Nothing has gone wrong for No. 3 Boston University since losing to arch-rival Boston College back on January 16.
Two days later, Boston University beat Mass.-Lowell to tie the River Hawks for first in Hockey East. That turned out to be the beginning of a seven-game winning streak and what has become an impressive six-point lead over second-place Boston College in the standings.
Friday night, senior Cason Hohmann led the way with two goals and an assist as the Terriers broke open a 3-3 game with three unanswered goals to beat New Hampshire 6-3 in front of 4,596 at Agganis Arena. Terrier forwards Jack Eichel and Robbie Baillargeon added three points apiece for the streaking Terriers.
“Important two points as the season’s coming to a close,” BU coach David Quinn said. “Obviously we got off to a two-goal lead, and we didn’t do a good job of managing any of our two-goal leads until we made it 5-3.
“I just thought in particular in the first two periods we were irresponsible with the puck and really weren’t committed to playing defense. It became a little bit of a track meet, exchanging chances, and that’s certainly not the way we play. We did a better job in the third period.”
Coming off a 6-3 win at Vermont last Saturday, UNH rebounded after giving up a goal in the first minute but faltered after tying it up in the second period.
“Obviously, we got off to a slow start,” UNH coach Dick Umile said. “The team battled back, and I thought it was a heck of a game when we got it back to 3-3. … Then there was a couple of undisciplined penalties, and they put the game away.”
About one second into his first shift at 0:28, Hohmann scored on a one-timer after Baillargeon won an offensive end draw. Less than seven minutes later, Hohmann knocked home the rebound of a Brandon Hickey shot from the point.
“They were flying, and we weren’t doing much of anything,” Umile said. “I think we were still on the bus for the first 10 minutes.”
“It was awesome,” Hohmann said of his two-goal night. “I was playing with really good linemates. Good faceoff win by Robbie on the first one, and then I had pretty much a tap-in on Hickey’s nice shot on the second one.”
If the Terriers thought that the rout was on, though, they were mistaken. At 14:14, junior Dan Correale knocked home the rebound of Harry Quast’s shot. UNH goalie Danny Tirone managed to thwart Eichel when the two went mano-a-mano at 15:20, and the period ended 2-1.
The Terriers regained the two-goal cushion a 4:14 of the second period, with Eichel and Danny O’Regan making it look all too easy. The linemates traded the puck back and forth through the Wildcats zone until Eichel ended up with the easy tap-in.
UNH got that one back 33 seconds later when freshman Warren Foegele shot from the right-wing circle while falling down, beating BU goalie Matt O’Connor through the five-hole to make it 3-2. Then UNH tied it up at 3-3 on another rebound goal, as Matt Willows knocked it in after an initial shot by Brett Pesce.
BU hit a whopping four pipes in the period, including one shot by Matt Grzelyk after Evan Rodrigues set him up with a highlight-reel spin move. Finally, the Terriers regained the lead when Grzelyk’s shot from the point went off the goalie and trickled in on a power play at 17:10.
Early in the third, BU basically put it away when Matt Lane teed up a Hickey shot from the point. With the goalie pulled and 1:10 remaining, Hohmann came close to his first career hat trick, but he went down to the ice, leaving Ahti Oksanen to knock it in for his team-leading 19th goal of the season.
The win gives BU an impressive 13-2-2 record in Hockey East as well as 19-4-4 record overall. Meanwhile, UNH is now at 5-10-1 in league play with a 10-16-2 record for the season.
The two teams play the back end of the home-and-home series up at the Whittemore Center. Due to the weather forecast, the start time has been moved up from 7 p.m. to 4 p.m.
