No. 2/3 men’s hockey crushes Lowell for 6th straight win

LOWELL — For a team that has played so consistently well this year, one would be hard-pressed to find something the No. 2/3 Boston University men’s hockey team hasn’t accomplished already.

The Terriers have already surpassed their overall and conference win totals from 2013-14. They’ve been a national top-five team for most of the season, not to mention the fact that they won their first Beanpot game in three seasons. But somehow with all of the positives surrounding this team, one thing has still been elusive — an all-around, good first period.

Tonight in Lowell, that all changed.

For the first time all season, the Terriers (18-4-4, 12-2-2 Hockey East) scored three times in the first period, propelling BU to a 5-2 win over No. 11/12 University of Massachusetts Lowell at the Tsongas Center. Senior assistant captain Evan Rodrigues finished the night with his first career hat trick while junior forwards Matt Lane and Ahti Oksanen each had one goal. Freshman center Jack Eichel added three assists, regaining his national lead in points.

The fast start caught BU head coach David Quinn a bit off guard.

“Well, first of all, just really proud of our team,” Quinn said. “And to come in here and get incredibly important points at this point in the season isn’t easy to do. To get off to the start that we had, considering the way our season’s gone in the first period, was certainly a surprise to me.”

A hard forecheck and key turnover by the River Hawks (16-9-3, 9-6-2 Hockey East) helped put the the Terriers before the 40-second mark of the first period. Senior assistant captain Cason Hohmann stole the puck near the goal line, then fed Oksanen in the slot, who finished the play with his 18th goal of the year.

“Hohmann made a great play forechecking Ahti, and when you give Ahti a shot in that area, it’s going in 99 percent of the time,” Rodrigues said. “So it was a great play by both of them.”

Building off that goal, the Terriers went on to score twice more in the opening period, both coming off the stick of Rodrigues. The first, at just around three minutes in, was a redirected shot off a pass from Eichel. Five minutes later, the two would hook up again, this time with Rodrigues wristing in a goal off a 2-on-1.

BU did take three penalties in the frame, including two from freshman forward A.J. Greer, though none came back to harm the Terriers. BU limited the UML offense and kept the River Hawks to the perimeter for much of the period. The seven shots that did hit net were all stopped by junior netminder Matt O’Connor.

Although not tested much in the first, O’Connor came up large early in the second. The junior stopped a partial breakaway from forward Evan Campbell, using his right pad to keep the puck out of the net. It was one of his 10 saves of the period and 27 of the game.

Quiet for much of the middle frame, BU’s offense connected on its fourth goal of the game with 1:51 remaining on the clock. After some passing with O’Regan, Rodrigues wristed in his third score of the night.

Up by four goals with the clock dwindling down in the second, the penalty bug bit BU. Successive tripping infractions on Eichel and freshman defenseman John MacLeod put the Terriers in a precarious 5-on-3 situation to start the third. Not long into the advantage, the River Hawks scored.

Despite squandering a few chances in high-percentage areas, Lowell forward C.J. Smith shot it top shelf past O’Connor 1:22 into the third. Back at even strength four minutes later, Campbell tapped in a loose puck, cutting the BU lead in half.

“I thought we played a really good first 39:47 and then all of a sudden we take two ridiculous penalties at the end of the second period — just ridiculous penalties,” Quinn said. “Then they get the 5-on-3 goal, then they get another one and they got life.”

But whatever life the River Hawks had didn’t last much longer. On the man advantage, Eichel skated around the offensive zone and created space in front of the net. After he threw the puck in front, Lane pounced on a rebound and jabbed at the puck until it squeaked past the goal line at 8:15 of the final period. The assist gave Eichel his third point of the game and his line’s ninth combined point of the evening.

Friday’s game was a homecoming of sorts for Eichel, who grew up in North Chelmsford, which is not a far trip from Lowell.

“He’s always pretty excited, but I think this was a little special,” Quinn said. “Coming up here, in his neck of the woods, a lot of family and friends and people that probably don’t even know him personally but want to come watch him play, I’m sure it meant a little something special for him.”

As the Beanpot final against Northeastern University approaches on Monday, Quinn said he was pleased that his team did not forget the importance of this game.

“One of the things we talked a little bit about was we actually have two Beanpot finals coming up: One against Lowell, one against Northeastern,” Quinn said. “To overlook Lowell with the success they’ve had over the last few years would’ve been a huge mistake.

“We’re just happy we didn’t make that mistake.”