Saturday, January 01, 2022

Tuch powers BU past Brown


Skating with only 11 forwards and four defensemen didn’t slow the Terriers as they began second semester and said goodbye to 2021 with a decisive 5-1 win against Brown at Meehan Auditorium.

This was the Terriers' first trip to Meehan Auditorium since earning a 2-1 win over Brown on Dec. 8, 1993 with current director of hockey operations Doug Friedman scoring the game-winner and current assistant coach Jay Pandolfo assisting on BU's other goal.

A combination of injuries and Covid protocols shortened the BU bench. As a result, forwards Logan Cockerill and Dylan Peterson took shifts on defense to reduce the burden on the four regular blueliners who dressed.

“It was an unbelievable effort from our guys,” BU head coach Albie O’Connell said. “It wasn’t the best circumstances, coming to the game with that number of guys and guys playing out of position. I was really proud of the way Peterson and Cockerill played. They looked like two veteran defensemen. … We played together. We played like a team. So it was it was a good overall win."

In fact, the game nearly wasn't played, according to journalist Mark Divver.  

O’Connell added, ‘If we were down one more guy we would have been under the minimum. We’re psyched we got a chance to play. I didn’t really weigh in on [playing today]. I just let [the administration] know that we wanted to play if we could.”

Terriers grabbed the lead at 2:33 of the first when Jay O’Brien, who returned to the line-up, intercepted a pass in the defensive zone and head-manned a pass to Luke Tuch in stride at center ice. The sophomore wing broke in alone and beat Luke Hania for his first tally of the season.

Vinny Duplessis, making his second start in goal, kept the Bears off the board with a terrific glove save at the 7:15 mark of the period, sprawling to his left to deny a rebound opportunity.

BU doubled the lead eleven minutes later, scoring on the rush with Tuch again providing the finish.  O’Brien sent a long pass from the d-zone to Max Kaufman racing up the right side. The assistant captain found Tuch heading to the net for a point blank shot past Kania.

Early in the second period, Sam Stevens won an offensive zone draw back to Jamie Armstrong and headed to the net. Armstrong sent the puck to Alex Vlasic and the junior defenseman wristed a shot towards the cage where a perfectly positioned Stevens redirected it home for a 3-0 lead.

The host team finally got on the board in the opening minutes of the final period, but only managed two more shots the rest of the way. Short-handed tallies by Kaufman and Vlasic made the final tally 5-1.

●  GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

●  Video highlights

● Post-game comments: O’Connell

● WTBU Sports recap

Looking ahead

2022 recruit Ryan Greene scored a power play goal and assisted on another tally in Green Bay's 5-2 win against Madison.

Jeremy Wilmer scored his 10th goal and assisted on three other scores in Tri-City's  7-1 rout of Lincoln. The 2022 recruit's 34 points in 24 games is seventh best in the USHL.

 2022 recruit Quinn Hutson's overtime goal sent Muskegon to a 3-2 win against Youngstown. The right-shot forward, who has a 13-16-29 scoring line, also assisted on a goal and had a team-high 11 shots.

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