BOSTON – Boston University improved its record to 8-2-0 in its last ten games while the Massachusetts hockey team dropped its 10th consecutive contest and 14th game in its last 15 as the No. 3-ranked Terriers bested the Minutemen 3-1 at Agganis Arena Friday night.
Despite falling to BU (18-7-2, 11-4-2 Hockey East) for the second time this season and trailing 2-0 after the first period, UMass (5-21-2, 2-13-2 HEA) competed hard throughout and had its chances to pull close to the heavily-favored Terriers but fell short.
BU tallied 22 shots in the first period alone, while the Minutemen put just eight shots on goal in the first 20 minutes as the Terriers dominated time of possession.
If it weren’t for the play of UMass goaltender Ryan Wischow, who stopped 42 of BU’s 45 shot attempts and made 19 critical saves during the Terriers’ seven power play opportunities, the score was bound to balloon out of control against a team loaded with NHL prospects.
BU forward Clayton Keller (goal, two assists) scored an even-strength goal at 3:37 of the first. Dante Fabbro (goal, assist) added another at 14:40 to put UMass in what would prove to be an inescapable 2-0 hole.
“I thought we had a poor first period,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “We allowed them to get a 2-0 lead which is difficult to overcome. I thought our second and third periods were better. Ultimately I thought we had the puck in good areas and weren’t able to execute as much as we could have tonight. As of late, this was not one of our better games because we needed to have a really good game against a really good team.”
“I really liked our first period,” BU coach David Quinn said. “We came out with a lot of pace and a lot of jump. We got the 2-0 lead and we felt like maybe it could have been a little bit more.”
The Minutemen picked up momentum midway through the second period when senior Ray Pigozzi deflected a shot from the point by defensemen Shane Bear that ricocheted into the back of the net past Terrier goaltender Jake Oettinger (28 saves) for UMass’ second power play goal in as many games.
The Minutemen were on the man advantage four times in the period, totaling seven shots for the game on six opportunities on the power play.
“We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole with the penalties and we scrambled,” Quinn said of the second.
UMass sustained offensive pressure through the remainder of the second and for moments in the third but failed to pull even with the Terriers, who regained their legs in the final period and pulled away when Bobo Carpenter pushed the BU lead to 3-1 at 10:24.
“The third period started a little bit shaky for us and then I thought we started playing smarter hockey,” Quinn added. “I thought our [penalty] killing was pretty good and if you look at our power play, although statistically we were 0-for-7, but we had 19 shots and lots of chances.”
UMass totaled 29 shots for the game and outshot the Terriers 10-7 in the second period.
“[It] was a good two points. It was a hard fought game – there’s no easy games in this league,” Quinn said. “People can look at records and make assumptions but this is a hard league.”
Kyle DaLuz can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Kyle_DaLuz.
