Like the No. 14 Northeastern Huskies (14-13-3, 11-10-2) the night prior, Boston University (14-14-4, 12-8-3) took to wearing dark jerseys at home, sporting their throwback red jerseys at home for the first time since losing to UNH in 2006. Unlike the result for Northeastern, BU was able to get the win 3-2 in front of 5,686 at Agganis Arena.
Even with the win, BU coach Jack Parker was not thrilled with his team.
“I must say I was disappointed in how we played the first two periods tonight. I thought we played a real great game last night. Northeastern came out even harder than they played last night against us tonight and we didn’t have an answer for them I didn’t think. The first period looked okay shot wise and everything but it really wasn’t. I think we really dodged a bullet tonight in those first two periods to come back and play and get the win in the third which is what good teams should be able to do.”
“Thought it was a good college hockey game, you have to give BU credit for coming back and scoring two third period goals,” said Northeastern coach Greg Cronin . “I thought we were a little bit more structured tonight than we were last night, but it was a well deserved win by BU.”
BU opened up the scoring on a brilliant wraparound move by freshman Nick Bonino. Bonino fought off a pair of Northeastern defenders and started to take the puck around the back of the net. Northeastern netminder Brad Thiessen got hung up on the post and was unable to move to the opposite side, and Bonino easily slid the puck into the back of the net to give the Terriers the lead.
“I know Bryan is laughing now because I get a lot of guff in the locker room for doing [wraparounds],” Bonino said. “Just I saw the goalie came out and I don’t think he expected it, I don’t think anyone did. I just saw their [defense] were a little ways back so I had room to make the move, and luckily it worked out.”
As soon as Bonino was asked about the goal, Bryan Ewing began chuckling and after Bonino finished his answer was asked about the guff given to Bonino, “Wraparound goals aren’t the best goals you can get,” Ewing said laughing. “But it was a great individual effort and a great goal.”
The Huskies nabbed the lead in the second period. On a power play, David Strathman passed cross-ice to Drew Muench. Muench then rifled a shot from the point that was deflected by Tyler McNeely in front of the net. For McNeely, it was his 11th goal of the season, and his second in as many nights.
The Huskies took a lead when Strathman snuck a shot from the top of the circle past Brett Bennett. Greg Costa won the faceoff back to the Strathman, who took a wrister from the circle. Bennett managed to get a piece of it, but the puck slowly began to trickle towards the goal line. Bennett could not get back before the puck crossed the goal line, giving the Huskies the lead.
In the third period, the Terriers took to the board first. Pete MacArthur backhanded a shot in from the slot. Brian McGurik skated the puck down low, leaving it off for Bryan Ewing. Ewing moved towards the net finding MacArthur in the slot.
“It’s been in the back of my head for awhile, and there is not a better feeling. Nice to get that out of the way,” Ewing said of his 100th point.
BU kept up the pressure, grabbing the go-ahead goal on a shot by Ewing from just inside of the dot of the faceoff circle. Chris Higgins was behind the net and fed the puck up top to Ewing, who made one move to break free of the Northeastern defense and take a shot that beat Thiessen on the blocker side.
“I finally got my energy back this weekend and my line had a great weekend, especially [Pete MacArthur] is playing very well and [Chris Higgins] is right there too getting points too so its great to be back, feeling good” said Ewing.
For Jack Parker, he is just impressed with where his team has come from.
“Imagine us being four games over .500 in the league and back to .500 overall and in second place in our league from where we were just three weeks ago or four weeks ago. The way we felt about ourselves first semester and what was going on with our team first semester it don’t look to promising. [UNH Head Coach] Dick Umile was talking to David Winn the other day and told him that ‘Hey, everyone knew there would be a market correction for BU sooner or later,’ and we made a market correction to get us back to where we are accustomed to being, fighting for a home ice slot and maybe, hopefully, getting to the national tournament. All that remains to be seen, because if we had lost tonight we would have been in sixth place, but we won and we are in second. It’s a bizarre league that way.”
Next weekend the Terriers have a home-and-home with UMass. Northeastern has a home-and-home with Mass.-Lowell.
