Backed by senior co-captain Chris Connolly’s game-winning tally with 27.5 seconds left in the third period, the No. 5/6 Boston University men’s hockey team completed a weekend sweep of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell with a 2-1, come-from-behind victory at Agganis Arena Saturday night.
Connolly netted the goal on a shot created by junior assistant captain David Warsofsky, who carried the puck into the UMass-Lowell zone, held off a defender with a power move and slid the puck to Connolly center-slot.
Connolly put the puck on net, and the disc snuck between the legs of UML goalie Doug Carr.
“I saw Dave going down, and we had a bunch of guys going to the net,” Connolly said. “I wanted to stay higher just in case there was a rebound out there. I just obviously slapped at it and I don’t know how it made it in, but, you know, thankfully it did.”
The Terriers (6-0-1, 4-0-1 Hockey East) trailed 1-0 late in the third, but sophomore forward Alex Chiasson’s goal with 3:43 to play brought BU even with the River Hawks (1-4-2, 1-4-0 HE).
With junior goaltender Grant Rollheiser pulled due to a delayed penalty on UML, junior assistant captain David Warsofsky started the scoring play with a pass from atop the right circle.
The pass glided between a pair of River Hawk defenders right to freshman forward Charlie Coyle beneath the left dot. Coyle put the puck toward the net, where Chiasson tipped the offering at net. The puck bounced around, but came back to Chiasson atop the crease, who poked the biscuit into a wide-open basket.
The teams had played scoreless hockey through two periods until UML freshman Joseph Pendenza broke the tie with 10:27 to play. Pendenza beat Rollheiser on the left side on a one-time poke from right in front. Assists went to sophomores Joe Caveney and Riley Wetmore.
The goal put the Terriers in a deserved hole. BU coach Jack Parker said after the game that the team was missing the spark that had led to the squad’s 5-1 win in Lowell the night before &- the third straight home game that the Terriers appeared to come out flat.
“I told [UML coach] Blaise MacDonald after the game that if there was any justice, that would’ve been a tie or maybe even a loss for us,” Parker said. “I thought their team, after being back on their heels pretty good last night, really played us toe-to-toe all night. We didn’t play anywhere near as thorough as we have to play and they took advantage of that.”
The Terriers put themselves behind the proverbial eight-ball in the first period when sophomore defenseman Max Nicastro earned a five-minute major and a game misconduct for hitting Ryan Blair from behind.
BU killed off the five-minute penalty with ease &- even outshooting the River Hawks on the kill until the road team took a too-many-men minor with 1:34 left on the Nicastro major.
Parker said shutting down the UML power play is an easier task for the Terriers than for most teams because the River Hawks’ main special teams strategy is the same one Parker used when MacDonald was an assistant under Parker from 1990-96.
“He’s been playing it ever since. We just play it every once in a while,” Parker said. “He plays what I refer to as a BU power play, which is something we always ran. We know it pretty well, so it’s a little bit easier for us to take that away and then they have to do something else.”
With Nicastro out, the Terriers were forced to play the rest of the game with five defensemen. The loss forced BU to adjust its second power-play unit &- where Nicastro is a staple at the right point &- and Warsofsky said after the game that he and the rest of the defensemen were gassed after the second period.
Two River Hawk players could be at risk of missing UML’s next game Tuesday against BC. Junior Michael Budd will definitely miss the contest after receiving a game disqualification for fighting after the final buzzer, while senior Patrick Cey suffered a potentially serious lower-body injury.
Cey joins fellow senior Scott Campbell on the River Hawks’ injury list. Campbell left Friday night’s game with an injury and did not play Saturday.
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