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BU Sweeps Northeastern
- Updated: November 7, 2015
Boston University reverted to form last night, exhibiting its most complete effort of the season, combining goals from four different skaters with solid goaltending to post its first road victory of the campaign, 4-1, over Northeastern at Matthews Arena.
The win enabled BU (4-3-0, 2-2-0 Hockey East) to sweep the home-and-home series.
“I’m proud of our guys. It was a great weekend for us. Anytime you can sweep a team in our league, it’s a great accomplishment,” said BU coach David Quinn. “I thought we came to play tonight. The first period was probably the best we’ve had since I’ve been here. Our turnovers in the second period gave them life but our goalie made some big saves. Our power play was good. Our penalty kill was good. All in all, it was a great weekend.’’
NU (1-6-1, 0-2-1), playing in desperation mode, lifted goaltender Ryan Ruck (30 saves) for an extra skater with 1:22 to go only to see BU’s Ahti Oksanen hit the empty net at 18:44.
BU goalie Connor LaCouvee (33 saves) was less than a minute from posting the Terriers’ first road shutout since 2012 when the visitors enjoyed a late power play. Instead, it was NU which struck. Forward Sam Kurker, who transferred from BU, cut sharply across the goalmouth. LaCouvee made the initial stop but had trouble locating the rebound, which Huskies freshman Adam Gaudette deposited at 19:04. It hardly mattered as senior Danny O’Regan connected for a second empty-net tally for BU to end the scoring at 19:40.
BU entered last night holding a perfect 4-0-0 home record but an uncharacteristic 0-3-0 mark away from Agganis after leading the country with an 18-3-2 road ledger a year ago.
But BU found an elixir last night. Buoyed by two power-play chances in the opening six minutes, the Terriers built an 18-2 edge in shots and took a 1-0 lead. The man-up goal came at the 5:21 mark and it was Matt Grzelcyk who did the damage.
The Bruins draft pick, who missed the first six games due to offseason left knee surgery, came flying down the left side to join the rush. Grzelcyk then picked the near side with a seeing-eye wrist shot for his second goal in as many nights.
“Anytime you get a guy like that back, your lineup instantly becomes better,” said Quinn.
BU had two other quality chances in the stanza. The first came at 10:37 when freshman winger Bobo Carpenter, the son of former NHL great Bobby Carpenter, blocked a point blast by NU defenseman Garret Cockerill and skated in on a clean break. Ruck proved equal to the task and fended off the threat. The other opportunity was supplied by promising freshman center Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, who had the open side with a BU power play coming to a close. Ruck darted across to steer the puck into the corner with the pad.
NU, behind its best forward unit comprised of siblings Nolan and John Stevens alongside Dylan Sikura, carried the play in the middle frame but couldn’t dent LaCouvee. The closest the Huskies came was at 17:37 when Gaudette rang the puck off the left pipe. BU not only staved off the NU onslaught but padded its margin when junior defenseman Doyle Somerby ambled down the right side and rifled a shot that glanced off Ruck and into the net. The goal came at 13:54 and was Somerby’s second in 81 career games.
“We’re measured by wins and losses and to come away with no points is frustrating,” said NU coach Jim Madigan. “I told the guys the only way to get out of this is to work harder.”
