BOSTON<\/b> — Coming into tonight’s game, Boston University had lost its last six games against Massachusets-Lowell and scored just twice in the last four games combined.<\/p>\n
Down 2-1 in the second period, it certainly was a good time for a goal from a most unlikely source.<\/p>\n
Senior Matt Ronan, who played in just two games in his first two seasons and who only became a regular at long last this year, scored his first collegiate goal in his 23rd collegiate game to help BU earn a 2-2 tie in an exciting battle with UMass-Lowell in front of 3,460 at Agganis Arena.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t think I was going to ever score at BU to be completely honest, so it’s a bit of a treat for me,” Ronan said. “I’ve always just focused on chipping pucks and playing physical, so it’s a pretty crazy experience to get one out there.”<\/p>\n
Beyond Ronan, the big story was Connor versus O’Connor – Terriers’ goalie Matt O’Connor and River Hawks’ netminder Connor Hellebuyck each had an outstanding night with 33 saves apiece in a game that featured any number of great scoring chances and some real momentum swings.<\/p>\n
It was quite a turnaround from BU’s performance up at Lowell last month when the River Hawks won a game that was not nearly as close as the 3-1 final indicated. BU was outshot 39-11 in that game and looked thoroughly depleted most of the night. <\/p>\n
“It’s always nice to get a point, especially against a team that manhandled you the last time you played them,” BU coach David Quinn said. <\/p>\n
The game followed a strong performance in a disappointing loss to Boston College in the Beanpot semifinal Monday night when the Terriers fought hard, only to come up short by hitting a few posts in the third period. <\/p>\n
“I sense a change in our mentality and our purpose,” Quinn said. “I think we’re becoming more mature and for the first time in a while, as we were going into overtime, we expected to win a hockey game.”<\/p>\n
“Our last two games have been against two top teams in the country and we’ve played real well,” BU co-captain Patrick MacGregor said. “We had chances to win both games, especially tonight, and the morale on the bench and the ice was good.”<\/p>\n
BU had to come from behind twice to tie it tonight. <\/p>\n
At the 11:00 mark of the first period, the River Hawks took the lead when Michael Fallon backhanded a pass to the far side of the crease, where Derek Arnold beat Dalton MacAfee to the puck for an easy tap-in.<\/p>\n
Less than five minutes later, Ahti Oksanen chipped a pass of the boards and onto the stick of Cason Hohmann, who carried it in on the left wing on a two-on-one break. Hohmann took a wrist shot with pinpoint aim, finding the top corner on the glove side.<\/p>\n
Asked if he had talked to Hohmann about curbing his strong tendency to pass in these situations, Quinn quipped, “Some people would call it yelling, but yes, I have talked to him about it.”<\/p>\n
Quinn praised Oksanen’s indirect pass, citing it as the team catching on to the fact that they don’t need to make plays that will turn up on ESPN’s highlights. <\/p>\n
“We’re seeing what happens when you just make the simple play,” said Quinn.<\/p>\n
BU took two penalties simultaneously late in the first, setting up a five-on-three power play for a full two minutes. UMass-Lowell eventually capitalized, as Josh Holmstrom knocked in the rebound of an Adam Chapie shot.<\/p>\n
Ronan’s big moment came early in the second period. <\/p>\n
Racing in aggressively to forecheck, Ronan won a puck battle along the left-wing boards and the puck ended up on the stick of freshman Brendan Collier behind the goal line. Ronan headed for the net and one-timed a shot into the top corner glove side, an improbable, yet pretty goal.<\/p>\n
Ronan admitted that he literally hadn’t even scored a goal in his dreams during his four years at BU.<\/p>\n
Garrett Noonan came close to getting a power-play goal late in the period, taking a shot that got through the relatively impregnable Hellebuyck. It trickled toward the goal line, but Christian Folin swept it away with inches to spare. <\/p>\n
“Our inability to capitalize on the power play cost us a point tonight,” said Quinn, whose team failed to score on four man-advantages.<\/p>\n
There were some exciting momentum swings and good chances throughout the third period that led to Quinn having some regrets. <\/p>\n
“I’m kicking myself for not calling a timeout when we got a power play in the third period,” admitted Quinn. “Our top unit was tired and I should’ve called a timeout. It dawned on me halfway through, which is a little too late.”<\/p>\n
The opportunities continued into overtime, where BU definitely looked like a team pressing to win rather than trying not to lose. <\/p>\n
In the end, though, both teams got the fate they deserved.<\/p>\n
“I thought it was a hard-fought game tonight,” Lowell coach Norm Bazin said. “I think the shots ended up even, 35 apiece. I was happy with several things and we’ll take the point … I didn’t think we were that sharp as far as puck possession down low, but they did a nice job of spreading the ice out, having good balance and stretching guys.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BOSTON — Coming into tonight’s game, Boston University had lost its last six games against Massachusets-Lowell and scored just twice in the last four games combined. Down 2-1 in the second period, it certainly was a good time for a goal from a most unlikely source. Senior Matt Ronan, who played in just two games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18661,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18658\/revisions\/18661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18658"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}