Saturday, December 04, 2021

Terriers top UNH, 3-1; Women edge Merrimack in OT UPDATED

Captain Logan Cockerill’s power play goal—his first tally of the season—in the second period proved the game-winner as BU defeated New Hampshire, 3-1, at Agganis Arena. The victory ended a three-game winless skid for the Terriers and halted a the Wildcats’ three-game winning streak. Wilmer Skoog also had a man-advantage tally while Max Kaufman had an empty-netter, getting himself off the schneid, as well.

Drew Commesso turned aside 29 of 30 shots and kept his net clean over the final 55 minutes. The only goal the sophomore allowed was a sharp angle shot by Harrison Blaisdell—which Coach Albie O’Connell termed “a weird one”—to give UNH an early lead. Just past the 14 minute-mark, Commesso slammed the door on a grade A chance by Will Margel followed a D-zone turnover.

At the 17-minute mark BU went on the power play. After Ty Amonte carried the puck into the zone, Skoog left it for Domenick Fensore who passed to Matt Brown in the right circle. Instead of putting the puck on net, the junior transfer put it on the stick of a charging Skoog at the crease for a redirect past Mike Robinson to even the score at 1-1.

 

BU nearly grabbed the lead early in the second period but Alex Vlasic’s shot that went in off the post was waived off for goaltender interference by Skoog.

“I don’t think [Vlasic] is going to give Skoog a Christmas gift,” O’Connell quipped, “but they made the right calls.”

Terriers dominated the period with a 14-5 shot margin, in part due to a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty on Liam Devlin for slew-footing Brian Carrabes.

“Our guys on the bench were like ‘that was a slew-foot,’” O’Connell noted. “[DHO] Doug Friedman has the headset, so he called upstairs to Jon Sherman our video coach, and he made the right call, the call of the year. That was a big one, and it really gave us an opportunity to win the game.”

Two minutes into the man-advantage, Dylan Peterson dished to Case McCarthy and took a return pass at the right point. The 6’4” forward made a dash toward the net, drawing UNH defenders, and feathered a perfect backdoor pass to Cockerill who buried it for a 2-1 lead.

BU appeared to double the lead early in the third period when another Vlasic shot glanced into the goal off Kaufman, but it, too, was disallowed upon review due to an offside.

In the final minute with Robinson pulled for an extra attacker, Kaufman blocked a shot and was sent in on a breakaway by Peterson leading to an empty net goal at 19:33.

Cockerill, who was a perfect 5-0 in the faceoff circle, earned first-star honors. Noting the disallowed goals and a few BU shots off iron, he said, “I thought score was a little tighter than how we played. We did a good job of playing consistent throughout the game. That was a good taste of winning hockey. Playing with the lead (in the third). Mature hockey. We deserved to win.”

"We’ve been banging the drum all week that we have to play harder defensively and we did,” O’Connell added. “We did a great job blocking shots. That was a major factor in the game....it’s going to be harder tomorrow."

BU had 14 blocked shots and took 34 shots, 27 in the final two periods.

The teams will complete the home-and-home Saturday night at The Whittemore Center in Durham. Puck drop is at 7:00 p.m. 


● GoTerrier.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights; Post-game: O’Connell, Cockerill

● WTBU Sports recap

BU Hockey Writer Scott Weighart talked with Skoog and Kaufman about their goals and non-goals. Skoog hit iron twice.

● GoTerriers.com Strange Magic: BU Wins a Weird One

● Boston Hockey Blog recap

 

Looking ahead


2022 recruit Lane Hutson’s assist in the NTDP U18s’ 4-0 win against the University of Wisconsin was his 19th point, tops among U18 defenseman. The 5’8” Illinois native, who was called up to the U18s last season for the World U18 championships, is featured in a USA Hockey video profile. Next season he’ll join older brother, Quinn Hutson, a right wing who has an 11-10-21 line in 19 games for Muskegon, as Terrier freshmen.

2022 recruit Michael LaStarza assisted on a pair of goals in Waterloo’s 5-2 win against Sioux Falls.The left-shot forward from Montreal leads the Blackhawks in scoring with 14 points.

Looking back

Jake Oettinger stopped 20 of 22 shots in the Stars' 3-2 win against Columbus, improving his record to 5-0 in six appearances since his recall from the AHL. His GAA actually went up a tad to 1.41 while his save percentage sits at .951.

Women’s Team

Terriers collected their third win in the past four games with a come-from-behind, 2-1 overtime win against Merrimack in North Andover. Julia Shaunessy’s slapshot from the left circle 41 seconds into overtime was the game-winner.

After the teams had played two scoreless periods, the Warriors broke the ice with an unassisted goal at 4:14 of the third period. BU got the equalizer at 16:01 on Courtney Correia’s ninth tally assisted by Ellie Larson and Christina Vote.

In overtime, after Nadia Mattivi’s shot was blocked, Correia sent the puck back to Mattivi whose cross-ice pass was one-timed by Shaunessy high to the goalie’s blocker side.

Freshman Callie Shanahan stopped 31 shots to gain her fifth win in six decisions and lowered her GAA to 1.83.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

 

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