For the Huskies and Terriers, this tie was like kissing your ugly stepsister.
With a win, Boston University would have eliminated Northeastern and reduced its chances of having to face No. 1 Boston College or No. 3 Maine in the Hockey East Quarterfinals. Instead, the tie leaves them in eighth place, two points behind Massachusetts-Lowell and Merrimack, albeit with a game in hand against the latter.
A Husky win would have given the Huntington Avenue Hounds a chance to tie BU in the standings with a win tomorrow. Conversely, they found themselves still trailing the Terriers by four points in the standings–with three games left on the schedule instead of four.
Despite dominating in shots through two period and by a 38-32 margin in the game, BU had to settle for their team-record eighth tie against NU, as Keni Gibson made 36 saves while Eric Ortlip added a goal and a helper for the Huskies. Brian McConnell and and David Van der Gulik scored for the Terriers, while Sean Fields made 30 saves, including a whopping eight in the five-minute overtime period, as the teams tied 2-2 in front a Spring Break-depleted crowd of 2,591 at Matthews Arena.
“I didn’t like our game tonight at all,” Terrier coach Jack Parker said. “It seemed like every time we scored, we let up. We came out flying in the third period, and we get a goal; we look pretty good. We acted like ‘Well, that game’s over now.’
“In the overtime, we kept losing faceoff after faceoff after faceoff, a pathetic show on faceoffs,” added Parker. “They had eight shots in overtime, and probably seven of them were off of faceoffs. Fieldsie got a point for us tonight. Give Northeastern credit: They’re fighting for their lives, and they fought real hard tonight.”
The two teams have combined for an amazing total of 15 ties in 62 games this season.
“We’ve got a lot of ties,” Husky coach Bruce Crowder acknowledged. “Twenty-five percent of our games in the league have been ties. I can’t fault the kids for their effort and coming to play in the game, but it’s not what we wanted and probably not what BU wanted. So tomorrow’s another big game for us.”
“I’ll bet you there’s not many 7-7 ties in that group,” Parker said when asked about the reasons for the record number of ties. “We’re not scoring goals. That’s why we’re tying games; that’s why we’re losing games.”
Indeed, the game was BU’s fourth 2-2 tie of the season, and it also marked the 19th time that the Terriers have scored two goals or less in a game this season. As you would expect, their record in those games is a woeful 1-13-5 in those games.
“We had some good chances, but we didn’t make sure, and we didn’t get to rebounds,” Parker said. “There were a lot of good rebounds out there, and Northeastern kept us away from them. The sense of urgency was there for them; it wasn’t as much for us.”
Both teams struggled to generate scoring chances for the first ten minutes of the game. Halfway through the first period, though, Ryan Whitney passed to Kenny Magowan low on the left-wing side of the net, and Magowan made an amazing behind-the-back pass that set up John Laliberte on the far corner. It would have been a highlight-reel goal, but Tim Judy helped out Gibson, making the save and clearing the puck.
For the Huskies, Yale Lewis had a bid at the 14-minute mark when he outmuscled a Terrier defender in the corner and went mano a mano with Fields, only to be stopped.
On a power play at 17:30, Husky freshman Ray Ortiz teed up one for Jason Guerriero crashing the net, but Fields made the stick save. Meanwhile, BU’s top line of Mark Mullen, Brian McConnell, and Bryan Miller often dominated territorially but couldn’t produce many scoring chances.
After Kenny Roche was the culprit behind a too many men penalty for the Terriers in the second–a mistake that Parker termed “pathetic”–the Huskies made them pay with a power-play goal. Guerriero had the puck down low on the right-wing side and eventually got it to Ortlip at the right point. Ortlip seemed surprised to find no one marking him and finally skated in toward the net before firing a pinpoint wrister to beat Fields high on the glove side at 6:13.
The Terriers tied it at 9:36. Ryan Whitney, who has been emerging as a real star for the Terriers this year, rushed the puck out of his end before getting tied up by a Husky player checking him at the red line. Whitney tripped over the player but managed to nudge the puck ahead for Byran Miller, who skated in and crossed to McConnell on his left wing. Following up on his hat trick against Massachusetts last weekend, McConnell buried the wrister to knot the game 1-1.
The Terriers’ faceoff woes commenced at 19:31 of the period, when Ortlip beat Brad Zancanaro on a draw, dishing the puck to linemate Jared Mudryk.
“It was a quick draw play,” Mudryk said. “Ortie’s quite the talented faceoff man. We had a set play: He pulled it back, and I took the one-timer. Luckily it had eyes and found the net.”
The Terriers absolutely dominated for the first 95 seconds of the third period. Their top line brought the puck into the Husky zone and kept it there relentlessly until the Huskies finally took an icing. The second line came on and produced a goal seconds later. Kevin Schaeffer’s slapper from the right point was stopped by Gibson, who tried to squeeze the puck but failed. Van der Gulik crashed the net and tipped it home to make it 2-2.
That would be the last serious scoring chance for BU during regulation. “I think it kick-started us a little,” Gibson said of Van der Gulik’s tally. “We were closer to our season being over if we don’t get one point out of that.”
The Huskies had a pair of nominal scoring chances but couldn’t muster another goal either, setting the stage for an eventful overtime.
Once again, the Terriers looked fantastic for the opening minute plus. Miller’s shot forced Gibson to go down, but McConnell was off balance and couldn’t knock home the rebound. Then Schaeffer had a rebound bid from 20 feet, only to have Gibson get a leg on it at 1:04.
From that point on, it was all Northeastern. Fields must have made at least a half-dozen glove saves over the final four minutes. Most notably, he gloved a Donny Grover bid with 47.1 seconds left that was ticketed for the netting.
“In overtime, we had some great chances; they had some great chances,” Crowder said. “One really good shot in the overtime by Donny Grover, and Fields just saw the puck a little too much and made a really nice save.”
BU (9-14-8, 5-12-4) and Northeastern (8-16-7, 2-13-6) face off again tomorrow at Walter Brown Arena. Next weekend, the Terriers play a home-and-home pair with New Hampshire while the Huskies do the same with Massachusetts.
