Hockey Team Skates Past Merrimack In Weekend Sweep
November 7, 1999 | Men's Ice Hockey
For the second night in a row, the Terrier hockey team used a balanced attack and got excellent goaltending and the result was a weekend sweep over Merrimack.
On Friday night (November 5th), the Terriers skated to a 5-2 win, while they came back the next night to post a 4-2 victory.
The win over Merrimack at Walter Brown Arena on Saturday night marked the Terriers' third straight win, and they are now 5-3-0 overall and 3-0-0 in Hockey East action.
In Friday night's win, five different players scored goals and freshman goalie Rick DiPietro (Winthrop, Mass) turned aside 29 shots en route to the win.
In Saturday night's victory, four different B.U. players tallied goals and sophomore goalie Jason Tapp (Kelowna, BC) had 18 saves.
Saturday night's offensive stars were freshman Brian Collins (Shrewsbury, Mass.), who put the Terriers ahead, 1-0, with just 42 seconds to play in the first period.
Sophomore Mike Pandolfo (Burlington, Mass.) upped the Terriers lead at 4:29 of the second period, and that was followed by sophomore defenseman Pat Aufiero (Winchester, Mass.) at 9:10 of the period.
Senior Chris Heron (Mississauga, ONT) staked B.U. to a 4-0 lead at 1:51 of the third period before the Warriors mounted a too-little, too-late rally in the final minutes of the game.
Sandy Cohen scored his first goal of the season for Merrrimack at 14:50, while teammate Anthony Aquino tallied his fourth goal of the year at 17:44.
All that was left in the game was an unfortunate altercation with less than two seconds to play in the game. A total of seven players were whistled for 20 penalties totalling 100 minutes.
"This weekend was unbelievable," said Aufiero, who had a goal and an assist in Saturday night's win. "We knew that after we beat them at their place on Friday night, they would come out tonight and play us hard. So, we were all ready to play, and everyone was in the game."
Aufiero was asked about the Terriers' outstanding penalty killing efforts over the weekend. They killed off 5-of-6 chances on Friday night and were 9-for-9 on Saturday night.
"The defense is really coming together," said Aufiero. "But, you have to give the forwards a lot of credit. They have been coming back and forechecking unbelievably well. We have all been clicking."
Prior to the game, 14 members of the Terriers' 1949-50 team were honored.
That team was the first Terrier hockey team to advance not just to the NCAA tournament, but also play for the national title.
Five years later, the Terriers have established themselves as one of the winningest Division 1 teams in NCAA Tournament history. They have appeared in 24 NCAA tournaments, had 31 wins in the tournament, advanced to the title game nine times, and won four titles.
The 14 former players from that 1949-50 team on hand for the pregame ceremonies were Walt Anderson, Keith Barnhill, Bob Barrett, Ike Bevins, Mario Mike Casali, Bob Dupuis, Jack Garrity, Bill Jurgelevich, Irv Haynes, Jack Kelley, Jack Martin, John Ray, Bob Rier, and John Simpson.
Scoring Summary Merrimack (2-5-0; 0-3-0) 0 0 2 -- 2 Boston University (5-3-0; 3-0-0) 1 2 1 -- 4First Period: B.U.Collins (Sabo, Corazzini), ppg, 19:18 Second Period: B.U.Pandolfo (Cavanaugh, Hanson), 4:29; B.U. Aufiero (Perry, Pandolfo), 9:10 Third Period: B.U.Heron (Perry, Aufiero), 1:51; MCCohen (Smith), 14:50; MCAquino (Halecki, G. Classen), 17:44
Power Play: B.U., 1-for-6; MC, 0-for-9 Penalties: B.U., 23-for-78; MC, 16-for-56 Shots: B.U., 8-18-1137; MC, 3-6-1120 Saves: Tapp (B.U.), 3-6-918; C. Classen (MC), 7-16-528; Wolfe (MC), x-x-55
