For the first 27 or so minutes of its home and conference opener, it appeared that the No. 10 Boston University men’s hockey team was going to ride the wave of momentum created by its Ice Breaker title to an easy win over the University of Massachusetts.
But then the wave crested and the Terriers (2-0-1, 0-0-1 Hockey East) got sucked under. The Minutemen (0-2-1, 0-0-1 HE) dominated the rest of the game, erased BU’s two-goal lead and forced a 2-2 tie.
“You’ve gotta give UMass a lot of credit for just hanging in there and playing hard throughout,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “We did not. We turned the puck over and played on the offensive side of the puck, thinking we were pretty good after 2-0. But then UMass got their bus legs away from them and they started skating.
“All of a sudden, we lost our poise and gave the puck away I don’t know how many times. The amount of turnovers we made was bizarre to me. I’ve seen it happen a lot. The team thinks they’re better than they are. You get up 2-0 and, “Whoa, we’re pretty good.’ And then we started playing very, very unthorough. And UMass started playing very, very thorough.”
The Terriers got on the board 4:32 into the game when sophomore forward Alex Chiasson, playing in his first game back from suspension, swung behind the UMass net and centered a pass that freshman linemate Matt Nieto one-timed over the glove of rookie goalie Jeff Teglia (33 saves) for his first collegiate goal.
Junior forward Chris Connolly made it 2-0 BU six minutes later when he took a pass in the right circle, held for a second and slid a shot through a screen and under Teglia for his first goal of the season.
The scarlet-and-white continued to control play early in the second, recording the first nine shots of the period to open up a 20-7 shot advantage in the game. But then the tide completely turned in the Minutemen’s favor as they registered nine of the period’s final 10 shots.
“I think we got a little selfish,” Connolly said. “We started playing on the offensive side of the puck, looking to maybe score some more goals instead of tightening up defensively.”
That didn’t change in the final stanza. UMass came out firing with five straight shots and finally got on the board at the 3:16 mark of the third when defenseman Darren Rowe ripped a shot from the point that deflected off a leg in front and beat a helpless Kieran Millan (28 saves).
The Minutemen completed the comeback with 8:46 to go when forward Marc Concannon found a loose puck in the slot and poked it through Millan’s five-hole.
Despite the two goals, which felt like an inevitability given how thoroughly UMass dominated the second half of the game, it was a solid outing for Millan, whom Parker has said is the clear-cut No. 1 goalie. He was the only reason the Terriers held the lead for as long as they did and the only reason they still ended up with a point.
“If it wasn’t for Kieran, they win that game four or five to two,” Parker said.
Shortly after the Minutemen tied it, BU thought it regained the lead on a play initially ruled no-goal. But replay confirmed the referees made the right call, as the puck entered the cage from the side after the net had been lifted off its moorings.
The Terriers performed much better in overtime than they did in the second and third periods, outshooting UMass 6-2 in the extra session. They had the best chance to end it with 10 seconds to go when Chiasson sprung Nieto on a breakaway, but the rookie from Long Beach, Calif., fired wide left.
Nieto drew a penalty on the play when freshman defenseman Conor Allen slashed him from behind. The BU bench and the Agganis Arena crowd of 5,920 were calling for a penalty shot, but the refs didn’t comply.
Junior defenseman David Warsofsky had one last chance on a one-timer with less than five seconds to go, but Teglia slid across his crease and made the pad save.
“It’s good it only ended in a tie,” Connolly said. “The way we were playing the last couple periods, they could’ve come back and beat us. We didn’t deserve to hold onto that. It still cost us a point. We were up 2-0. It was something we should’ve closed. It’s early in the season, so hopefully we can learn from that real quick.”
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