After going to overtime in all three regular season games against the Providence College Friars, no one was surprised by the way game one of last weekend’s Hockey East quarterfinal went. It was game two that shocked everyone.
Friday night, the Boston University hockey team pulled out a 5-4 overtime win at Providence’s Schneider Arena due in large part to a hat trick by junior Kenny Magowan and an overtime goal by sophomore Bryan Miller. While the game had the large BU contingent in the stands hanging on to the edge of their seats, Saturday’s game had them jumping for joy.
Junior Mark Mullen opened the Saturday’s scoring at the 8:40 mark of the first period when he notched his Hockey East-leading fifth shorthanded goal of the year off a beautiful steal by sophomore Brian McConnell. With just seconds left on the BU penalty, Mullen skated in all alone on Friar goalie Nolan Schaefer, took a perfect pass from McConnell and put the Icedogs up 1-0. Freshman John Laliberte added an unassisted goal just over one minute later to give the Terriers a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
After a scoreless second period that was dominated by Schaefer and BU junior goalie Sean Fields, the Icedogs blew it open in the third. After an early goal by junior Frantisek Skladany put BU up 3-0, McConnell put one home for his second point of the night.
McConnell’s goal 5:34 into the second would prove to be the last even strength goal of the evening. Less than two minutes later, after a BU penalty, Friar forward Devin Rask caught Fields without a stick and buried a shot top shelf that shattered the water bottle on top of the net.
But with just under seven minutes left and the score still 4-1, the Terriers broke the door down and punched their ticket to the Hockey East Semifinals. Freshman David VanderGulik scored one and assisted on goals by fellow rookie Dan Spang and senior Brian Collins as the Terriers just made it look too easy, rolling to the 7-1 win.
One advantage for the Terriers both nights was that Schneider turned into Walter Brown Arena South. With three full sections of fans and the BU Band drowning out any noise from the surprisingly sparse Friar faithful, the Icedogs were able to jump out to the early lead and never let up on the offensive end.
The two-game sweep sends the Icedogs to the FleetCenter for this weekend’s Hockey East semifinals, where they will face Boston College. The Eagles reached the semis after a two-game sweep in an emotionally charged series against Merrimack College, which lost its star goaltender Joe Exter after a game-one collision with BC forward Patrick Eaves.
Exter caught a knee to the head and fell to the ice unconscious. He then had a seizure on the ice and was hemmoraging blood from his ear. After spending two days clinging to his life, Exter is now in stable but serious condition at Boston’s Beth Israel Hopsital. Eaves, who tallied his third game disqualification in game one, was suspended for game two, and for the next four games, due to the fact that the ejection was his third of the season.
The Terriers moved up to the No. 4 spot in the U.S. College Hockey Online PairWise Rankings after the wins at Providence, and could conceivably move up to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a win over the Eagles on Friday night. A win would bring with it a matchup in Saturday night’s final with the winner of the other semifinal between the University of New Hampshire and the University of Massachusetts, which is making its first ever appearance at the Fleet after pulling off a miraculous two-game sweep over the University of Maine at Alfond Arena in Orono.
The BU-BC game, the fifth matchup between the two teams this year, will begin at 8 p.m. Friday night, following Umass-UNH. Tickets are still available, and the game will be aired on Fox Sportsnet New England.
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