By Jack Weiland
Late in Saturday’s game, a Boston University hockey player crashed into referee Scott Zelkin, sending both tumbling to the ice. The Matthews Arena crowd went wild – the loudest it had been all night.
And it was a good thing, too, because otherwise the 2,750 Northeastern hockey faithful would have gone home without a single chance to cheer.
BU goalie John Curry stopped 28 shots for his first shutout of the year in the 4-0 BU victory. Northeastern netminder Adam Geragosian, facing his father Mike Geragosian – the goalie coach at BU – for the first time, was pulled halfway through the contest. He allowed three goals on 10 Terrier shots, including two in the first period.
“I thought we had a bunch of chances,” Husky coach Greg Cronin said. “We had breakaways, we had two-on-ones, we had scrambles in front of the net. [Curry] played really well for them.”
Northeastern (1-13-4, 1-8-4 Hockey East) outshot BU in each period 28-22 for the game. Despite this, BU (8-8-2, 6-6-1) owned a 2-0 lead after one period.
Five minutes into the game, Terrier sophomore forward Peter MacArthur picked up a loose puck near the Northeastern bench, carried it down the right wing and fired a wrist shot between Geragosian’s legs for the winner. With 1:44 left in the first, just as a Northeastern penalty ended, senior John Laliberte took a pass from Brad Zancanaro and stuffed it by Geragosian’s pad at the right post.
In the second period BU made it 3-0. Freshman wing Jason Lawrence skated down the left side and ripped a centering pass toward the Husky net. It appeared to deflect off NU forward Bryan Esner before sliding through Geragosian five-hole, but Cronin insisted after the game that it “trickled in” without being deflected by one of his own players.
Geragosian was then pulled in favor of freshman Doug Jewer (11 saves).
Curry held off a strong push from Northeastern in the third period for the shutout. Midway through the frame, a point shot from Northeastern defenseman Jacques Perreault deflected off traffic in front of Curry. He managed to tip it and watched as the puck rolled all the way up his right arm, glanced off the post and fell wide.
“It feels good to get a shutout, always,” he said. “Nine times out of 10 it has nothing to do with the goaltender. I had to make a few saves at the end, but for the most part we played pretty well defensively all game, especially in the second period. At that point, because the defense is playing so well you’re sort of in the zone and it’s a reaction save. I was able to get a piece of it and it still almost went in. Those are the things that happen when you’re feeling good out there, so I’ll take them.”
In the game’s waning moments, after Cronin pulled Jewer with 2:03 to play in favor of an extra skater, Zancanaro took a pass from fellow senior David Van der Gulik and slipped it into the vacant Husky net to make it 4-0.
“I’ve seen Northeastern play a couple times and I’ve talked to coaches who have played against Northeastern,” BU coach Jack Parker said. “Every time I asked them, ‘How was Northeastern?’ and every time they went, ‘They work like hell. They really work hard.’ That was our challenge. Don’t worry about the score, don’t worry about anything else, we have got to try to outwork Northeastern, a team that might be the hardest working in the league. We did well tonight in that aspect. We worked very hard. They worked very hard too, but I thought we worked really hard.”
Both teams struggled on the power play. BU was 0-5 with seven shots on goal, while Northeastern went 0-7 with five shots.
“When you get chances and your power play doesn’t score goals or it doesn’t generate any energy, it’s just a downer,” Cronin said.
