BOSTON — Coming into this season, Boston University junior defenseman Doyle Somerby had a total of two goals in 73 career games.
He now has two goals in his last three games.
Last year the Marblehead, Mass., native had a career-high seven points in 39 games. This year, he’s already topped that total just 13 games into the season.
Somerby’s goal and assist led the way as No. 12 BU beat Bentley 3-0 in a game that was not as close as the score indicated. The Terriers outshot the Falcons by a 47-15 margin, including a whopping 32-6 advantage through the first two periods in front of 3,475 at Agganis Arena.
“I was pretty surprised today, watching that puck go in the net,” Somerby said. “It’s just kind of a testament to how we’re playing as a team. Friday night’s goal and tonight’s goal: You don’t score a lot from the point without the net-front presence we’ve been having, so I have to give those guys props. But it’s just getting pucks to the net as much as I can, and things are just clicking right now. It’s really nice.”
Danny O’Regan added a goal and an assist for the Terriers, while Sean Maguire only had to make a couple of great saves for the shutout.
Bentley senior Gabe Antoni had a 44-save night as the lone bright spot for the visitors.
“A really good win for us after a quick turnaround and losing that game in the fashion we did last Saturday,” BU coach David Quinn said. “To bounce back and play a lot more energetic with a lot more passion and pace – I’m really proud of our guys.”
For Bentley coach Ryan Soderquist, it was quite a turnaround from his program’s first and only previous game in the building two years ago, when the Falcons stunned the Terriers 4-1.
“It’s pretty simple,” Soderquist said. “If it weren’t for our goaltender, it could’ve been really ugly out there. We were lucky to get out of the building 3-0. I’m extremely disappointed in our effort. Generating six shots in two periods is not going to win you a lot of hockey games.”
BU opened the scoring at 3:01 of the first period, when Ahti Oksanen flipped a long, high pass from his own zone to O’Regan as the right wing went into the Bentley zone. The senior got a handle on the puck, faked the shot, and then beat Antoni with a backhander low on the glove side.
The Terriers had any number of chances to extend the lead, including a Bobo Carpenter shot that hit the post in the waning seconds of the period, but it remained 1-0 for a long while. Bentley almost tied it midway through the second period, when Max French got Maguire down before passing to Andrew McDonald at the far post, only to have the right wing miss the net.
Finally, on a power play late in the second period, BU got a little breathing room with Somerby’s goal. Ryan Cloonan set him up at the right point, and his wrist shot found its way through traffic and in.
BU basically put it away at 3:07 of the third period, when Jacob Forsbacka Karlsson buried a wrist shot from the right wing high on Antoni’s glove side.
Just over a minute later, Bentley thought that they had Maguire beat on Alexey Solovyev’s shot, only to have the senior netminder make a terrific save.
After a weekend of lethargic play against Michigan, Quinn expressed real satisfaction with his team’s persistence tonight, particularly when the Terriers were playing their third game in five nights.
BU captain Matt Grzelcyk was out of the lineup tonight after suffering a knee injury Saturday night that turned out to be not nearly as bad as it looked. Quinn said that he expects Grzelcyk to play in the Red Hot Hockey matchup against Cornell on Saturday night.
