Friday, February 11, 2022

BU completes sweep of Providence, 4-1; Commesso shines in Olympic debut UPDATED

#20 Terriers, fueled by three power-play goals, gained an important road win, defeating #17 Providence, 4-1 at Schneider Arena. Junior Jay O’Brien had a pair of man-advantage tallies, while classmate Wilmer Skoog had the third and freshman Brian Carrabes had an even-strength goal.

Sophomore Vinny Duplessis stopped 24 of 25 shots to gain his third win since taking over for Drew Commesso and fourth overall. He lowered his GAA to 1.87 and improved his save percentage to .920.

For BU, it was the team’s sixth win in a row and 12th in the last 14 games (12-1-1). The three conference points earned moved BU into second place in Hockey East. BU also moved up to #16 in the PairWise rankings.

Terriers nearly took a late first-period lead when Joe Campolieto’s point-blank shot was snared by PC’s Jaxon Stauber.

After nearly 30 minutes of heavy-checking, scoreless play, Providence got on the board on a power play. Patrick Moynihan scored on a backdoor play taking a slick pass across the crease from Brett Berard. It was the first time in 13 games that BU hadn’t scored first.

Two minutes later, BU countered on a power play with a familiar formula: Domenick Fensore set up O’Brien for a rip from the top of the right circle with Skoog setting an effective screen.

A key turning point came at 17:24 when, following Coach Albie O’Connell’s request for a review, Parker Ford received a five-minute major and game misconduct for hitting Case McCarthy from behind.

Fourteen seconds into the power play, Brown took the puck at the left point, skated to the left circle and from a sharp angle fired a shot that a screening Skoog deflected past Stauber for what proved to be the game-winner. O’Brien also assisted.

With the penalty time continuing, BU extended the lead in the opening minute of the third period. Fensore weaved his way into the offensive zone and sent a cross-ice past to O’Brien near the left board. As the Friars’ defender backed off, O’Brien closed to the face off dot and shot through the defenders’ legs and Stauber’s five-hole as well for a 3-1 lead.

A penalty to Skoog eliminated the rest of the five-minute man-advantage, and another call against Nick Zabaneh gave Providence it’s fourth power play, but BU killed it with no shots on goal.

At 8:56 a strong defensive play by Max Kaufman behind the BU goal line sent the puck up the left boards to Captain Logan Cockerill who quickly head-manned it to a streaking Carrabes behind the Friars’ defense. The freshman wing skated in alone, deked and backhanded home his third goal of the season.

Just as they had against Harvard Monday, the Terriers played a tight third period and limited Providence to just five shots, while padding their lead with two goals.

With three points in the game, O’Brien now has 16 (7G,9A) in his last 11 games. In the two games against the team he played for as a freshman, the Hingham native has three goals and two assists.

Skoog leads BU in scoring with 24 points (10G,14A) and Brown extended his points streak to nine and has four goals and six assists in the last seven games. With his assist, Brown extended his points streak to nine games with five goals and six assists in that stretch.

Terriers outshot Providence 28-25 and connected on three of five power-play opportunities, while limiting PC to one of six. BU also had the edge in face offs, winning 32 of 60. And once again, the Terriers were in double-digits in blocked shots with 12.

“Really excited with the victory tonight,” said Coach Albie O’Connell. “A really hard place to play. Hard to play between the Beanpot [games], especially a team like Providence and such an important game within our standings.”

Addressing the recent success of the Terrier power play, he explained, “We’ve got guys in the right seats on the power play. We’ve got Brownie and OB on those two half-wall spots. Both guys can score, both guys like to shoot. So, the number of shots we’ve had has definitely increased. And we’ve got Skoog who’s done a terrific job at the net. Masro’s done an unbelievable job on face off retrievals, making small, little plays and Dom has done a great job quarterbacking.

"I’m excited for the group and the way we handled the 'trap game,' O'Connell added. "The way we practiced yesterday…one of the better practices we’ve had all year. A lot of guys have confidence. They have confidence in each other. We have a winning feeling. It’s exciting to see as a coaching staff."

O'Connell also credited video coach Jon Sherman for encouraging him to request the review that led to the major penalty call.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights

● Post-game comments O’Connell

● Boston Hockey Blog recap

● WTBU Sports recap


Olympic Games

Make it two Terrier netminders picking up wins today, as Drew Commesso stopped all 28 shots he faced in Team USA’s 8-0 blanking of China in the team’s first preliminary round game at the Beijing Olympic Games. It was the U.S. Men’s Olympic Team’s first shutout since 2019. Harvard’s Sean Farrell led the U.S. offense with a hat trick and two assists.

“There were some tough saves,” U.S. coach David Quinn said. “They [China] did a great job getting to the net. They’re big bodies, they got pucks to the net quickly, so he had to fight his way through traffic and I thought he did a really good job of that.”

Former Terrier David Warsofsky also had a strong game on the blue line and thwarted two short-handed bids by the host team in the game’s final minutes.

Commesso, the youngest goaltender ever to suit up for Team USA, is the fourth American netminder to play in the Olympics, joining Jim Craig (1980-Gold), Rick DiPietro (2006) and Don Rigazio (1956-Silver).

Hockey Journalist Chris Peters assessment of Commesso’s performance:

Drew Commesso (CHI): Calm, cool, completely unrattled by the stage. From the start of the game to the finish, Commesso looked the same. Body language can be so important for a goalie, but more important is technique. Commesso is an incredibly sound goaltender technically. He made a lot of saves look easy because his pre-shot reads have always been very good. There weren’t many instances where he was fighting the puck or giving up rebounds. He kept it very controlled and allowed his team to take chances. The youngest goalie in Olympic history for the U.S. looked like an old pro.

Next up for Quinn’s squad is a matchup with Canada to be played Saturday in China/Friday night 11:10 p.m. ET.

● USA Hockey recap and video highlights

● ESPN recap

● USCHO.com recap

Looking ahead

2024 recruit Jack Pridham scored a pair of goals for St. Andrews College in a 7-1 against Hill Academy. The right-shot forward has six points (4G,2A) in his last three games and has a 14-14-28 scoring line in 33 games.


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