Terriers Bow to Maine in Hockey East Action
December 10, 1999 | Men's Ice Hockey
(Dec. 10) - The Terrier men's hockey team had its 11-game unbeaten streak come to an end on Friday night as it bowed to host University of Maine, 4-2, in Hockey East action.
It marked the first time since Halloween that B.U. had lost a game. Thanksgiving came and went and the Terriers still remained unbeaten.
Now, just a couple of weeks until Christmas, the Terriers suffered their first loss in six weeks as they closed out their first semester on a down note.
Thanks to a 9-0-2 record in the last 11 games, B.U. enters the break with an overall record of 11-4-2 overall and 6-1-2 in Hockey East.
The record notwithstanding, B.U. head coach Jack Parker was not happy with his team's performance against the Black Bears.
"We were outworked in every phase of the game," said the coach after the game. "I guess we were satisfied with how we had played this first semester because we were not ready to play tonight."
There was only one player ready and that was freshman goalie Rick DiPietro (Winthrop, Mass.), who stopped 36-of-40 shots, many of which had the sellout crowd of 5641 oohing and aahing.
"If it weren't for Ricky tonight, it would have been a blowout for Maine," said the coach. "It could have been 7 or 8 to 2."
"Aside from him, though, I can't pick out another player who gave us 40 minutes let alone 60."
From the first period, Maine, which was swept by Northeastern last weekend, dominated play.
In fact, in the opening 20 minutes, the Black Bears outshot the Terriers, 15-4. However, they led by just a 2-0 score. Actually, it would have been only a 1-0 margin, but the Black Bears scored with just 6 seconds to play in the period on a 5-on-3 power play.
The Terriers came back to tie the game, 2-2, in the second period. Junior Carl Corazzini (Framingham, Mass) scored the Terriers first goal with assists to Chris Dyment and Mike Bussoli at 6:55.
Junior Nick Gillis (Winthrop, Mass.), who was coming out of the penalty tied the game at 8:52 on a pretty feed from Corazzini. Sophomore Pat Aufiero (Winthrop, Mass.) also assisted on the goal.
"Even when we tied the game in the second period, we weren't dominating play," said Parker, whose team outshot the Black Bears, 10-9, in the middle period.
The third period belonged to Maine, which outshot B.U., 16-6, in the final 20 minutes. However, it wasn't until the 12:06 mark that the Black Bears managed to score what proved to be the game-winner.
They added an insurance goal with just 11 seconds to play. The Terriers were trying to get the puck out of their zone in order to pull DiPietro for the extra skater. However, their efforts fell short, as Maine scored the fourth goal.
"I wish we were playing them again tomorrow night (Saturday) so we could get this taste out of our mouths," said Parker. As poor an effort as we had out there tonight, that's how well Maine played.
"I guess it's back to the drawing board for us," concluded the coach.
