BOSTON — They say that the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.
So far this season, the opposite has been true for top-ranked Boston University and tonight was no exception.
BU got off to its usual lamb-like start, improved in the second period, and then roared with a four-goal outburst in the third period to rally from a 2-1 deficit and beat Colgate 5-2 in front of 4,585 at Agganis Arena.
In the third period alone, Evan Rodrigues scored twice, Jack Eichel added a goal and assist, and captain Matt Grzelcyk notched three assists to lead the Terriers.
While it’s not unusual for a team to score more in one period than another, BU’s scoring totals are starting to look downright bizarre. In the first 12 games of season, BU has scored a scanty four goals in the first period and an unremarkable 11 goals in the second period.
In the third period, though, they’ve scored a whopping 28 goals. What gives?
“I wish I had an answer for you,” BU coach David Quinn said. “Obviously, that’s an issue we’ve got to address. Maybe that’s youth, too. Part of playing at this level is preparing and getting ready away from the rink. That’s a skill that’s learned – a lot of pros do that. When you’re as young as we are, there’s still a lot of a youth hockey mentality where guys just show up and think they’re going to be ready to play a hockey game. They’re finding out that’s not the case.”
Before tonight, Colgate was 7-0-0 when leading after two periods, and the Raiders had outscored the opposition by an impressive 19-7 margin coming into tonight’s action. On top of that, Colgate frankly dominated BU physically in the first period and traded goals in a pretty even second period.
“I was happy with our effort; I thought we worked really hard,” Colgate coach Don Vaughan said. “Defensively, we did a lot of good things that we wanted to do. It didn’t feel like a 5-2 game to me – a couple of power-play goals against, and we didn’t take good care of the puck in the third period, and that’s what you need to do against a skilled team on the road. If you don’t do that, it’s going to bite you, and I think that’s what happened tonight.”
After looking great for the better part of 60 minutes in an overtime loss on Tuesday to Harvard, BU struggled to get out of the gate tonight. At 4:10, Colgate made it 1-0. Tyson Spink raced up the left wing, but looked up to see big defenseman Doyle Somerby between him and the net. Spink shifted the puck onto his backhand as he cut to his right before flipping a nifty backhander by goalie Matt O’Connor on the glove side.
BU had a glimmer of hope in the last minute of the period when Rodrigues was hauled down, resulting in the first BU penalty shot since Dec. 8, 2012. Rodrigues faked the shot and then tried to slip the puck around Colgate goalie Charlie Finn low on the glove side, but Finn flopped down to make the pad save.
Things were looking up for the Terriers when they scored on a power play in the first two minutes of the second period. Cason Hohmann raced in with the puck along the right-wing boards. When Matt Lane crashed the net, drawing the defense with him, freshman Chase Phelps was wide open trailing the play. Hohmann slipped it to the left winger, who buried the shot for his first collegiate goal.
But Colgate battled back and scored a power-play goal of its own at 17:28 of the period. Captain Spiro Goulakos took a shot from the point. O’Connor made the initial save, but Mike Panowyk took a backhanded swipe at the puck in midair to knock it in.
Trailing 2-1 at the start of the third, BU took all of 16 seconds to tie it up. Grzelcyk made a great effort to win a puck in his own end, forwarding it to freshman sensation Eichel in the neutral zone. Eichel attacked with speed, shooting around a defenseman and pinging the puck off the post and in on Finn’s glove side.
The Terriers proceeded to play their best hockey of the night. After a few near misses midway through the period, BU took its first lead of the night at 11:27 on an excellently executed power play. Grzelcyk shot from the point, and the rebound squirted to Ahti Oksanen low in the right-wing circle. Oksanen slipped the puck to Rodrigues for the one-timer and a goal.
“We had a lot of movement on our power play, which is what we try to do,” Rodrigues said. “I was just trying to find that open hole in the slot there and just got it off my stick as quick as possible and fortunately enough, it went in.”
BU had to kill a penalty after that, but it was all over at 18:33. Eichel set up another Grzelcyk shot from the point, and this one went off of a player’s backside near the crease. Danny O’Regan picked up the rebound and put it in.
It was Grzelcyk’s third assist of the period and the night.
“He had a phenomenal game – his best game of the year,” Quinn said.
Rodrigues tacked on an empty-net goal with just 0.6 seconds remaining, so the two late goals made the game seem considerably more decisive than it was. Still, it was a satisfying win in a well-fought game between two strong teams that each some key players out of the lineup.
“It’s not an excuse, but we’re missing three good players [due to injuries and a suspension], so we’ve got to find a way to be better defensively because we’ve got a lot of offense sitting in the stands,” Vaughan said.
Quinn certainly was impressed with the Raiders.
“A very good hockey team we just beat and down a couple of players as well,” said Quinn. “There’s no mystery why they were picked to win their league. They play hard, they’re strong, they’re physical. We just found a way to get it done. Another slow, sluggish start [and] I wish I had an answer to why that happens night in and night out in this building, but we seemed to get better as the game went on.”
The game also marked the first meeting of the two programs in over 21 years. But with BU joining Colgate in the Patriot League in other sports, not to mention a new arena coming to Colgate in 2016, Vaughan would like to see the teams play more often, saying, “Hopefully, it’s the start of something long-term.”
As of 8 p.m. Saturday evening, BU (9-2-1) had already boarded a bus for Hanover, N.H., where the Terriers will play Dartmouth at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Colgate (9-5-1) travels south to play another tough Hockey East opponent in Providence on Sunday.
