Frantisek Skladany scored his second goal of the weekend to cut the Terrier deficit to 3-2.
There were no third-period miracles as there had been on Friday night so the Terrier hockey team lost its regular-season finale to host University of Maine, 4-2, on Saturday night (March 1st). The loss means the Terriers finish the season in fifth place in the Hockey East standings and will travel to Providence College this Thursday for the first of a best-of-three quarterfinal series in the league's post-season tournament.
In Friday night's weekend opener against the Black Bears, the Terriers trailed, 2-1, late in the third period when they rallied for three goals within a span of 1:51 to come away with a 4-2 win.
That set the stage for Saturday night's finale. A B.U. win or tie would have meant the Terriers would finish the season in fourth place and would host Providence, which would have finished in fifth place.
Instead, Maine, which had been 3-5-2 in its last 10 games entering Saturday night's game, took advantage of a couple of outstanding scoring plays to come away with the 4-2 win. With the loss, the Terriers finished the regular season with an overall record of 21-12-3 and a 13-10-1 mark in Hockey East. In the meantime, Maine concluded with a 24-7-5 record and a 14-6-4 log in the league.
"We played the game we wanted to play," Terrier head coach Jack Parker said after the game. "I was very pleased with how we played. We just weren't able to get it done tonight.
"Maine made a couple of great individual plays and scored on them," said the coach.
Lucas Lawson made the first of the outstanding plays just 35 seconds into the third period. With the Black Bears holding a 2-1 lead and enjoying a power play advantage, Lawson took a blistering shot that went high to the glove side of Terrier goalie Sean Fields. The puck found an open spot just under the cross bar, and the Black Bears led, 3-1.
Terrier junior Frantisek Skladany cut the deficit to 3-2 at 6:57 of the third period when he picked up a loose puck deep in the Maine zone. He carried it from the right faceoff circle across the crease and forced Black Bear goalie Jimmy Howard to commit. After the goalie did, Skladany slid the puck past Howard and the Terriers trailed by just a goal. For Skladany, it was his second goal of the weekend as he also had one in Friday night's 4-2 Terrier victory.
It was the Black Bears' second outstanding play at 11:50 of the third period that gave Maine its commanding two-goal lead. A Terrier turnover just inside the B.U. blue line started the scoring play. Maine's Derek Damon caused the turnover and he took the puck along the right wing boards. He carried it down to the right faceoff circle and left a drop pass for Todd Jackson. Jackson took one stride toward Fields and let go of his shot. The puck ended up high to the right corner of the net and the Black Bears had their insurance goal.
Maine led throughout as it took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Gray Shaneberger at 7:25 of the first period. As had been the case on Friday night, the Terriers had a paucity of shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes of action. On Friday night, they went 12:30 before they finally had a shot on goal and finished the first period with 7 shots. However, they managed to score on one of those shots and led 1-0 at the break.
On Saturday night, the Terriers managed a season-low 2 shots on goal and did not score on either of them and trailed 1-0 at the first break.
The Black Bears opened the scoring in the second period when Lawson scored the first of his two goals just 14 seconds into the period. Again, with his team skating a man-up, Lawson beat Fields to stake his team to a two-goal lead.
Kenny Magowan got the Terriers on the scoreboard with his eighth goal of the season.
Junior Kenny Magowan finally got B.U. on the scoreboard with an excellent individual effort at 5:14 of the second period. Skladany got the puck to Magowan who brought it down the slot. He stopped short just to the right of Howard, and, once the goalie made his move, Magowan countered with his 8th goal of the season. Freshman Brad Zancanaro also earned an assist.
Neither team scored again in the second period as Maine led, 2-1, entering the final period.
Through the season's first 35 games, the Terriers had trailed their opponents eight times after two periods, and they were 1-7-0 in those games. After Saturday night, that statistic is now 1-8-0.
With the game behind him, Parker then turned his attention to this week's Hockey East Tournament matchup against Providence. It will be the third straight year and fourth time in the last five years that the Terriers and Friars will be meeting in the quarterfinals. The Friars prevailed, 2 games to 1 in the 1999 quarters. The same was true in 2001. Then, last year, the Terriers swept the Friars in two straight en route to earning a spot in the NCAA East Regionals.
The Terriers and Friars have met three times earlier this year and each game has gone into overtime. Providence prevailed, 3-2, on January 9th and 5-4 on February 21st, while the two teams battled to a 3-3 tie on February 22nd.
"We are looking forward to trying to get back at them," Parker said of the series against the Friars. "We have played three overtime games against them so we'll see what happens."
