Saturday, January 15, 2022

O'Brien's OT goal stretches unbeaten streak to seven

 

                                 Photo by Kyle Prudhomme

Junior Jay O’Brien, after several near-tallies in regulation, scored eight seconds into overtime, sending BU home happy from Hartford with a 2-1 win over UConn. The win extended BU’s unbeaten streak to seven games (6-0-1), second longest in Division 1.

With BC losing to New Hampshire and Providence being edged by Merrimack, Terriers join the Eagles and Friars in fourth place in the conference standings.

Terriers held a 1-0 lead from late in the opening period until the Huskies tied the scored with seven minutes left in the third, setting the stage for the heroics by O’Brien. Earlier in the game he'd fired a puck off iron twice and was denied on a breakaway. The right-shot center also tied Max Kaufman for a team-high three blocked shots. For the game, BU blocked 17 shots.

Continuing the trend of recent games, BU was skating fast and hard from the get-go. Early on O’Brien set up Luke Tuch for a scoring chance that rang off the post. Then, during BU’s first power play, O’Brien rang one off the post himself.

With just under three minutes left in the period, Ethan Phillips skated into the offensive zone and dropped a pass for a trailing Matt Brown. The transfer from Lowell skated through the right circle and whipped a backhander that beat Darion Hanson high to the glove side for his fifth goal and a 1-0 lead.

Both teams came out firing as the second period begin and Drew Commesso, who would save 14 shots in the period, stopped a Kevin O’Neil scoring chance with a leg save to keep BU on top.

At 2:09, Phillips' shot from the high post hit the crossbar. Midway through the period O’Brien hit iron again. Late in the period, Hanson robbed Cade Webber who had been staring at a half-open cage. In final minute of the period, Domenick Fensore sent O’Brien in alone, but his shot was turned away by Hanson.

Commesso, named yesterday to the U.S. Olympic team, kept his shutout intact for the first 13 minutes of the third period. Then, a BU clearing attempt became a turnover and Chase Bradley had a half-open net to score the equalizer.

The Huskies pressed hard, keeping the puck in the BU zone but couldn’t beat Commesso again as regulation time expired.

UConn appeared to win the overtime faceoff, but O’Brien grabbed control of the puck, dashed into the offensive zone and ripped home a shot, high to the stick side with just eight seconds of overtime elapsed.

O’Brien has goals in three straight games and points in four with eight points in those four contests. Brown has found the net in his last three games and four of the last five.

Commesso was sharp once again, turning aside 25 shots. In his last six starts, he’s yielded just nine goals for a 1.46 GAA and a .950 save percentage.

Terriers took just one penalty, killing it to run their streak to their success streak to 22. And BU held the edge in the face-off circle, 36-33, with O’Brien winning 13 of 23.

Coach Albie O'Connell:

"It was good college hockey game, really hard fought. The referees let the guys play. We made one more play than they did. I thought both goalies were really good.

"I thought Drew was really good, played a great game. On their goal, he really didn’t have a chance. Our guy tried to clear it to the corner and passed it right to them.

Discussing the shot blocking effort, especially by the forwards, he said, “I thought it was really important. Our commitment to defense, after we played Cornell, has really grown and it grows from game-to-game."

On O’Brien: "He's a big-time player. It was a beautiful finish, just the effort off the face-off and not getting denied. Creating the two-on-one. He was snake-bitten a little bit tonight. We’re a different hockey team when he’s in the lineup."

On Brown: “He has elite offensive ability and he’s a guy who can get hot and scorer game after game after game.”

On Phllips: “That was one of the best games Ethan has played in his career. He was all over the ice on the fore check. Made that line go.”

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Post-game comments: O’Connell

● Boston Hockey Blog recap 

● WTBU Sports recap

 

Looking ahead

2022 recruit Ryan Greene scored his ninth goal and added an assist as Green Bay doubled up the NTDP U18s, 6-3.  Lane Hutson had an assist for Team USA.

2023 recruit Jack Musa scored his 10th goal in Madison’s 5-2 win against Cedar Rapids.

Looking back

Clayton Keller, who was named to the NHL All-Star game this week, scored a shorthanded goal—his 13th tally of the season—in Arizona’s 4-3 Colorado.

Trevor Zegras scored his 10th goal and added an assist in the Ducks’ 7-3 loss to Minnesota. Kevin Shattenkirk also had a helper for Anaheim.

 

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