When it came to the power play, there was a power outage tonight.<\/p>\n
In a game that lacked flow due to a whopping 17 power plays–all of them unsuccessful–No. 1 Boston University tied the visiting Merrimack Warriors 1-1 in a chippy game in front of 5,172 at Agganis Arena. Terriers goalie Kieran Millan earned top star honors with 35 saves, while counterpart Joe Cannata stopped 32 shots for the Warriors.<\/p>\n
“It was a hard-fought game,” Merrimack coach Mark Dennehy said. “Obviously they come in undefeated; it’s going to take a lot, especially in their barn, to knock them off. I thought our guys weathered the storm early. It was back and forth at times, but it’s hard to get into a flow with all the special teams.”<\/p>\n
Terriers coach Jack Parker agreed, referring to the game as “disjointed” due to all of the penalties.<\/p>\n
“I thought both teams played hard and both goalies played great, but in general I don’t think it was a very well-executed game,” Parker said. “A lot of people were mishandling the puck. We seemed to be in a hurry tonight, and that caused us to have not as much smooth entry on the attack.”<\/p>\n
BU had an early 5-2 edge in shots, but Merrimack ended up outshooting the Terriers by a 14-12 margin in the first period. There were few good scoring chances, however. On a four-on-three at 13:02, Merrimack star Stephane Da Costa had much of the net open, but misfired.<\/p>\n
BU had a few good power-play chances early in the second, but finally scored during an even-strength situation at 8:04. Adam Clendening fed a long pass to Ross Gaudet going into the offensive zone, and the left winger slipped it behind the goal line to right wing Sahir Gill.<\/p>\n
“Gill won the scrum in the corner, made a good pass to me when I was cutting to the net,” Gaudet said. “I shot it; Cannata made a save, and it bounced in off my shoulder.”<\/p>\n
“When he plays left wing, he scores,” Parker said of Gaudet’s first goal of the season. “When he plays center, he’s more of a defensive player.”<\/p>\n