Saturday, January 18, 2020

Terriers rally past Merrimack; Women top Holy Cross


After falling behind, 2-0, BU rallied for three scores to edge Merrimack, 3-2, at Lawler Rink. In a game of firsts, freshman goalie Ashton Abel earned his inaugural win, stopping 27 of 29 shots, while Jake Wise ended his long goal-scoring drought, tallying his first score as a Terrier. Domenick Fensore scored a power play while Jack DeBoer produced the eventual game winner.

BU got off to a sluggish start but began putting plays together midway through the first period. However, the Warriors produced the period’s only score when Ben Brar converted a rebound in close after Abel stopped an initial shot. Merrimack doubled the lead nine minutes into the middle stanza. A BU turnover in the neutral zone led to Liam Walsh sending Regan Kimens in alone, beating Abel on the blocker side.


The Terriers would get on the board on their first power play of the night. Fensore took an Ethan Phillips pass in the neutral zone, raced past the Warrior defense and beat goalie Troy Kobryn high to the blocker side to cut the deficit in half. Case McCarthy also assisted.



Early in the third period Kasper Kotkansalo sent Wise into the Merrimack zone where a stick check sent the puck to Patrick Curry. The Terrier captain poked the puck to Wise behind the Warrior defense and the sophomore center snapped a shot off Kobryn’s right skate for his first career tally. After the ensuing faceoff, Patrick Harper broke in on goal and rang a shot off the crossbar that was initially called a goal, but the call was reversed.



Just six seconds later, BU took the lead when DeBoer cleaned up the rebound of McCarthy’s shot, with Harper also picking up a helper.

Merrimack pressed for an equalizer, aided by two Terrier penalties and appeared to tie the score in the final minutes with its goalie pulled, but the tally was waived off for too many men on the ice.

"Our freshman goalie played well. He stood tall on the road," said Coach Albie O'Connell, noting that Lawler is a difficult venue and that BU has not had much success there in recent years. He added, "I thought we played hard and consistently through all three periods."
 
In his first start in goal, Abel stopped 27 Merrimack shots, including a slick skate save on a second-period breakaway.

BU is back on the ice tonight visiting #5 Boston College at Conte Forum with puck drop at 7 p.m. Lines and links to be posted later today.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score
● Video highlights
● Post-game comments  O’Connell
● Boston Hockey Blog recap, Five Top Moments

►Defkit's Terrier Takeaway

- Thought overall the team played pretty well. There were some stretches where they struggled, especially defensively, some poor discipline at times, but the effort was there.
- Thought Wise played a very good game - really glad he finally scored.
- Also thought Abel played well. He stopped two breakaways, with one of them being spectacular. At worst, he looks like a solid back-up. At best, he could fight for the starting role.
- Merrimack had a very high number of blocked shots. At times it almost seemed like were aiming for their sticks on our shots from the point.
- There were SO many reviews. Multiple penalty reviews for minor/major, the goal/no goals, and then one mysterious delay where they announced that after review, there was no penalty. But nothing had been called. I thought the only penalty review scenario allowed was to determine if a called penalty should be a major or minor.
- Nice to see DeBoer get a big goal. He was the 13th forward, so his shifts were limited.


►Boston Globe: BUhockey gets a boost with return of Team USA star Trevor Zegras
Looking ahead
2020 recruit Drew Commesso stopped 21 of 22 shots as the NTDP U18s defeated  Minnesota, 2-1. Fellow recruit Luke Tuch recorded his ninth assist on Team USA’s first goal. On Thursday, Dylan Peterson scored his sixth goal, while Tuch added an assist in the U18s’ 9-1 win against Hamline.
● USA Hockey recap.
2020 recruit Jay O’Brien scored a pair of goals in Penticton’s 9-1 rout of Merrit. Despite missing a dozen games due to injury, the Flyers’ draft pick is sixth in BCHL scoring with 50 points (17G,33A).
2021 recruits Jeremy Wilmer and Roman Schmidt scored goals in the NTDP U17s’ 6-3 loss to Lincoln. Wilmer has 10 goals and 16 assists, while defenseman Schmidt has six goals and 10 assists.
Women's Team
Behind two goals apiece from Deziray De Sousa and Mackenna Parker and another strong effort in goal by Corinne Schroeder, #8 BU defeated Holy Cross, 4-1. The victory at Walter Brown Arena was the 300th career win for Head Coach Brian Durocher, who has led the Terrier program since its inception in 2005-06.
● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score
● Video highlights
● Post-game comments Durocher


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