After playing games on Friday night marked by goaltending struggles, it seemed only fitting that the Boston University Terriers and the Wisconsin Badgers matchup Saturday night featuring a goaltending battle.
Despite a 40-save contribution to the Badgers’ cause by goaltender Matt Jurusik, Wisconsin could not generate enough offensive chances to make up for the four shots he did not save, and the Wisconsin fell to Boston University, 4-1, to complete a weekend to forget for the struggling Badgers.
Contrary to conventional wisdom about defensive battles, the team that blinked first did not suffer defeat, as the Terriers made the first mistake of the game. A net-mouth scramble developed in the early stages of the game, and even with Connor LaCouvee’s best efforts, Adam Rockwood somehow managed to direct the puck into the net to give the Badgers the early lead. On the other side of the ice, Jurusik held the lead throughout the frame, turning away 16 shots in the first period.
Jurusik had a much taller test in the second period, as the Terriers controlled much of the first three quarters of play, beginning with a Matt Lane goal early in the second to get the Terriers on the board.
A large part of the Terriers’ dominance in the second period came from the four power plays, more than half of the seven penalties to Wisconsin in the game. Despite the offensive onslaught, the Terriers were a pedestrian 1-for-7 on the power play.
“We have to capitalize,” BU coach David Quinn said of his power play after the game. “We had 21 shots on the power play. There are nights where it’s not going to go in; tonight happened to be one of those nights.”
Jurusik had much to do with the frustration of Quinn on the power play, stopping 12 of the 13 shots from the Terriers in the second period, and 20 of 21 shots throughout the game on the man-advantage. The lone blemish for the freshman on the penalty kill was the go-ahead goal scored by Brandon Fortunato to put the game at 2-1 in the second.
As for the Wisconsin offense, the team could not generate anything, not getting credited with a shot on goal until three quarters through the second period. Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves blamed the amount of penalties the team needed to kill in the second period for the lack of offensive production, yet the Badgers were quiet offensively even at even strength in the second period, not giving LaCouvee much to be concerned with following his mistake early in the game.
The Terriers gave LaCouvee more goal support in the third, notching two even-strength goals, including freshman Bobo Carpenter’s first career goal, to seal the game for the Terriers, giving BU its first win of the season. LaCouvee stopped 17 of 18 shots to help contribute to the Terriers’ victory.
“It’s a difficult game for a goalie to play,” Quinn said. “For him to be mentally tough enough to stay in it and to battle and to not let another one in, that says a lot about his mental toughness.”
Even with the two-game weekend sweep and little offense to show for it, the weekend was not a complete loss for the Badgers. Eaves mentioned after the game that the team had been trying to determine the starting goaltender, with some difficulty deciding between Jurusik and senior Adam Miller. While Eaves did not declare a starting goaltender after the game, he did speak highly of Jurusik’s performance in regards to the decision.
“Matty [Jurusik] certainly did himself a lot of favors by playing the way he did tonight,” Eaves remarked when speaking about his goaltending decision.
