After sweeping Arizona State University last weekend, the Boston University men’s hockey team traveled to Amherst to take on the University of Massachusetts and extended their unbeaten streak to seven games in their final game before the Beanpot tournament.
With the 3-2 victory, BU (14-11-2, 10-7-2 Hockey Easy) now holds a 62-1-6 all-time record over UMass (11-15-1, 5-11-1 Hockey East). The Terriers remain unbeaten in the last 11 meetings between these two Hockey East foes.
The Minutemen nearly took an early lead. Just under six minutes into the opening stanza freshman forward Mitchell Chaffee had a breakaway opportunity but he would be denied by Terrier sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger.
The Terriers opened the scoring at 14:43 of the first period. Shortly after coming out of the penalty box, senior defenseman and captain Brandon Hickey beat Minutemen freshman goaltender Matt Murray and gave BU a 1-0 lead.
Hickey received a feed from junior forward and assistant captain Bobo Carpenter and freshman forward Shane Bowers and scored on a one-timer for his fifth goal of the season.
With the goal, Hickey joins sophomores Chad Krys and Dante Fabbro as the three Terrier defensemen to have at least five goals this season.
Despite being outshot 16-8 in the first period, BU only allowed six more shots on goal for the remainder of the game.
“That’s probably as bad of a period we’ve played in a long time,” BU head coach David Quinn said. “…To be up one nothing was almost criminal in the first period. But we’ve been on that side of it. So I’m not going to apologize because people that’ve watched us [know] that’s happened to us a few times this year.”
Quinn said he was happy with the play of Oettinger.
“That’s what an elite goalie does for you,” Quinn said. “…He gives us a chance to dust ourselves off and play well.”
Bowers echoed his coach’s statement.
He was huge for us tonight, he is every game,” Bowers said. “He’s our best player and he gives us a chance to win every night… Without him we probably wouldn’t be in this position with the win.”
UMass tied the score at one early in the second period while on a power play.
Terrier junior forward and assistant captain Jordan Greenway found himself in the box fourteen seconds into the middle stanza. Just under 20 seconds into the power play freshman forward John Leonard took a shot from the slot and lit the lamp for the eighth time this season.
UMass appeared to take the lead 12:21 seconds in the second. Senior defenseman Jake Horton had what was originally ruled a good goal on the ice, but the call was overturned after a review.
BU scored one more time before the end of the second. While on the power play, Greenway scored off a rebound from freshman forward Brady Tkachuk with 5:43 remaining in the middle period. Fabbro also picked up an assist on the goal.
With the goal, BU has scored a power play goal in each of its last five games.
Early in the third, Greenway appeared to have scored his second goal of the night, but after a review it was deemed not a goal.
With just over 12 minutes to play, BU doubled its lead. Bowers faked out Murray and scored an unassisted goal to give the Terriers a 3-1 lead and Bowers his thirteenth goal of the season.
UMass cut the lead to one with just under eight minutes to play. Redshirt senior Niko Rufo redirected a rebound from freshman forward Philip Lagunov to give the Minutemen their second goal of the game. Horton also got an assist on the goal.
This marked the first time since the Jan. 20 victory against Merrimack College that Oettinger has allowed a full strength goal.
Despite missing Friday’s tilt, Quinn mentioned that both Krys and sophomore forward Patrick Harper are day-to-day and could play Monday.
These two teams will face off again Friday at Agganis Arena. Before they do, BU will play Harvard in the first round of the Beanpot Monday night.
Quinn added that even though the Beanpot is coming up, his team focused on Friday’s matchup.
“They’re all big when you dig yourself a hole that we’ve dug ourselves. We’ve talked about that and we were focused on tonight, our league is still up for grabs,” Quinn said. “…This was the focus this game, We couldn’t be distracted with the Monday night game with Harvard.”
