A natural hat trick is a rarity in hockey.
Seeing a defenseman pull off the feat is almost unheard of.
After missing 12 of Boston University’s first 18 games due to injury this season, senior captain Matt Grzelcyk notched a natural hat trick in his second game back in the lineup, blowing open a 2-2 game against Massachusetts en route to a 7-2 win in front of 5,124 at Agganis Arena.
Grzelcyk’s defensive partner Charlie McAvoy finished with a plus-4 rating, while Bobo Carpenter, Robbie Baillargeon, and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson each added a goal and an assist to to lead the Terriers. Linemates Steven Iacobellis and Ray Pigozzi factored in both goals for UMass.
“You don’t get many nights like that in this league when the puck jumps in for us the way it did tonight,” BU coach David Quinn said. “We got some puck luck, but I also thought we made some plays. I thought we got better as the game went on.
“We were a little sluggish in the first five minutes. I thought we really started knuckling down and doing a much better job of managing the puck, playing the puck, and doing the job in our end. … Seven goals is great, but the thing I really like is we gave up five shots in the third period.”
After seeing his team hold its own against BU for the first 33 minutes, UMass coach John Micheletto saw things get out of hand quickly as Grzelcyk scored his hat trick in a less than seven-minute stretch late in the second and early in the third period.
“We’ve seen that we can’t let this team get away from us because they can score them in bunches, and that’s what happened,” Micheletto said.
You wouldn’t think it from the final score, but UMass actually had five of the game’s first six shots. They also scored the game’s first goal, marking the 13th time in 20 games that BU has given up the first tally in a game this season.
At 2:50 of the first period, BU simply gave UMass too many chances, and Shane Walsh finally buried a rebound after three or four shots in short succession. The Terriers gradually got things going and were rewarded with a goal with just over two minutes left in the period. Freshman left wing Ryan Cloonan threw a shot wide of the net and off the boards on the stick side of goaltender Alex Wakaluk. Forsbacka Karlsson got the puck behind the goal line and managed to flip it off the back of the netminder’s skate and into the goal.
“He’s an incredibly intelligent player,” Quinn said of the Swedish centerman.
BU took the lead at 12:09 of the second period. After withstanding sustained pressure from UMass, the Terriers countered with Bobo Carpenter driving to the net for a shot followed by a rebound attempt from Nikolas Olsson. Wakaluk stopped that one, too, only to have Carpenter backhand home the second rebound past the lunging netminder.
BU enjoyed its lead for exactly one minute, as the Minutemen raced in with some nifty tic-tac-toe passing from Shane Walsh to Ivan Chukarov, then to Ray Pigozzi before a last-second dish to Steven Iacobellis, who put it in crashing the net.
BU regained the one-goal lead just 20 seconds after that. With Baillargeon screening Wakaluk, Grzelecyk took a shot that appeared to hit the goalie’s shoulder before rolling over it and going in.
“Grizzy gets it away quickly,” Quinn said. “He’s got pace to it, he shoots it hard, he has a quick release. He’s got six goals in eight games, I think. He’s work hard it too; it isn’t something that’s happened overnight. I’m just really happy for him.”
A few minutes later, on a power play, Grzelcyk made it 4-2 when Brandon Fortunato teed up his pinpointed slap shot from the right point. Then, just 18 seconds into the third period, the BU captain scored on another deadly accurate one-timer to make it 5-2.
“It’s great to have him back in the lineup,” Quinn said. “He’s only played five games since last April, so imagine when the rust comes off.
“It’s nice to be back out there competing with your teammates,” Gryzelcyk said. “I think anyone struggling with injuries is frustrated sitting back and watching. Just to be out there is cool enough for me.”
At 13:07, just after a power play expired, McAvoy made a nice cross-ice pass from the right point to Robbie Baillargeon low in the left-wing face-off circle for the shot and score. Then Jordan Greenway finished off the scoring on a breakaway in the final two minutes, marking the team’s first short-handed goal of the season.
Sean Maguire stopped 25 of 27 shots for the Terriers.
