Although the men’s hockey team’s most recent Beanpot failure was marked by a three goal deficit, that at one point was as much as four goals, the game could be boiled down to a few miscues, a few missed opportunities that cost the Husky’s a shot at their first at Beanpot gold in 16 years.
However, it wasn’t always that way. In the first 20 minutes, the Huskies controlled play, made few (if any) mistakes, and for the most part, they even capitalized on their opportunities.
Their suffocating first period defense was punctuated by a few raucous body checks that sent the Eagles free-falling towards the ice. Donny Grover and Tim Judy in particular bestowed blows upon their opponents that left a few of the Eagles more black and blue than usual. On one play, Judy executed a textbook hip check on victim Chris Collins just before the Husky blueline. After the airborne Collins returned to the ground, he had to retrieve his stick before attempting to regroup and enter the offensive zone. Grover delivered a punishing open-ice check midway through the first period that sent most of the 17,565 in attendance into a frenzy.
The Huskies were also on their way to doing something that only three teams have done all year to the Eagles: outshoot them. After the first 20 minutes, the Huskies had fired 11 shots at opposing goalie Matti Kaltiainen, while Mike Gilhooly was only forced to face 10.
The Huskies even converted a scoring chance before the first intermission. Junior Eric Ortlip wheeled around the mouth of the goal, happened upon the puck, and after having his initial shot blocked by Kaltiainen, stuffed the rebound home for a 1-0 NU lead.
What a different story the second frame was. And the third 20 for that matter.
“We made some bad decisions tonight. We have to handle adversity better. After the first period, we got back on our heels a bit. I think we got down on ourselves,” NU coach Bruce Crowder said.
After entering the second up a goal, BC knotted the game up at the 3:19 mark. Defenseman J.D. Forrest took a drop pass from Anthony D’Arpino on the right end of the blue line, inched past Captain Mike Ryan and slipped an ice-level shot to the right of goaltender Mike Gilhooly.
“We missed some assignments tonight, and you just can’t do that against the Eagles. They aren’t leading Hockey East in goals scored for no reason,” Ryan said.
Later, the most glaring mistake of the game put NU down for good. Sophomore center Jason Guerriero took the puck behind the NU net, and dropped it for Ryan. However, Ryan was busy heading up ice.
BC forward Ryan Murphy grabbed the puck, and from behind the net, fed sophomore Ty Hennes in front. Hennes buried his shot, and gave BC the 2-1 lead.
“They capitalized on our mistakes in the second period,” Crowder said. “You can’t afford to make mistakes against a team of that caliber.”
Ryan attempted four shots in the first period, but was only able to post two in the final 40 minutes. Ortlip also took four shots in the first period, but suffered the same fate as Ryan: being held to a single shot in each of the remaining two periods.
After a Tony Voce tally put BC up a pair, Ryan found himself with a glorious scoring chance alone in front of the BC net. His shot, however, went wide.
“Coming into tonight I hadn’t scored a point in my last three games, which for me is a slump,” Ryan said. “I felt like I wasn’t getting my chances. Tonight I felt good, had my legs, and got chances. You can’t complain when you’re getting chances.”
Northeastern took three penalties in the second period, as well as two in the third. Voce’s goal, a one-timer from center Ben Eaves, was netted while on the man advantage.
“I think the penalties changed the momentum tonight,” Ryan said. “We made some mistakes and took penalties we didn’t want to take. They’re too explosive to be giving them extra opportunities.”
“I thought the game was tilted towards NU for the first 12 or 13 minutes,” BC coach Jerry York said. “They came out with a lot of jump, and put us on our heels. I wasn’t surprised. We had more fire to us in the second, more jump.
