BU beats Cornell, 3-3

No, the headline isn’t a typo. In many ways, the outcome, a tie following a terrible first ten minutes, felt like a win—somewhat reminiscent of Harvard football’s memorable comeback tie against Yale in 1968 that resulted in the memorable headline (and later a movie): Harvard wins 29-29.

The Terriers' bad-news start began with an early penalty, leading to a power play marker for Sean Whitney on a shot that flew past an out-of-position goalie Grant Rollheiser just 3:07 into the game. Cornell converted a breakaway just 2 ½ minutes later and had a 2-0 lead while BU was losing battles to loose pucks and being outhustled by the Big Red. Terriers began to turn things around halfway through the first period, but couldn’t put one past Cornell’s Ben Scrivens.

In the second, frustration (at having two shots blocked) led to a bad penalty by Colby Cohen. David Warsofsky scored shorthanded to put BU on the scoreboard, but Cornell countered with a power play goal a second before the penalty ended. At that point—halfway through regulation, Cornell had three goals on just 11 shots. The Terriers held Cornell without a shot the rest of the period but continued to be denied by Scrivens. The game seemed destined by another one with BU outshooting an opponent, but on the short side of the scoring.

The same song was playing as the third period got underway. Cornell had just two even-strength shots in the period, but no dice for BU, until Nick Bonino took advantage of a Cornell turnover and some puck luck to narrow the margin to one goal. For the next 15 minutes BU attacked without results, but with the goalie pulled BU turned a 6 on 4 advantage into the equalizer when Chris Connolly jabbed home a loose puck. A couple of sparkling Rollheiser saves—matched by Scrivins--kept things even in the extra session.

►The tie was only the second in the long history of BU-Cornell games with the first coming in the championship game of the 1966 Boston Arena Christmas Tournament—another come-from-behind BU effort.

► Bonino’s goal and assist extend to 39 (34-0-5) the streak of games that BU either won or tied when Bonino registers at least one point.

►BU outshot the Big Red 35-17 and, after a sluggish first period, finished virtually even in faceoff wins with Corey Trivino posting an 11-6 mark.

• GoTerriers.com recap and photo gallery.
• Comprehensive boxscore
• Brian Kelley’s in-game blog
• USCHO recap
• Post-game video comments Warsofsky and Bonino
• Audio comments from Coach Jack Parker, Connolly, and Shattenkirk.
• The Boston Hockey Blog: Grading The Terriers & Live Blog
• Boston Globe recap
• Ithaca Journal recap
• BU’s morning skate at MSG (video)

Looking forward
2010 recruit Sahir Gill assisted on both Chicago goals in the Steel’s 3-2 loss to Green Bay. With 23 points, Gill is second in scoring for Chicago and tied for sixth in the USHL.

Looking back
Matt Gilroy's 4th NHL goal couldn't stop the Penguins from rattling the Rangers' cage, 8-3.