Saturday night marked the first time that Northeastern netminder Adam Geragosian faced Boston University and their goalie coach – his father, Mike.
For his sake, it probably would have been nice if the younger Geragosian could have played the entire game. But it wasn’t to be.
The visiting Terriers chased Adam Geragosian out of the NU crease halfway through the game, scoring three times on 10 shots. Freshman Doug Jewer took his place and shut out BU for the rest of the game before an empty net goal with 1:15 left gave the Terriers a 4-0 win. The victory brought BU’s record even both overall, at 8-8-2, and in Hockey East play, at 6-6-1. Northeastern, now winless in 10 games, fell to 1-13-4 overall, 1-8-4 HE.
“(Mike Geragosian) called me today. Usually he talks to the team about the weakness of the other goaltender,” BU coach Jack Parker said, cracking a smile. “I said, just talk to John [nl]Curry, our goalie, and don’t come in the dressing room to talk to the team. I don’t want you to get divorced over this.”
Despite being out shot 10-7 in the opening frame, BU carried a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Five minutes into the game, Terrier sophomore Peter MacArthur picked up a loose puck near the Northeastern bench, carried it down the right wing and fired a wrist shot between Geragosian’s legs for eventual game winner.
With 1:44 left in the period, just as a Northeastern penalty ended, senior John Laliberte took a pass from Brad Zancanaro and stuffed it by Geragosian’s pad at the right post.
In the second period, again being out shot by Northeastern (7-6), BU made it 3-0. Freshman left wing Jason [nl]Lawrence skated down the left wing and ripped a centering pass towards the Husky net. It appeared to deflect off NU forward Bryan Esner before sliding through Geragosian five-hole, but NU coach Greg Cronin insisted after the game that it “trickled in” without being deflected by one of his own players.
Regardless, it ended the Geragosian father-son classic.
Terrier netminder John Curry (28 saves) held off a furious rush from Northeastern in the third period for his first shutout of the year. Midway through the frame, a point shot from Northeastern defenseman Jacques Perreault deflected off traffic in front of Curry. He managed to tip it and watched as the puck rolled all the way up his right arm, glanced off the post and fell wide.
“It feels good to get a shutout, always,” he said. “Nine times out of ten it has nothing to do with the goaltender. Yeah, I had to make a few saves at the end, but for the most part we played pretty well defensively all game, especially in the second period. At that point, because the defense is playing so well you’re sort of in the zone and it’s a reaction save. I was able to get a piece of it and it still almost went it. Those are the things that happen when you’re feeling good out there, so I’ll take them.”
In the games waning moments, after Cronin pulled Jewer (11 saves) with 2:03 to play in favor of an extra skater, Zancanaro took a pass from fellow senior David Van der Gulik and slipped it into the vacant Husky net.
“I’ve seen Northeastern play a couple times and I’ve talked to coaches who have played against Northeastern,” Park said. “Every time I asked them, ‘How was Northeastern?’ and every time they went, ‘They work like hell. They really work hard.’ That was our challenge. Don’t worry about the score, don’t worry about anything else, we have got to try to outwork Northeastern, a team that might be the hardest working in the league. We did well tonight in that aspect. We worked very hard. They worked very hard too, but I thought we worked really hard.”
Park continued: “I thought we played great the first two periods. In the third period they came at us pretty hard and we turned it over a few times at center ice, but we didn’t give away odd man rushes. That was good. They played real hard in the third period down below the dots and John had to come up big a few times.”
Neither team could accomplish much on the power play. BU was 0-5 with seven shots on goal, while Northeastern went 0-7 with five shots. “The power play really hurt us,” Cronin said.
“When you get chances and your power play doesn’t score goals or it doesn’t generate any energy, it’s just a downer. Our power play was just awful tonight. “I thought we had a bunch of chances,” he said earlier. “We had breakaways, we had two on ones, we had scrambles in front of the net. (Curry) played really well for them.”
Next weekend, BU hosts Maine for a two-game set at Agganis Arena, while Northeastern travels to Vermont for a pair of games at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
