Leading up to Monday night’s showdown with Boston College, Boston University men’s hockey coach Jack Parker said the biggest reason he wanted to beat the Eagles was to give his team some confidence against BC, a team the Terriers were already 0-3 against this season. He wanted his team to know that it could play with the best team in the country.
The Terriers didn’t beat the Eagles on Monday, but they certainly showed that they can play with their archrivals. Sure, the one-goal deficit was the same as the teams’ last meeting, but Monday’s matchup had a very different feel.
Unlike their previous meetings with BC, the Terriers never fell behind by multiple goals. In each of the first three games against the Eagles, BU deflated for long stretches of the game once BC got on the board. In fact, each time the Eagles opened their scoring, they scored at least two more goals before the Terriers could answer.
In early December, BU never even made it interesting once BC grabbed ahold of the game, and ultimately fell by scores of 9-5 and 5-2. On Jan. 21, the Terriers came back from a 3-0 deficit to cut the lead to one, but the early hole proved too deep to overcome.
Monday night, however, BU didn’t wilt after the Eagles got on the board 14:37 into the game. It didn’t take two more goals for the Terriers to finally turn it on. This time, they answered just 38 seconds later with a goal from sophomore forward Wade Megan.
When junior forward Corey Trivino scored 2:17 into the second, BU had its first lead against BC since freshman forward Matt Nieto put the Terriers up 1-0 in the teams’ second showdown of the season.
Aside from the stats, the Terriers just looked better. They skated stride for stride with the Eagles instead of chasing them around like they did for much of the previous three meetings. They made sharp, crisp passes instead of holding onto the puck too long and trying to force something at the last second. And they closed down on BC’s sharpshooters instead of giving them time and space to pick their corner.
Yet even with all of that, the Terriers lost again. They fell to 0-4 on the season against their biggest rival. They’ve certainly come a long way since getting bludgeoned back on Dec. 3, and they’ve certainly proven they can play with the Eagles, but moral victories only go so far.
“We came up short,” senior co-captain Joe Pereira said. “It stings. It’s going to sting. But there’s a lot of hockey left. We have eight more games left in the season and some big games coming up. We’ll let this hurt tonight, but then we’ll get ready to go tomorrow and get ready for UMass [on Friday].”
Parker would’ve liked the win and the confidence boost that would’ve come along with it, but he said he’d take Monday night’s effort the rest of the season and added that he thinks his team is just starting to hit its stride.
“That’s the best team in the nation and we played head-to-head with them,” Parker said. “This is the youngest team I’ve ever coached, so this team has grown up right in front of me. I’m pleased with our effort tonight. Hopefully we can continue playing this well down the stretch and it can get us into the Hockey East tournament and into the national tournament as well.”
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