Keller’s 3-point night sends BU past UMass

Clayton Keller scored a goal and assisted on two others to lead the #3 Terriers to an uneven 3-1 win against UMass at Agganis. The two-time Hockey East Rookie-of-the-Month extended his scoring streak to 14 games and led BU to its 18^th win of the season. The Terriers remain in second place in Hockey East, three points behind BC, who is BU’s opponent in Monday’s Beanpot opener.

The win was BU's 18th tying the Terriers with Denver, Union and BC for most in Division 1. It also raised BU's home record to 10-2-1.

 

Terriers drew first blood in the opening period, in which they outshot the Minutemen 22-8.  At the 3:37 mark, Bobo Carpenter retrieved the rebound of his own shot and the puck went from Brandon Hickey to Dante Fabbro, who dished to Keller in the high slot for a wrist shot past Ryan Wischow.  Eleven minutes later, Keller sent a diagonal pass from the bottom of the left circle to Fabbro who had closed to the right circle for a wrist shot that beat Wischow to the stick side.

In the second period, BU reverted to its early-season habit of taking some bad penalties. Five Terriers paraded to the penalty box and, after BU had killed off the first two penalties, UMass converted on the next one at the nine-minute mark when Ray Pigozzi redirected a shot past  Jake Oettinger.

Terriers regained the upper hand as the third period progressed and finally produced an insurance goal midway through the period. Jordan Greenway and Keller fought for possession behind the UMass goal and the latter slid a pass to Carpenter in the slot for his 10^th goal of the season.

Keller, who now has a team best 29 points (13G, 16A), extended his points streak to 14 games, matching Jack Eichel's 14-game streak two seasons ago.  Keller was last kept off the scoresheet on Oct. 22 by Quinnipiac.

 

Oettinger stopped 28 Minuteman shots, while his counterpart turned aside 42 Terrier shots.

Terriers went 0-for-7 on power plays despite registering 18 man-advantage shots, leading  Fabbro to comment:

“I know we hit a few posts and missed a couple open nets, but if we keep doing the right things I think we’ll get the bounces we need.”

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

● Post-game comments: Quinn and Keller/Fabbro

● Daily Free Press recap and analysis 

● USCHO: Hockey East recaps and BU-UMass photo gallery

Great performance by @BUBand tonight! 👍🏻👏🏻💃🏻 #GoBU pic.twitter.com/eMzO7iEk2R

— Friends of BU Hockey (@BU_FoH) February 4, 2017

Looking ahead

2017 recruit Hank Crone scored the shootout winner for Fargo in its 3-2 win over Bloomington. Crone also assisted on the Force’s tying goal in the third period.

2017 recruit Shane Bowers scored his 15^th goal in Waterloo’s 7-3 win against Tri-City.

2017 recruit Ty Amonte scored his 13th goal in Penticton's 4-2 win against Merritt. The right wing from Norwell, Massachusetts has 30 points in 48 games.

Looking back

Nick Bonino scored his eighth goal in Pittsburgh’s 4-3 overtime win against Columbus