Terriers Lose To Top-Ranked Eagles In Hockey East Action
November 15, 2002 | Men's Ice Hockey
| Game Statistics | Season Statistics |
In a game that has become a trademark of a rivalry that has been renewed 212 times and spanned 10 decades, the nation's seventh-ranked Terrier hockey team lost a 3-2 decision to number one Boston College in front of a sellout crowd of 3806 at Brown Arena on Friday night (November 15th).
The win kept the Eagles undefeated through their first nine games of the year, as they are now 8-0-1 overall and 5-0-0 in Hockey East action. In the meantime, the Terriers lost for just the second time in nine outings, as they are 5-2-2 overall and 3-2-0 in the league.
In the overall series that began during the 1917-18 season, BC now has 89 wins, while the Terriers still have the upper hand with 108 victories, while there have been 15 ties.
"I thought it was a helluva game," said Terrier head coach Jack Parker.
"This was your prototypical B.U. vs. BC game," agreed Eagle head coach Jerry York. "If you were lucky enough to have gotten a ticket, you saw a terrific hockey game. This was an indication of just how strong this league is this year."
The difference in the outcome, as Parker saw it, was "we beat ourselves with our undisciplined play. We caused ourselves problems, and we were foolish with the penalties we took."
The Terriers were whistled for 11 infractions for 22 minutes, while BC had 10 penalties for 20 minutes. The difference was that BC had nine power play chances, including one 5-one-3 and one 4-on-3.
"If someone had told me before the game that we would give them nine power play chances, including one 5-on-3 and one 4-on-3 and give up just one power play goal, I would say it was a good night," said Parker. "But, we took some stupid, undisciplined penalties, and it was a pathetic night. This has to be addressed.
"I liked a lot of what I saw tonight, but I didn't like how undisciplined we were and I didn't like the final score," Parker went on. "I thought that Mark Mullen played a great game. In fact, that line of Mullen, (Brian) Collins, and (Brad) Zancanaro had a terrific game. I also thought that (Jekabs) Redlihs had his best game since he's been here, and (Dan) Spang also had a great game."
The Eagles had to come from behind as the Terriers opened the scoring at 7:29 of the first period when John Cronin scored his first goal of the season, as his shot from the right point beat BC goalie Tim Kelleher. Zancanaro and Collins picked up the assists.
Just 22 seconds later, BC's Justin Dziama tied the game when he knocked home a rebound of a shot by Ned Havern that beat Terrier goalie Sean Fields.
BC's Andrew Alberts gave his team a lead for good at 12:23 of the first period when his blistering shot from the blue line beat Fields just above his glove and just below the crossbar.
The Eagles increased their lead to 3-1 just 1:02 into the second period when Ryan Shannon took a pass from Chris Collins and came skating down the right faceoff circle. His shot beat Fields, and BC had a two-goal lead that proved to be critical.
The reason is that the Terriers' John Sabo cut the deficit to 3-2 at 10:07 of the third period when he collected a rebound in front of Kelleher and fired it past the Eagle goalie for his sixth goal of the year. Justin Maiser and Freddy Meyer were credited with the assists.
From then on, neither team was able to beat the opponent goalie as Fields finished the game with 27 saves, 11 of which came in the second period and 10 in the third period. In the meantime, Kelleher had 30 saves for the Eagles, 11 of which came in the final period.
