The No. 20 Boston University men’s hockey team skated into the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut in search of taking the regular season series from the University of Connecticut.
The two Hockey East rivals played each other back in a home-and-home series in October with the Terriers (15-13-3, 10-8-3 Hockey East) taking three of the four points from the Huskies (15-16-2, 11-11-1 Hockey East).
UConn came into Friday night’s tilt riding a six-game winning streak and were able to maintain its momentum, overcoming a 3-1 deficit to beat BU 5-4 in overtime.
“Obviously a real, real tough loss,” BU head coach David Quinn said. “I thought we did a lot of good things, but give UConn credit, they took advantage of their power plays in the third period. Our penalty kill has been a problem for us all year long, and we weren’t able to get a kill when we needed it.”
The Terriers have currently not won a game in their last three contests.
In BU’s last game Monday night against No.12 Northeastern University in the Beanpot championship, the team did not kill a single penalty nor did it convert on either of its two power play chances.
In the first period of Friday’s matchup, the Terriers managed to be successful in both aspects of their special teams.
However, Quinn was not pleased with his penalty kill.
“To me the really disappointing part of this is the penalty kill,” Quinn said.”They go 2-4 on two shots. They had two shots on goal on the power play and they get two goals. So that was a disappointing part of it.”
Freshman defenseman Kasper Kotkansalo found himself in the penalty box 4:52 into the first period for hitting from behind, and the Terriers successfully killed their only penalty of the frame.
BU entered the contest second in the conference in power play percentage, converting 23.1 percent of its chances with the man advantage.
Sophomore defenseman Chad Krys received a feed from sophomore defenseman Dante Fabbro by way of freshman forward Brady Tkachuk on the Terriers’ first power play of the evening.
Krys fired a wrist shot from the left point, which beat senior goaltender and reigning Hockey East defensive player of the week Tanner Creel, to give BU the 1-0 lead just 40 seconds into the power play opportunity.
Since Jan. 13, the Terriers have had the best power play in the nation among teams with 20 chances, and have scored at least one power-play goal in seven of their last eight games.
The Huskies scored the equalizer 4:12 into the second stanza. Senior forward Spencer Naas shot the puck from the top of the slot and beat sophomore goaltender Jake Oettinger.
However, the game would not stay tied for long.
Junior forward and assistant captain Bobo Carpenter cleaned up a rebound from freshman forward Hank Crone just 61 seconds after UConn tied the game.
Carpenter has lit the lamp in all three of the games these two teams have played. He scored two goals at Agganis Arena and scored a hat-trick in the second half of the home-and-home series.
The Terriers doubled their lead two minutes and 14 seconds later.
While on a 4-on-4 freshman forward Logan Cockerill skated into the Huskies’ zone, but was lost control of the puck. Senior defenseman Brien Diffley cleaned up the play for his second goal of the season, a career high.
Nass found the back of net once more during a power play 5:43 into the third period on a tic-tac-toe play between him, forwards Max Kalter and Benjamin Freeman. Naas beat Oettinger on the glove side and cut the BU’s lead to one.
However, 17 second later, the Terriers responded with a goal of their own.
Freshman forward Ty Amonte finished off a rebound from freshman forward David Farrance to give BU a 4-2 lead.
Scoring quickly after giving up a goal is something Quinn emphasizes.
“I think every coach emphasizes that,” Quinn said. “You want to kind of recover when you give up a goal. We were fortunate to get two of them.”
Although, the Huskies would not go down quietly.
Senior forward Kasperi Ojantakanen redirected a shot from forward Maxim Letunov midway through the final period.
UConn pushed the game to overtime with a tally at 14:23 in the final stanza. While on a power play, sophomore forward Alexander Payusov fired a shot from the slot, which beat Oettinger on his glove side.
Quinn added that he was disappointed with the penalty kill.
In the overtime period, Letunov capitalized on a defensive zone turnover by the Terriers and released a back-handed shot with 2:09 left to end the game.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, but I also thought there were too many times we disrespect the game. I thought we got sloppy from time to time, it was probably the way we competed,” Quinn said. “They tie it up 4-4 and I thought we did a really good job regrouping and playing hard and doing all the things we’re going to need to do and then obviously a great player makes a great play for their goal.”
BU will return to action Saturday night in North Andover as it takes on Merrimack College.
“We’re just going to have to move past this and get ready for a big game [Saturday] night,” Quinn said.
