Terriers Take The Bite Out Of The Wolverines

By: L. Tyler Murray

It took three goals, two ejections and one major goaltending miscue, but the No. 3 Boston University men’s hockey team won its first game of the 2009-10 campaign with a thrilling 3-2 victory over the No. 5 Michigan Wolverines on Saturday night.

After staking themselves to a 2-0 lead going into the third period, the Terriers surrendered goals from sophomore Robbie Czarnik ('12) and junior Matt Rust ('11) to even the score. However, just as the game appeared to be slipping through its fingers, BU answered back with junior forward Joe Pereira’s (’11) game-winning goal. With less than four minutes to play, the Terriers cleared a puck into Wolverine territory, drawing junior goaltender Bryan Hogan ('11) from his post. Hogan played the puck and attempted to clear it, but his pass went straight to a charging Pereira, who intercepted the puck, took it to the net, and hammered it home.

“Once I got control of the puck I knew if I could just take the puck to the net as fast as I could it could be a good chance,” Pereira said. “I stuffed it hard and we’ve been working on that all week in practice…staying on the net and not fading away, not backing off…it worked out well.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Hogan’s error was the deciding factor in a heartbreaking defeat for the Wolverines.

“His decision wasn’t good and his execution wasn’t good either,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson. “It was a bad goal, and it’s too bad because he played a good game.”

Granted, Hogan made some exceptional saves and was solid in turning away 19 of 22 shots, but the game-winning goal wasn’t his only blunder between the pipes. The scoring started at the 16:13 mark in the first period, when senior forward Zach Cohen (’10) netted his first goal of the year. The goal, which came on the Terriers’ third power play of the period, was set up by junior defenseman and captain Kevin Shattenkirk (’11), who dumped the puck behind the Michigan net for sophomore center Corey Trivino (’12), who found Cohen right in front of the net. Hogan was caught out of position on the dump and Cohen stuffed the puck into the upper right-hand corner of the goal.

Throughout the game, Hogan looked across the ice at sophomore goalie Kieran Millan (’12), who stopped 31 out of 33 shots and made several acrobatic saves to keep the Terriers on top.

Rust, Michigan’s leading scorer, put it best: “[Millan] stood on his head when he needed to.”

In a contest of two top five teams, discipline (or lack thereof) turned out to be the difference. In each of the first two periods, the Wolverines surrendered a power play goal because of a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty. Overall, Michigan committed eight penalties to BU’s six. The real difference? The Terriers killed off all six of their penalties while converting on two of their power plays.

The game got a bit out of hand near the start of the final period, as senior assistant captain and defenseman Erica Gryba (’10) was ejected for game misconduct and hitting from behind. Gryba stormed off the ice, slamming his stick against the wall and throwing his equipment to the floor on his way to the locker room. Down 2-0, the Wolverines seemed poised for a comeback with a five-minute man advantage. However, 60 seconds later Michigan freshman Chris Brown was ejected for the exact same offense. After the second ejection and five-minute major, the officials wisely took a timeout to speak with the captains and calm both teams down.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Terriers’ victory was the fact that they won without the assistance of junior assistant captain and center Nick Bonino (’11) in the last two periods. Bonino went down with a dislocated shoulder in the first period and did not return for the rest of the game. According to BU coach Jack Parker, the first-line center should be back within a month.

While the temporary loss of Bonino certainly hurts the Terriers, they couldn’t help but relish their hard-fought victory.

“I’m very, very pleased to get a ‘W’ and I’m very, very pleased with how we got it,” said Parker. “The best thing we did was we competed from the opening faceoff to the end of the game.”

“Hopefully we made a big step today,” said Pereira.

BU will most definitely find out how far they’ve come when they face off against Hockey East rival UMass-Lowell next week, as the River Hawks are slowly becoming the conference favorite with the Terriers’ sluggish start.

Be sure to stay tuned to wtbusports.com for coverage of the home-and-home series as well as everything BU Hockey all season long.

Notes:

Junior defenseman Colby Cohen (’11), Zach Cohen, and Pereira all scored their first goals of the season for the Terriers…Freshman Ryan Santana had a bid for his first goal of the season, as he attempted to poke a loose puck under Hogan’s pad in front of the net, but it was ruled “no goal” after a lengthy official review…with the win, Millan snapped a two-game losing streak, the longest of his career.