Terriers drop 1-0 decision in regular-season finale

#9 Terriers dropped a tough 1-0 decision to #10 Notre Dame last night in the regular-season finale.  With the loss, BU finishes tied with Lowell with 28 points, but loses the tie-breaker to the River Hawks, who beat BC last night. As a result, BU gets the fifth seed, with no first-round bye. Instead, BU will face UMass in a best-of-three series at Agganis Arena beginning next Friday.

BU outshot the Irish, 39 to 28, but were unable to dent goalie Cal Peterson. Sean Maguire kept the Terriers within striking distance, stopping 27 shots.

The game’s only goal was scored by Dylan Malmquist on a power play midway through the second period.  Conversely, Notre Dame did a good job bottling up the Terriers on two full power plays plus another 18 seconds, limiting BU to just four shots. 

BU concludes the regular-season with a 19-10-5 record and is tied with Notre Dame for ninth in the PairWise rankings.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

● Post-game comments: Quinn

● Boston Hockey Blog: Pluses & Minuses

● Daily Free Press recap; 5^th seed for playoffs

● HockeyEastOnline: Final opening round pairings set

Looking ahead

2016 recruit Dante Fabbro assisted on a pair of goals in Penticton’s 5-1 victory over Salmon Arm. The win, in the team’s final regular-season game, gave the first-place Vees their 50^th win, just the fifth time a BCHL team has reached that mark. Earlier in the week, the 6’1” right-shot defenseman was named the BCHL’s Top Defenseman. He finishes the regular-season with a 14-52-66 scoring line in just 45 games, doubling his point total from last season.

2016 recruit Kieffer Bellows scored his team-leading 37^th goal, assisted on a power play by fellow recruit Chad Krys, in the NTDP U18s’ 2-2 overtime tie with Arizona State. While the game officially ended in a tie, a shootout produced just one goal, scored by 2016 recruits Clayton Keller.

Women’s Team

Terriers dropped game two of its best-of-three quarter finals series with Vermont, 4-2. The deciding game will be played today at Walter Brown Arena, with puck drop at 3 p.m.

Vermont scored twice in the first period and once in the second to take a 3-0 lead. BU stormed back in the third period on shorthanded goals by Rebecca Leslie and Victoria Bach  (photo). The comeback ended, however, when the Catamounts scored an empty net goal in the final minute.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

●Sunday links: Watch | GameTracker | @BUGameDay

Terriers edge Notre Dame; regular-season finale tonight

#9 Terriers, with a goal in each period and a stellar effort from senior goalie Sean Maguire, edged #10 Notre Dame at the Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend. With the win, BU assumes sole possession of fourth place in Hockey East, two points ahead of Lowell and two behind the third-place Irish. 

The teams meet again Saturday night at 7 p.m. and the game will again air on NBC Sports Network. A BU win would give the Terriers the third seed in the conference tournament; a loss would leave them either fourth or fifth depending on the outcome of the BC-Lowell game.

► Updated Hockey East Playoff Picture

BU got on the board with senior Ahti Oksanen’s power play goal, assisted by senior assistant captain Danny O’Regan and freshman Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson. Notre Dame tied the score on its own power play with just 6.6 second left in the first period when Connor Hurley buried a rebound.

Terriers regained the lead early in the second when sophomore Chase Phelps’ strong offensive move got the puck into the Irish crease where senior Mike Moran flicked it past Cal Peterson.  Midway through the third period, freshman Jordan Greenway found classmate Charlie McAvoy for a one-timer that beat Peterson, who was screened by Forsbacka Karlsson.

BU kept its hosts in check for most of the third period, but with time winding down, Notre Dame began getting pucks to the BU net and finally scored an extra-attacker goal with 1:32 remaining to narrow the margin to 3-2. In the final half minute, junior Doyle Somerby kept the puck pinned to the end boards as the seconds ticked off and O’Regan tied up an Irish forward attempting a shot as the buzzer sounded.

Maguire, returning from the injury that forced him to miss the last two games, was stellar in goal, stopping 33 of 35 shots, including 25 in the final two periods and several highlight reel saves. He earned the game’s first star.

►O’Regan earned the third star. With assists on BU’s first and third goals, he now has 148 points, the most by any Terrier since Chris Drury.

►The win was BU’s first against Notre Dame since the Irish joined Hockey East.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

● Post-game comments: Quinn, Moran, Oksanen 

● Boston Hockey Blog: Pluses & Minuses

● Daily Free Press recap; Fourth Line

● Boston Globe recap
● College Hockey News Hockey East roundup

Looking ahead 
Here's the latest roster projections chart for the next few seasons from our friends at BurntBoats. Recent commit Ty Amonte has been added, while Youngstown defenseman Vas Kolias has decommitted and will be going to Union.

Women’s Team

Behind flawless goaltending from sophomore Erin O’Neil, BU took game one of its best-of -three quarterfinal series with Vermont, 3-0. Terriers received a first-period goal from senior Lillian Braga and two in the third from freshman Sammy Davis and senior captain Kayla Tutino.

BU can clinch the series today with a win. Game time at Walter Brown Arena is 3 p.m. The contest will be shown on TerrierTV.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

Game Day: Terriers take on Notre Dame in South Bend; Women begin playoffs

In the final weekend of the Hockey East regular season, #9 BU visits #10 Notre Dame for a pair of games that will determine whether the Terriers can earn a bye for the first round of playoffs. Puck drop tonight at the Compton Family Ice Arena is at 7:30 p.m. for the contest that will air live on NBC Sports Network.

Currently tied with Lowell in fourth place, BU can finish as high as third place—with a sweep of the Irish—or as low as fifth.  The Irish, are coming off two losses to Providence, one in overtime, and still have an outside chance to finish first in the conference.

► Hockey East playoff possibilities

Notre Dame’s attack is led by Jake Evans (32 points), Anders Bjork (31) and Thomas DiPauli (29). Cal Petersen is one of the top Division 1 goalies with a 2.12 goals against average. Notre Dame stats

Danny O’Regan, who earned Hockey East Player of the Week honors with four goals last weekend, paces the Terriers with 36 points and is tied with fellow seniors Ahti Oksanen and Matt Lane with 14 goals each. BU stats

Tonight's BU line-up 

Greenway-JFK-O'Regan
Oksanen-Lane-Cloonan
Andrén-Carpenter-Baillargeon
Phelps-Moran-Kelley
Grzelcyk-McAvoy
Hickey-Fortunato
Somerby-Diffley
Maguire

► DiPauli was a teammate of Terrier blueliners Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Fortunato during the recent World Junior Championships, helping Team USA win a bronze medal.

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, GameTracker, Terrier Sports Radio Network Webcast, @BUGameDay  

● Boston Hockey Blog live in-game blog

● Daily Free Press preview

● WTBU Sports game preview and podcast

● Notre Dame Game Notes

● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape  

● USCHO: Hockey East Picks and Predictions

● HockeyEastOnline weekend preview

● SB Nation preview

Looking back

Photo Credit: Stephanie Moebius

Former BU captain Garrett Noonan was recalled by Nashville’s AHL affiliate, Milwaukee, from the Cincinnati Cylcones. Noonan is the Cyclones top scoring defenseman with 31 points and was named ECHL Player of the Week a week ago.

Women’s Team

Best of luck to @BUwhockey as they start their quest for a 6th Hockey East title tonight at Walter Brown! #GoBU pic.twitter.com/ic4z07cvAU

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) February 26, 2016

The four-time defending  Hockey East champion Terriers begin defense of their title in a quarterfinal round best-of-three series against Vermont. Tonight's game at Walter Brown Arena begins at 7 p.m. and can be seen on TerrierTV.

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, GameTracker, Terrier TV, @BUGameDay  

● Daily Free Press preview