Game 19 Recap: BU 4, Maine 1
January 11, 2009 by Joe
Chris Connolly was the #1 Star
There was no hiccup in the Terriers’ game as they defeated the Maine Black Bears handily at Agganis Arena. Chris Connolly was the star of the game, scoring two goals on the night. With the victory, BU moved into the #1 spot in the Pairwise rankings, a stark contrast to where the Terriers stood last year.
BU opened the scoring at 8:50 in the first period, when a bad Maine line change led to a breakout opportunity for freshmen Corey Trivino and Chris Connolly. Trivino got the puck to Connolly, who fired a high wrister that beat Maine goaltender Scott Darling. Brian Strait was credited with the second assist on the goal. Maine would respond about 10 minutes later, with Robby Dee scoring on the power play. However, it would be BU that would go into the intermission with the lead, as Chris Higgins put the eventual game winner in with just 0.8 seconds left in the period. It was actually a bad play by Darling, as he threw the puck away right to Jason Lawrence, who found Higgins in front with a nifty no-look pass.
The second period was uneventful scoring wise. Chris Connolly would score the only goal of the period with a shot that handcuffed Darling with less than two minutes left in the period. Maine did have an extended power play opportunity when Joe Pereria was sent to the locker room just 3 minutes into the period for hitting from behind. Personally, I didn’t think that the hit was that bad. The hit that Jason Lawrence took in the game against BC was definitely harder, and that didn’t even draw a penalty. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Pereria should not be able to play in the game against Providence this week, as this is his second misconduct and should lead to a 1 game suspension. His energy will be missed… but if there’s one game he can miss, it is this upcoming game. Congratulations to the Friars for winning their first Hockey East game tonight though, taking down UML.
In the third period, BU held an incredible territorial advantage. Jack Parker was extremely pleased with this:
“I thought the first two periods we put people to sleep,” Terriers’ coach Jack Parker said. “We were very fortunate to get a goal late in the first period and late in the second period. That changed the feel of the game, and then I thought we played a terrific third period. I thought we were really smart, really good with the puck, and we got the only goal of the period. Territorially, we had the puck almost the whole third period.” - USCHO
Tim Whitehead, on the other hand, really felt that his club’s inexperience was their downfall.
“BU played a real good game,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “A big thing for us was we didn’t get pucks deep at the right time. The first three goals, we didn’t tip the puck all the way into their end, and it came back into our end and they scored. So our puck management was not what it needs to be against a real good team like BU. I thought our inexperience really showed there.”- USCHO
Brandon Yip would score the only goal of the period, and BU would go on to win.
Other Game Recaps: USCHO - Hockey East Online
The Good
- Puck possession. BU really exploited this to their advantage, not allowing Maine to have many opportunties at all.
- Chris Connolly is really coming to form. He has been very impressive in the past few games.
- Kieran Millan had another strong game.
The Bad
- Joe Pereria’s penalty. I would blame that more on the refs though.
- Game wasn’t nearly exciting enough…. that’s just in my opinion. Student section seemed subdued.
BU is next in action Tuesday night against Providence. If BU plays like this again… the Friars should be a cakewalk. Game time is set for 7pm at Agganis Arena.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
The students still aren’t back in full force, and the reason Agganis was full was because of a lot of ticket giveaways/ticket sale specials. There were many people there last night who don’t usually attend games, and I think that lent to the subduedness.
And can I tell you I said that same thing about Peirera’s hit? That was nowhere as devastating as the hit Petrecki put on Lawrence in December, and yet now its a game misconduct for Periera, and Petrecki got away with it.
I would rather the games not be exciting if it means they are playing their minds out on the penalty kill. More important than both of Connolly’s goals was that minute in the second period where he single handily pressured Maine into their zone just by zipping back and forth between two skaters. That was amazing, especially given his size.
Not complaining too much about the game being subdued… gave me a good chance to play with my new camera… need to work on my photography skills,but those two images in the post I took with it!
I think honestly the refs need to just be more consistent. It can’t be every time a kid falls and grabs his head it’s a major. I don’t know how they’ll do that but something needs to be done. Parker agreed with the call, which surprised me.
The PK and ChrisCo have been incredible lately. Let’s just hope that they keep it up. I think this team is something special…
Those are good shots! Did you get any in action shots? Those are the most difficult for me to shoot. I’ve given up, haha!
I’m working on it… have to use a faster shutter speed cuz those guys are so fast. Loving my new DSLR though! A bit of a hassle to bring in, but the pictures are good so far.