PROVIDENCE, R.I. — As Matt Taormina’s uncontested wrist shot settled into the back of the Boston University net, the uneasiness that has pervaded the Terriers over the last three weekends resurfaced once again.
It was going to be another long night. Or so it appeared.
But at long last — specifically, the 5:16 mark of the second period — the men’s hockey team finally clicked last night. The Terriers poured their pent-up frustration from winless efforts against the University of Michigan, the University of New Hampshire, Robert Morris University and the University of Alaska-Anchorage onto the ice at Schneider Arena, resulting in a three-goal second period and a 5-2 victory over Providence College (1-5-1, 1-2-1 Hockey East).
‘I thought we played well in a place we haven’t played very well in the past,’ said BU coach Jack Parker. ‘It’s been a tough building for us for 30-odd years. But I thought we played extremely well. We moved the puck well and we found guys. This is just a step. We have a lot of steps to take before we can become a real good hockey team.’
Five Terriers netted their first goal of the season in helping BU (1-4-1, 1-1-0) to its first win of 2007-08, including forwards Chris Higgins, Pete MacArthur and Ryan Weston and defensemen Eric Gryba and Kevin Shattenkirk.
‘We played a more complete game tonight start to finish,’ Shattenkirk said. ‘I think as a team we kind of came together tonight. We knew we had to win, and we played hard for the full 60 minutes.’
Goaltender Brett Bennett turned in the best effort by a Terrier netminder this season, stopping 20 shots — 11 of which came in the second period, when the sophomore also chipped in offensively by assisting on Shattenkirk’s tally at 5:16.
‘We got really solid goaltending when we needed it,’ Parker said. ‘Bennett played great. I was very pleased with his effort. I thought he played extremely well and with a lot of confidence.’
‘I thought I played well,’ Bennett said. ‘It was a tough play off the start, but you get into the game. The guys played really well in front of me, so that made it easy.’
With Providence holding a 1-0 lead thanks to Taormina’s first-period shorthanded tally at 7:46, BU answered six minutes into the next session.
‘We came back right away and played hard,’ Parker said. ‘With the way we’ve been going and how bad we’ve been feeling about ourselves, we could have folded, but we didn’t.’
After receiving a crisp pass from Bennett in the neutral zone, Shattenkirk led the charge on a BU 4-on-1 by cradling the puck along the far side of the ice. The rookie ventured calmly into the PC zone, eyed a centering pass to one of three teammates, but finally unloaded a slap shot past the stick side of Friar goaltender Chris Mannix (29 saves).
‘I just stayed at the far blue [line],’ Shattenkirk said. ‘[Bennett] made a good pass up, and I just decided to shoot. I was thinking about the pass, and then luckily they gave me the shot and I took it.’
‘I looked up and I just pointed to Shatty,’ Bennett said. ‘The guys know I’m real aggressive handling the puck. They all knew I was going to do it. I got it up and thankfully we scored.
‘I really feel like my puck handling skills are up there as a part of my game,’ he added. ‘I’m going to try to take advantage of it.’
Gryba followed up Shattenkirk’s equalizer with the eventual game-winner at 12:49, drilling a blue-line blast through a sea of red and white uniforms and into the back of the Providence net. Weston capped the second-period surge by lifting a high backhander over Mannix’s head at 19:23.
What started as an uneventful third frame turned into a late-period scoring fest. PC captain Jon Rheault touched up Bennett for a shorthanded breakaway tally at 16:14 to pull Providence within a goal at 3-2. But the suddenly prolific BU offense squelched any Friar momentum, as MacArthur notched a power-play goal at 17:12 before Higgins iced the game at 18:51 with an empty-net tally.