ORONO, MAINE ‘-‘- The No. 5/7 Boston University men’s hockey team had its around-the-net inefficiencies highlighted in three separate settings this weekend.
That says a lot considering the Terriers only played two games.
Friday night, BU made Northeastern University goalie Chris Rawlings look like an all-star, failing to score on 43 shots in a 1-0 loss. But based on Rawlings’ Saturday performance, a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of No. 16 Boston College, the Terriers struggles to score appear to have more to do with BU’s effort around the net than Rawlings’ play between the pipes.
Sunday afternoon at Alfond Arena in Maine, the Terriers once again found themselves unable to create consistently around the crease.
‘We’ve been making every goalie we play look like Jacques Plante,’ BU coach Jack Parker said, referring to the longtime Montreal Canadiens’ netminder. ‘It’s unbelievable, we made the Northeastern goalie look like he was invincible.’
The Terriers were able to outshoot the Black Bears, 28-to-18, but too many shots from the outside, poor execution up close and bad use of rebounds made things easy on University of Maine goaltender Scott Darling.
‘We’re rushing shots,’ Parker said. ‘We’re pressing around the net and it’s hurting us, and although we had some real good rebound chances tonight, we’re not getting enough of those.’
Freshman forward Alex Chiasson scored on BU’s lone grade-A first period chance. Perimeter passing schemes dominated offensive sets and the Terriers weren’t able to get much going inside on the power play.
‘Part of the problem is we haven’t been getting guys in front of the net. We’ve been taking a lot of outside shots,’ sophomore forward Vinny Saponari said.
BU did a good job mixing it up to increase the frequency of these chances in the second period ‘-‘- BU’s best period, Parker said.
‘I thought we were going to win the game because we played so well in the second period,’ Parker said.
But even with eight more supreme opportunities down low, the Terriers couldn’t score once.
Halfway through the period, sophomore forward Corey Trivino was able to weave his way through three defensemen before finding Chiasson on the doorstep. But Chiasson rushed the shot and muffed it wide off the heel of his stick.
‘You can’t take opportunities for granted because good college goaltenders like that don’t give up much chances,’ sophomore forward Chris Connolly said.
Later in the period, Saponari threaded a pass through to Connolly in front, but he was quickly swallowed up by Maine’s defense before he could fire off a more focused shot ‘-‘- one of three chances from five-feet out that Connolly had in the period.
‘We get a lot of shots, and it may look good, like maybe we’re outplaying teams and just not scoring goals,’ Connolly said. ‘But at the same time, the good chances we’ve had, back doors, open nets, pucks laying in creases and things like that, those are chances we need to bear down on.’
But the sophomore came through with an impressive finish in the third, an absolute rocket top shelf, to score BU’s second goal.
Effective inside and outside play fused perfectly on the goal for a product the Terriers should use as an example.
Back-and-forth passing up top between junior defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk and Colby Cohen opened up space for Connolly, who took full advantage.
‘I think they’ll start coming,’ Connolly said about BU’s lack of goals. ‘It’s still fairly early in the season, but I think it comes down to focusing, bearing down when you get a good opportunity to just make sure it goes in.’
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