W slips away as BU and Lowell tie, 3-3; Women defeat PSU

In their first conference game, BU sprinted to a 3-0 lead, but had to settle for a 3-3 overtime tie with UMass Lowell at Tsongas Arena. Terriers received a pair of goals from senior Patrick Harper and one from junior David Farrance, while goal Sam Tucker stopped 25 shots, including a pair of breakaways—one in overtime.

Terriers came out fast and aggressively, outshooting the River Hawks, 16-11 in the opening period. The only tally came at 8:36, just after a successful penalty kill. Farrance gathered a loose puck in the defensive zone and found Harper alone behind the defense at the Lowell blueline. He skated in and beat Tyler Wall five-hole. Late in the period Tucker fought off a shorthanded breakaway attempt by Matt Brown.

With BU killing a penalty carried over from the first period, Harper recorded his fourth goal of the season collecting a loose puck in the left circle and beating Wall again with a backhander in tight. Terriers extended the lead on a power play at 7:48 of the second on Farrance’s center-point blast, assisted by freshman Trevor Zegras and Harper.

But the hosts got one back just 24 seconds later when a shot hit 6’6” defensemen Alex Vlassic in the back and fell directly to Connor Sodergren for an easy tap-in. BU responded well to the tally and after putting some pressure on the River Hawks, it appeared BU would emerge from the period up by two scores, but a pass to the high slot by Kenny Hausinger came right back to him. He flipped the puck into the open left side of the cage, cutting the margin to one.

Just 1:20 into the third period, a Terrier turnover in the corner to Tucker’s right led to Hausinger’s pass to Seth Barton at the bottom of the right circle for a blast that found net, high to the glove side. BU would kill a pair of penalties late in the period, sending the game to overtime. The best scoring opportunity in the extra period came on Carl Berglund’s breakaway that Tucker defended.

Coach Albie O’Connell expressed disappointment that his team hadn’t closed out an opponent again after taking a three-goal lead, but found several silver linings, including the effort by Tucker: “I thought he was terrific. We’re really excited about his effort tonight.”

After criticizing the team’s penalty kill a week ago, O’Connell pointed out the team’s improvement, foiling all five UML man-advantages: “I thought our penalty kill was tremendous all night.”

Terriers host New Hampshire Saturday night at Agganis Arena.a

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

● Boston Hockey Blog recap and Three Takeaways

● HockeyEastOnline.com recap

Episode 3 of Inside BU Hockey features Bernie Corbett’s interviews with head coach Albie O'Connell and former Terrier standout and current head coach at Salem State Bill O'Neill '79, the recipient of this year's William French Award, to be given at today's BU Athletic Hall of Fame banquet. A four-year Terrier and a member of the 1978 national championship team, O’Neill has led the Vikings since 1981 and recorded his 600^th win last Spring. He has also directed SSU to a pair of NCAA Division 3 Final Four appearances (1992 & 1994), six NCAA tournament bids, three ECAC East playoff titles and 20 Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) championships.

●Salemstatevikings.com O’Neill bio

Looking back

Clayton Keller scored his first goal in the Coyotes’ 5-3 win against New Jersey

● NHL.com recap and video highlights

Joel Farabee recorded his first NHL point, assisting on Kevin Hayes’ third period goal in the Flyers’ 4-1 win against Chicago.

● NHL.com recap and video highlights

Women’s Team 

 #10 Terriers began their two-game road series against Penn State with a 5-2 win. BU received tallies from five players and goalie Corinne Schroeder delivered another strong performance in goal with 22 saves. BU carried a 2-1 lead in the final period and scored three times to pull away.

Junior Kristin Schuler opened the scoring just 22 seconds into the contest, assisted by senior Deziray DeSousa. Seven minutes later senior Sammy Davis scored her team-leading fourth goal following a pass from sophomore Mackenna Parker to classmate Emma Wuthrich. A Penn State shorthanded goal was the only tally of the middle period.

Abby Cook’s goal, assisted by Alex Allan and Natasza Tarnowski early in the third restored the two-goal lead, but PSU responded five minutes later with a power play goal. Late in the period BU converted its own power play goal with Elia tapping in a cross-ice pass from freshman Julia Nearis. Kaleigh Donnelly, who also assisted on the Elia goal, closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal.

Elia now has a team-best five assists.

The teams return to Pegula Ice Arena this afternoon at 1 p.m. Live Stats. Live Stream (PPV).

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights