By Scott Weighart, Special to GoTerriers.com

NEW YORK – They say that the third time is the charm, but it took Cornell six Red Hot Hockey matchups before the Big Red finally prevailed in the biennial battle at Madison Square Garden.

On Saturday, the Terriers trailed 3-0 and 4-1 before valiantly battling back with two late goals, only to come up a goal short to the seventh-ranked Big Red in front of 14,606 fans. BU outshot Cornell 38-30—the first time that the Big Red had given up more than 29 shots this season.

But if it was a disappointing loss, it was still a great experience to play on one of hockey's biggest and most legendary stages—particularly for a trio of Terriers from the tri-state area who all made their MSG debuts.  "Unreal," said sophomore defenseman Chad Krys, who grew up about one-and-a-half hours away in Ridgefield, Connecticut. "I grew up a Rangers fan my whole life and came to a lot of Rangers games.  Especially with the [renovated] Garden here, it was a really, really cool experience with the whole aura here."

Krys figured he had about 20 to 30 friends and family in attendance, and the same was true for Drew Melanson, a transfer this season from Rensselaer who is using up his final year of college hockey eligibility as a Terrier.  Melanson grew up just 12 miles away in Paramus, New Jersey. 

"Obviously, a little disappointing," Melanson said of the loss. "You'd like to get a win. But in terms of playing at Madison Square Garden, it was probably the coolest experience I've had playing hockey."

Curiously, Melanson was an outlier with his hockey allegiances as a kid. "Actually, I'm a Bruins fan. My dad's from Boston, so that explains that. All my friends are Rangers fans. I've been to a couple of games at MSG, and my family is 15 minutes from here. So playing that close to home at the world's most famous arena, you couldn't ask for anything cooler."

BU's leading scorer, Patrick Harper, grew up just south of Krys in New Canaan, Connecticut, and his family had strong ties to the Rangers. "We had partial season tickets for a couple of years; I went to a lot of games. I was not really biased to any team when I was that young, but I was definitely pretty aware of the Rangers."

While all of the local talent enjoyed the opportunity tonight, the outcome was another story. So far the Terriers have tantalized their fans with flashes of brilliance mixed with consistently inconsistent play resulting in a 6-8-1 record to date. That said, the team is very young, and there's a sense that a winning streak could be not far off. Many hoped that last Saturday's 7-0 rout of Maine would be the first step, but tonight was another step back in the loss column for the moment. Still, the team remains upbeat.

Krys had a goal and an assist tonight but also some bad luck when a crossing pass from a Cornell player went off of his stick and into the BU net. "That stuff is going to happen," Krys said. "Some of the bounces aren't going our way right now, but I like the way we battled back. We came really close to tying the game in the last minute. You saw the game tonight: we didn't lack the chances, and we're not far off."

Melanson agreed. "It seems to be one game up, one game down, but we're really close in every game.  We've dominated stretches of almost every game we've played. We've just got to come with the same urgency that we had when we were down 3-0."

Harper talked about accountability, starting with himself. "I think everyone needs to be better, including myself. I lost my man on the first goal there, and if that doesn't happen, it could've been a different outcome.  

"Everyone needs to take a look in the mirror and focus on the little things to be better, day in and day out, to be the best player they can be come Friday and Saturday night. If we can do that, we'll give ourselves a chance to be very successful."

With eight freshmen in the lineup on a regular basis, perhaps it's not surprising that the talented Terriers have wrestled with some growing pains during the fall semester. The consensus is that their best hockey is ahead of them this season, and they have a great opportunity for two big steps in the right direction very soon: BU faces archrival Boston College in a home-and-home series this coming weekend, playing at Conte Forum on Friday night and back home at Agganis Arena on Saturday night. 

Right now the Terriers are still very much a work in progress, but they could yet produce a few masterpieces before the season is out.