Sunday, March 07, 2021

Terriers nail down #2 seed with tie, shootout win at Lowell


#10/11 Terriers clinched the second seed in Hockey East after tying UMass Lowell, 3-3 in overtime, at the Tsongas Center in their final regular-season game. BU, which won the ensuing shootout, 3-2, to earn the extra point, will have to wait until Wednesday’s first-round results are in to know who they’ll host next Sunday in the quarterfinals.

BU got goals from sophomore Jay O’Brien, freshman Luke Tuch and sophomore Domenick Fensore, while Drew Commesso turned aside 35 River Hawk shots.

Lowell drew first blood at 12:29 with a man advantage. Chase Blackmun took a pass in stride coming in from the blue line and rifled a shot past a screened Commesso. BU matched that tally with its own power play goal. Two penalties produced a 5-on-3 and David Farrance set up O’Brien in the left circle for a one-timer that beat Owen Savory. Fensore also assisted.

The River Hawks regained the lead just 1:27 later when Captain Charlie Levesque redirected a short from the point past Commesso. Then, in the closing seconds of the period, a clearing attempt from behind the Lowell net was knocked down by Tuch in the right circle. He wheeled around and whipped the puck past Savory with 0.3 showing on the clock to produce a 2-2 tie.

Five minutes into the middle period, Fensore sent Wilmer Skoog up ice and followed the play into the offensive zone. The Swedish center’s shot attempt from the high slot was blocked by a defender, but the puck went directly to a trailing Fensore, who buried it for BU’s first lead of the game.

Commesso had a busy second period stopping all 13 shots he faced, including a sprawling save midway through the period that kept BU in the lead.

He made an even bigger save on a power play early in the third period, but moments later, Lowell scored an equalizer on the rush when Joe McDonald skated down the left side. His attempt to feed a teammate in the left circle went off Jamie Armstrong’s stick directly to Lesveque at the right post and he backhanded it over a lunging Commesso.

That was the only goal in the third period and the game went to 3-on-3 overtime where BU sent pucks off iron twice. First, Robert Mastrosimone pinged the crossbar. On the second one, Markus Boguslavsky was sent in alone by Farrance on a give-and-go in the final 10 seconds, but his shot rang off the left post and time expired.

During the ensuing shootout, BU took an early 2-0 as Skoog and Farrance easily beat Savory, but Levesque and Andre Lee connected for a 2-2 tie. BU’s fourth shooter, Mastrosimone made a slick move to put BU back ahead and Commesso fended off a River Hawk attempt to complete the shootout win.

“I thought it was one of the toughest games we played all year,” Coach Albie O’Connell said. “We had to grind it out. We didn’t have the sharpness that we would like.” Commenting on another strong performance in goal, he added, “I thought Drew Commesso was tremendous.”

BU's string of consecutive penalty kills going back to the second BC game was snapped in the first period. Both Lowell power play goals followed BU penalties for too many men on the ice.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

● Post-game comments: O’Connell

● Boston Hockey Blog recap

● WTBU Sports recap

Looking ahead

2022 recruit Doug Grimes scored his third goal in Sioux City’s 5-2 win against Des Moines.

2022 recruit Jack Harvey scored his third goal in Chicago’s 7-5 loss to Muskegon.

 

Looking back

It was a big night in Big D for the Big O as Jake Oettinger stopped all 21 shots in a 5-0 win against Columbus, earning his first NHL shutout (video). In his three seasons at BU he authored 13 shutouts, which tied him with John Curry and Jack Ferreira for the program record.

Jordan Greenway scored his fifth goal in the Wild’s 5-2 loss to Arizona. Clayton Keller assisted on a pair of Coyotes’ goals.

Kevin Shattenkirk scored the tying goal late in the third period and then assisted on the overtime game-winner as the Ducks edged Colorado, 5-4.

 

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