.

‘BU teams want to get selected for the national tournament, BU teams wanna get home ice [for the Hockey East playoffs], BU teams want to win the Beanpot,’ Parker said. ‘Those are the goals we set out before the season, and those are still ahead of us.’

BU was also able to reverse a disturbing trend that had seen the team surrender leads late in games, which Meyer acknowledged was a major concern as the team entered this weekend.

‘It’s a huge win for us,’ Meyer said ‘That was one of our goals tonight, was to have it close in the third, to beat ’em in the third and we did that tonight.’

The Terriers’ trip to Durham, while also providing that rare chance to sweep the Wildcats, also gives BU a chance to play on the Olympic-sized ice of the Whittemore Center, a far cry from the bandbox dimensions of Walter Brown Arena.

‘We like to play here in the small barn to throw our weight around, but we’ve had some pretty good games on the bigger surface,’ Meyer said. ‘We’ve got some pretty good speed up front and we can use it up there at the Whittemore Center.’