Terriers Lose To Eagles,Suffer Season's First Loss
November 17, 2001 | Men's Ice Hockey
The B.U. hockey team "did not come to play tonight" and the result was a 3-1 loss to cross-town rival Boston College on Saturday night (November 17th) as the nation's fourth-ranked Terriers suffered their first loss of the season.
B.U. is now 6-1-1 overall and 3-1-1 in Hockey East, while the Eagles, who have won four in a row and five of their last six, are 6-4-1 overall and 3-2-0 in the league.
The assessment above came from an upset B.U. coach Jack Parker after the game.
"They beat us in every phase of the game," continued Parker. "They beat us on the power play, on forechecking, on defensive zone coverage, on playing through people.
"They played well and we didn't," said Parker. "I have no idea what happened. We had been on a roll this year, but we just didn't come to play tonight.
"They beat us to the puck all night," the coach went on. "They were quicker than us. They were stronger than us. And, they were much more poised than us.
"They outplayed us, outhit us, and outquicked us," concluded Parker. Lest anyone think that Parker was unhappy with everyone wearing the scarlet and white, he did praise one of his players.
"I thought that Fields played well in the goal," Parker said of sophomore goalie Sean Fields (Edmonton, ALTA). "In fact, I thought both goalies played well. It's just that their goalie had more players in front of him than Fields had in front of him."
The Eagles' offensive hero was sophomore Ben Eaves, who had a pair of goals and added an assist.
He scored the game's first goal at 9:30 of the first period when his blistering shot from the left faceoff circle in front of Fields went just inside the right post. It was a power play goal for the Eagles, which was the first power play goal the Terriers had given up in four games.
The second period was scoreless although both teams had some excellent chances to score. The Terriers' best bid came with 5:04 left in the period when senior co-captain Mike Pandolfo (Burlington) came down the slot. His shot appeared headed for just inside the left post, but BC goalie Matti Kaltiainen slid over and made the save with his skate.
Eaves upped the Eagles' lead to 2-0 just 36 seconds into the third period when his shot from the right faceoff circle beat Fields. Terrier senior Jack Baker (South Boston) cut the deficit to 2-1 at 1:44 of the period. The play was set up when junior Brian Collins (Shrewsbury) took a shot that Kaltiainen saved. However, the rebound was left in front. Baker came around and tucked the puck into the net.
The Eagles got the goal back at 7:07 when A.J.Walker beat Fields.
The Terriers will return to action on Tuesday night (November 20th) when they travel to Harvard for their fourth straight road game.
