Late Oksanen goal ties up Providence; LaCouvee shines--UPDATED

#11 BU’s first match-up of the season with #1 Providence lived up to expectations as the Hockey East powers battled to a 1-1 overtime tie at Schneider Arena. The Friars broke through first on a second-period power play goal by Mark Jankowski, while the Terriers scored on an extra-attacker goal off the draw by senior Ahti Oksanen, his fifth of the season, with a minute-and-a-half left in regulation. 

Sophomore goalie Connor LaCouvee delivered another strong effort, turning aside 32 shots including a second-period breakaway following an errant pass. Coach David Quinn called LaCouvee's performance "outstanding," adding that the British Columbia native had "built on what he did during the Northeastern weekend."

 

Terriers outshot Providence for the game, 40-33. That included a 13-10 shot advantage in the third period as BU sought the equalizer, despite having to spend most of the first half of that period shorthanded. The Terriers first killed a two-man advantage for the Friars and then a five minute major to freshman Charlie McAvoy that also brought him a game misconduct. BU’s penalty killers limited PC to just three shots in seven minutes. Coach David Quinn remarked:

“The 5-on-3 was immense. A full two minutes, guys blocking shots, understanding their responsibilities within the realm of the structure of killing a 5-on-3.

“We did a great job. We didn’t get overextended, we stayed in our lanes, and we did a great job icing pucks when we had to, which is huge in the penalty kill. And our forecheck was good.”

The tying goal came on an offensive zone draw with Oksanen finally controlling the puck in a seas of skates and rifling it past Friar goalie Nick Ellis.

“We had a plan what we wanted to do off the faceoff and all three guys — [freshman center] Jakob [Forsbacka Karlsson], [senior assistant captain] Danny [O’Regan] and [freshman forward Jordan] Greenway — got their man and puck just happened to bounce to me and I had a clear lane to shoot the puck and when it hit the post, I was sure it was coming back out but thank god it went in, and yeah, it felt good.”

►LaCouvee hasn’t yielded an even-strength goal in the last seven periods.  

►Oksanen has found the net in each of the last four games and has points in six of the last seven. 

►BU blocked 14 Friar shots, led by John MacLeod with four. 

►The teams complete the home-and-home series this afternoon at Agganis Arena with puck drop at 4 p.m.  

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score
● Video highlights; BU goal: Oksanen
● Post-game comments: Head Coach David Quinn, Oksanen
● Daily Free Press recap and Penalty Kill Propels BU
● Boston Hockey Blog Pluses & Minuses
● HockeyEastOnline recap
● CHN shot metrics
● Providence Journal recap

Looking ahead

2016 recruit Jake Oettinger stopped all 20 Youngstown shots and led the NTDP U18s to a 3-0 victory. The 6’4” netminder from Lakeville, Minnesota earned his eighth win of the season and first shutout, while lowering his goals against average to 2.36. Clayton Keller scored a second-period power play goal, assisted by Chad Krys, after earning a helper on a first-period goal. Keller is now averaging two points per game with a 12-22-34 line in 17 games.
●USA Hockey recap and box score  

2016 recruit Dante Fabbro assisted on two Penticton goals as the Vees defeated Kelowna, 3-0, extending its winning streak to 21 games. Fabbro, the BCHL’s top-scoring defenseman with 26 points, extended his own scoring streak to 14 games.
● Penticton Western News recap
● BCHL box score
 
2018 recruit Tyler Weiss scored his fifth goal in six games as the Don Mills Flyers defeated the Toronto Marlies, 5-3.

Looking back

Former Terrier Matt Nieto scored his third goal of the season in San Jose’s 3-2 defeat of Detroit. Nieto circled the Red Wings' net, attempted to stuff the puck past ex-Black Bear Jimmy Howard, then collected the rebound and roofed it for a score.                             
● Recap and box score 
● Video

Women’s Team

Terriers host Maine for a pair of Hockey East games on Saturday and Sunday. Both begin at 3 p.m. at Walter Brown Arena. BU doubled up the Black Bears, 4-2, last month, led by a pair of goals from freshman Sammy Davis.
● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, TerrierTV, @BU GameDay