It was the strong start Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker wanted following his team’s sluggish play early in last Monday’s Beanpot Tournament semifinal against Harvard University.
What followed wasn’t so pretty, but the No. 1 team in college hockey dug deep and found a way to do what it had done on 20 other occasions this season.
Win.
Senior forward Jason Lawrence and freshman forward Vinny Saponari netted third-period goals to snap a 3-3 tie Friday as the top-ranked Terriers outlasted the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, 5-3, in front of 5,114 at Agganis Arena.’
Senior co-captain John McCarthy, sophomore forward Joe Pereira and freshman defenseman David Warsofsky also scored for BU (21-5-1, 13-5-1 Hockey East), which raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening 9:25 before watching the River Hawks (12-13-0, 9-9-0) reel off three unanswered goals.
‘This game is always a concern on my part that we will not be ready to play because we’ll be concerned about what’s going to happen Monday, and not concerned about what’s happening Friday,’ Parker said in reference to distractions surrounding tonight’s Beanpot final against No. 3 Northeastern University.
‘As I look back on the ‘between’ games of the Beanpot, over a long time we’ve been pretty good in this game,’ Parker said. ‘But [Friday] I didn’t think we were pretty good. It was so easy for us in the first 10 minutes of the game when we’re up 3-0. Then, our attitude changed and Lowell’s attitude got more determined. It was amazing that the score wasn’t tied up quicker than it was.’
The Terriers came out blazing in a first period that saw them buzz UML junior goaltender Carter Hutton with 17 shots, three of which found the back of the net.
Warsofsky, who had yet to register a collegiate goal through Friday despite his emergence as one of the top rookie defensemen in Hockey East, threaded a slap shot through a crowded slot that eluded Hutton (26 saves) 7:34 into the contest.
Pereira followed suit 59 seconds later, hauling in a pinpoint up-ice pass from sophomore defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and motoring through the slot for a breakaway tally. McCarthy capped the binge at 9:25 when he redirected a cross-ice feed from sophomore forward Nick Bonino inside the right post.
Freshman forward David Vallorani was the key cog in Lowell’s comeback, as he set up senior forward Nick Monroe’s goal at 15:50 of the first to put UML on the board and was credited with the equalizer 18:08 into the second.
Stationed behind the Terrier net, Vallorani fired a pass that deflected off a skate of BU sophomore defenseman Colby Cohen and across the goal line.
‘We kind of got behind the eight-ball a little bit in the second period,’ McCarthy said. ‘We let them jump us a little bit.’
On the heels of UML senior forward Mike Potacco’s goal eight minutes earlier, Vallorani’s tally marked the first time in 40 periods that BU freshman goaltender Kieran Millan (20 saves) had allowed more than one goal in a single frame.
With the win, Millan tied a program record set by Brian Durocher in 1974-75 for the fewest losses through the first 19 decisions of a career (17-1-1).
As they have done so many times this season, the Terriers called upon their nation-best power play to get them a victory in the third period. BU cashed in on two of its three man advantages in the final stanza, with Saponari and Lawrence doing the scoring honors, respectively.
At 10:21, the rookie winger flipped a loose puck inside the left post amidst a scrum in front that diverted Hutton’s attention away from Saponari.
BU’s vaunted top line salted away the victory at 15:36, as sophomore forward Colin Wilson skated through the right faceoff circle and found Lawrence for the winger’s team-leading 13th goal of the season.’
‘Hopefully we learned a lesson,’ Parker said. ‘There’s no question in my mind that the third period was our best period. I hope we can take something away from this about not being ready to play, but I also know it’s nice to have a team that can jack it back up again.’
Game notes: Parker was honored in a pregame ceremony for reaching the 800-win plateau in his coaching career. The milestone victory came Jan. 30 at Merrimack College. ‘hellip; Four Terriers recorded two points apiece, including the first multi-point effort of junior defenseman Eric Gryba’s 97-game career. ‘hellip; The win secured BU’s first season sweep of UML since 2002-03. ‘hellip; The Terriers improved to 53-16-7 all-time against the River Hawks in Hockey East play.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
