Game #12 Recap: BU 3, Holy Cross 2

The #8 Boston University Terriers managed to eke out a victory against Holy Cross on Tuesday night at Agganis Arena.  Colin Wilson led the charge for the Terriers, scoring the game-winning goal and adding an assist.  It was an extremely close contest, with Holy Cross making the most of their opportunities, and really taking the game to the Terriers.

The game started out fairly evenly, and despite BU generating most of the shots on goal, there was no score after one period.  Holy Cross was playing their trap very well, making it difficult for the faster and stronger Terriers to break into the zone uncontested.  The Crusaders got a couple of chances on the power play in the first, but it was BU who would go into the second period with almost a full 2 minutes of power play time.

BU would not let this chance go to waste.  Brandon Yip fired in a shot off a pass from Matt Gilroy as the PP was about to expire at the beginning of the second period.  Less than 5 minutes later, Zach Cohen would make a nifty wraparound attempt and add a second tally for the Terriers.  At this point, I thought that the BU players were finally getting up for the game, realizing that the Crusaders were not going to simply step aside despite the way the game would seem on paper.

However, the 2 goal lead would not lead long.  With just a little over 5 minutes remaining in the second, a bad pass attempt by Colby Cohen in front of the BU net would hit off the skate of a nearby Crusader, and after a few wild attempts, the puck found it’s way to the back of the net.  The Terriers would take a one goal lead into the third.

In the third, it was more of the same.  BU was dominating chances, making the Crusaders fall all over the place with their speed and finesse.  However, this was not translating into many Grade A scoring opportunities.  Holy Cross was effectively clogging up the lanes, forcing the pass instead of the shot.  After an extended 5 v 3 opportunity extended itself to the Terriers, Colin Wilson buried home the GWG off a nice pass from David Warsofsky.  Chris Higgins collected his 99th career point on the play as well.  Despite this, Holy Cross would strike back quickly, with a shorthanded goal just 23 seconds later.

BU would manage to hold on for the victory, but not after a few scares from Holy Cross.

The Good

• The Terriers managed to somewhat bounce back from tough losses last weekend.
• Colin Wilson is absolutely amazing.  He has excellent speed and handles the puck very well.
• Victor Saponari was pretty impressive.  He was all over the place trying to generate opportunities.

The Bad

• Nick Bonino did not play…. anyone know why?
• PK did not dominate as much as they should have against a much weaker Holy Cross team.
• The defense overall was not sharp.  There were plenty of opportunities that could have been avoided, including the shorthanded goal.

I can say that I’m happy that BU won this game, but the type of play that was exhibited tonight will not win games in a wide-open Hockey East Schedule.  Good teams make other teams play up to their level instead of playing down to the other teams’ level, as BU did tonight.  I can only hope that Nick Bonino will be back on Saturday, and insert a spark into the lineup.  Colin Wilson is amazing, but one man can only carry a team so far.  BU will need to be a lot better to make their presence known on the national level.

BU is next in action on Saturday, 11/29, when the Saints of St. Lawrence University come to Agganis Arena.  Game time is set for 7pm.

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