Perhaps lost in the excitement and build up of Saturday’s 3-3 tie with No. 7 Cornell University was the fact that, for the first since mid-October, the Boston University men’s hockey team played with a completely healthy and available squad.
With the exception of sophomore Ryan Ruikka ‘-‘- who was lost before the season after tearing his ACL and meniscus ‘-‘- BU coach Jack Parker had his entire roster to choose from when piecing together Saturday’s lineup.
Among the Terriers to miss games during that span were sophomore goaltender Grant Rollheiser (ankle), Andrew Glass (breaking team rules), senior Luke Popko (flu), junior Nick Bonino (shoulder), freshman Wade Megan (death in the family), sophomore David Warsofsky (hip), sophomore Chris Connolly (shoulder) and freshman Alex Chiasson (head and flu).
Chiasson (6 points in 10 games) was the final piece to return for BU after his month-long battle with injuries. Just two weeks removed from a blow to the head from senior teammate Eric Gryba held a dizzied Chiasson out of action against Merrimack College, Chiasson missed Tuesday’s game against Harvard University while battling the flu.
The freshman was still feeling the effects of the bug as of Saturday, according to Parker, and was demoted from his first-line spot with Bonino and Connolly as a result. Junior Joe Pereira, who had tallied two goals and two assists playing with Bonino and Connolly Tuesday against Harvard University, was listed as BU’s No. 1 right wing before the game.
However, as BU tried to kill three separate Cornell penalties in the second period, Parker found himself jumbling his lines to keep fresh legs on the ice. With Pereira racking up minutes as one of BU’s top penalty killers, Parker began giving shifts with Bonino and Connolly to Chiasson, whose effort on the ice was showing no ill effects from his bout with the flu.
The unit of Bonino, Connolly and Chiasson led the charge for the Terriers in the third. Bonino (2 goals, 6 assists, 8 points in 8 games) brought BU within a goal of the lead 4:03 into the final stanza, while Connolly tapped home the equalizer with 51.3 seconds left in regulation.
Bonino has been particularly strong since returning from a separated shoulder in game two of the Merrimack series two weeks ago.
‘He’s making plays for us that people are scoring goals on,’ Parker said. ‘I think in our last three goals against Harvard, he figured in on the other night. He figured on a pretty big one tonight. He’s the guy we depend on.’
‘In general, Bonino’s playing like Bonino.’
Schafer perplexed by media timeouts
Cornell coach Mike Schafer said after the game he was not aware that Saturday’s Red Hot Hockey showdown would feature full media timeouts. The game was not broadcast on any television networks ‘-‘- fans could pay to watch the game through the BU and Cornell athletic sites or listen to available radio broadcasts.
With the media timeouts, Schafer said he should have been able to ask for a review of Connolly’s game-tying goal.
‘Well, we didn’t even know there were TV timeouts when we entered the game,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how that came about. I didn’t know we were doing TV. But when there’s a TV game, there’s supposed to be instant replay. So, I don’t know why there wasn’t visual replay of the goal. I saw it on video [after the game].’
After watching the replay after the game, Schafer determined a replay might have preserved a victory for his team.
‘[Goaltender Ben Scrivens] had it,’ Schafer said. ‘Who knows what showed in behind him, but I do know that Ben had it for a second. He was a little disappointed. He thought he had control of the puck, and then it squirted loose.’
The game’s result was ‘a point lost’ for Cornell, by Schafer’s estimation.
‘Our guys are pretty disappointed,’ Schafer said. ‘They had the lead. When the score was 3-3, I was really happy with how we played, but we wanted to win the game. That’s a good characteristic for a hockey team to have ‘-‘- wanting to win. It’s great to see how they came out after BU tied it, but it’s still disappointing.’
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