The bad news for the Boston University Terriers was that they looked disinclined to play defense and lost for the first time ever to the U.S. Under-18 Team, falling 7-4 in front of 2,784 at Agganis Arena.
The good news was that the three stars of the game will all be playing for the Terriers next season.
Left Wing Kiefer Bellows (two goals, one assist), center Clayton Keller (three assists), and goaltender Jake Oettinger (41 saves) will all be suiting up in scarlet and white next season, but BU looked like they could have used all of them tonight. For good measure, U.S. defenseman Chad Krys is another BU recruit; he’s the U.S. team captain and added an assist.
Despite more than doubling the U.S. team’s shot total (45-22), BU lost decisively, and even though no U.S. player turns 18 before January, BU coach David Quinn referred to his own team’s performance as immature.
“Well, some nights it jumps in the net for the other team, and it doesn’t go in the net for you,” Quinn said. “But give them a lot of credit. I thought they were very opportunistic. Right from the get-go it didn’t look like it was going to be our night from the first goal.
“You know, right now, we’re too immature. We play immature hockey; we play high-risk hockey. That’s not how we’re going to have success, and it might take some time. Every time we crawled back into it, we weren’t mentally tough enough to stay with it and build on any momentum.”
The U.S. team scored just 43 seconds in on a fluky bounce. A Terriers clearing attempt went right on the stick of Trent Frederic, who buried it from point-blank range. BU got that one back exactly five minutes later, when Jordan Greenway’s crossing pass went off of Ahti Oksanen and in.
However, linemates Keller and Bellows teamed up to give the Under-18 team a 2-1 lead at 11:31. Keller, clearly a gifted playmaker, stick-handled over the goal line before dishing the pass back into the slot instead of opting for the wraparound. Bellows was trailing the play and banged it in.
BU appeared to be on its way when it tied the game 2-2 at 13:13 of the second period. Greenway drove to the net from the left-wing side, and Danny O’Regan knocked in the rebound after Oettinger stopped Greenway’s backhander.
The young Americans responded less than a minute later with the first of two goals in just 28 seconds. Once again, Keller set up Bellows, who beat Sean Maguire stick side. Then Casey Mittelstadt was sprung on a breakaway, beating Maguire stick side a second time.
BU got within striking distance in the third when Matt Lane got a gritty goal, whacking a puck in off of a Bobo Carpenter rebound, but the teenagers responded with three goals in less than five minutes later in the period to wrap it up. First, it was a Griffin Luce shot from the left point, followed by a goal by Will Lockwood and the second of the night by Trent Frederic.
Ahti Oksanen got one back for BU in the last two minutes, but it hardly mattered at that point.
Although it was an exhibition game, the Finnish senior was not about to shrug off the loss.
“It means a lot,” Oksanen said. “It’s our third game of the season [although only one has counted in the standings], so there’s a lot of things we need to work on … We’re just too focused on the offense; you can’t win if the opposite team scores seven goals. It’s pretty much impossible to win, so we need to mature and start playing some defense and not watch the puck all the time.”
BU plays its home opener against Wisconsin tomorrow.
