Steve Greeley's first collegiate game-winning goal helped lead the Terriers past Merrimack.
Junior Steve Greeley scored his first goal of the season early in the third period to help lead the Boston University hockey team to a 2-1 win over Merrimack before a sellout crowd of 3806 at B.U.'s Walter Brown Arena on Saturday night.
For the nation's seventh-ranked Terriers, it was their fourth straight win, as they are now 5-1-2 overall and 3-1-0 in Hockey East action. In the meantime, Merrimack slipped to an overall record of 2-5-1 and a 1-3-0 mark in the league.
With the score knotted at 1-1, and a faceoff to the right of Merrimack goalie Joe Exter (30 saves), the Terriers' Gregg Johnson got the puck over to Frantisek Skladany. He, in turn slipped the puck over to Freddy Meyer who was on the left wing boards. Meyer then put a seeing-eye-pass on Greeley's stick, which was just to the left of Exter. Greeley reached back for the puck and slipped it past the Merrimack goalie, and the Terriers had the game-winning goal at 5:33 of the period.
Freddy Meyer's pass helped set up Greeley's game-winner.
"Freddy really made the play with his pass," Greeley said after the game. "I had my stick behind me, and Freddy put the puck right on the stick. He put it where he had to."
Merrimack, which was the last team to beat B.U. in a 5-3 decision on October 22nd, jumped to a 1-0 lead at 6:03 of the first period. Skating two men up with a 5-on-3 advantage, the Warriors' Tim Reidy beat Terrier goalie Sean Fields (20 saves) high to the stick side. Reidy made an outstanding move taking the puck from the left faceoff circle toward the slot. He then faked right forcing the Terrier defense to move with him. He then put on the brakes, went left and got his shot off that beat Fields.
The Warriors held the lead until the 4:48 mark of the second period when the Terriers' John Sabo tied the game with his fifth goal of the season. It came on the Terrier power play, and it was set up on a Brian McConnell shot from the right faceoff circle. Exter made the save but left the rebound in front where Sabo collected it and knocked it home to tie the game.
The score remained 1-1 until Greeley's game-winner, which was the first of his career.
"We had a lot better effort tonight than the last time we played Merrimack," Terrier head coach Jack Parker said after the game. "We had a completely different attitude tonight. I could tell at today's pre-game skate that this was not a typical B.U.-Merrimack game tonight.
"I would have liked to have seen us score more goals," the coach went on. "It looked like the Vermont game where we had a lot of shots (43), and just couldn't bury them. But, aside from that, I was very pleased with how we played tonight. "We were solid in all three zones," said Parker. "And, we played well on the power play, killing penalties, and winning face-offs. We also kept our poise. We won the third period, and we won the game.
"It was nice to see Greeley score that goal," concluded Parker. "I also thought the first line (Brian McConnell centering Justin Maiser on the left and John Sabo on the right) played great."
For Merrimack Coach Chris Serino, the scoreboard read 2-1, but the game was far from being that close.
"That was not a close game," said Serino, who is now 4-8-2 all-time against the Terriers. "B.U. played well and controlled play. They beat us to every loose puck, and they muscled us off the puck.
"In the second period, they outshot us, 11-7, but we did not get a grade A shot," Serino went on. "We didn't move the puck at all, and they are a reason for a lot of that. We allowed them to control the puck in our end.
"The reason the final score was close was the play of our goalie," Serino said of Exter. "He gave us a chance to win. We wasted a great effort from our goalie. In this league, you can't win doing things the easy way, especially we can't. The most disappointing part of the game is that we got a great performance out of our goalie, and we didn't win the game."
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