The Boston University men’s hockey team (18-11-3, 12-7-3 Hockey East) suffered its first regulation loss in exactly three months at the hands of its cross-town rivals, Boston College (12-17-5, 7-12-3 HE), Sunday afternoon at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill.
A late third-period goal by Eagles’ junior defenseman Drew Helleson was the difference for BC in its 3-1 victory. Helleson is tied for the team lead in points by a defensemen with 22 on the year.
With the win, the Eagles take the season-series over BU after the Terriers took the first game of the weekend, 6-3, on Saturday night at Agganis Arena. The Eagles defeated the Terriers 4-3 in a shootout victory in December.
“We had plenty of chances to win that hockey game,” Head Coach Albie O’Connell said postgame. “You’ve got to tip your cap, they played really hard defensively.”
Much like Saturday night, the Terriers had a strong first period to start off the game. BU outshot the Eagles 19-7 and was playing the game at its pace, giving BC little momentum.
Terrier junior forward Jay O’Brien and Eagles sophomore forward Trevor Kuntar traded minor penalties 5:18 into the first period. 11 seconds later, Eagles senior forward and captain Marc McLaughlin would head off for a tripping call.
The Terriers were able to capitalize on the 4-on-3 opportunity, with junior forward Wilmer Skoog opening the scoring for his team-leading 12th goal of the year off a no-look pass from junior forward Matt Brown.
The Terriers power play would be quiet for the rest of the night, though, squandering excellent opportunities to take the lead later in the game. The Eagles were able to kill off the Terriers’ four other power plays including a 5-on-3 late in the second period.
“We didn’t execute, it was actually really sloppy, we had like a fade-away jumper,” O’Connell said. “That was a big part of the game…we just didn’t execute. They did a good job but we had some guys on the PP tonight that didn’t necessarily execute what we were trying to do.”
The Terriers failed to capitalize on their opportunities, and the Eagles made the Terriers pay for their few mistakes, which proved to be the difference in what was a closely fought contest Sunday.
“Big players made plays at the right time,” O’Connell said. “That play that they made at the end was a big-time play. That cross-ice pass for that one-timer, that was an NHL play… both plays came off turnovers, so they were opportunistic.”
The Eagles were able to even the game up late in the second period by converting on a costly turnover from junior defenseman John Copeland. Eagles senior forward Jack McBain sniped glove-side on sophomore goaltender Drew Commesso for his third goal in his first weekend back with BC after representing Canada in the Winter Olympics.
The game would remain even until late in the third period when Helleson received a slick cross-ice pass from McLaughlin. Three BU defenders were caught playing a 1-on-3 against Eagles graduate student forward Brandon Kruse to leave Helleson open going to the net.
The Terriers were unable to answer and ended up giving up a shorthanded empty netter to drop the contest 3-1.
Both goaltenders, BU’s Commesso and BC’s graduate student Eric Dop, played well and were responsible for the low-scoring contest. Commesso made his first start since playing for Team USA at the Beijing Olympics, stopping 21 out of the 23 shots he faced.
“Commesso didn’t have as many shots as Dop but he was just as effective,” BC head coach Jerry York said postgame. “He really was in control of his net there.”
At the other end of the rink, Dop stole the game for the Eagles, stopping 42 out of 43 shots faced –– a substantial improvement after giving up six goals on Saturday night.
“I thought Eric Dop was amazing,” McClaughlin said.
“By far his best game of the year,” York added. “A lot of real grade A chances, probably none bigger than the breakaway save earlier in the third period.”
With the loss, the Terriers remain in a three-way tie for fifth place in Hockey East with University of Connecticut and Providence College. With just one week remaining in the regular season, there is still much to be sorted out in terms of seeding for the Hockey East Tournament.
It is still unclear whether BU will have to play a midweek play-in game, or will have a quarterfinal matchup at home. Sunday’s loss did make the path to a top-four seed much more difficult.
Additionally, BU took a notable dip in the USCHO Pairwise rankings after the loss. The loss sent the Terriers down to No. 16, which will most likely not be enough to receive an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.
The Hockey East Tournament will likely be a larger-than-usual factor in determining which Hockey East teams will qualify for the national tournament. It will likely be University of Massachusetts Amherst and the other top-two performing teams in the Hockey East Tournament that receive an at-large bid even if they lose in the Hockey East playoffs.
Next weekend, the Terriers will look to rebound in their final series of the regular season in Orono, Maine against the University of Maine. The Terriers defeated the Black Bears 4-0 at Agganis Arena on Feb. 4.
For complete BU hockey coverage, check out the Boston Hockey Blog and follow along with @BOShockeyblog on Twitter and @boston.hockey.blog on Instagram for updates.
