Photo by: Kyle Prudhomme
Strange Magic: BU Wins a Weird One over UNH
December 4, 2021 | Men's Ice Hockey
by Scott Weighart, GoTerriers.com
BOSTON – When the going got weird on Friday night, Boston University got going.
The Terriers had been through a tough stretch over the last five weeks or so, posting a 1-6-2 record over nine games going into December. Clearly BU needed to find a way to win tonight, and it certainly found a most unusual path to victory with a 3-1 win over New Hampshire at Agganis Arena. Consider the following:
Junior Alex Vlasic celebrated his first goal of the season tonight as well as the primary assist on another goal…but he ended the night with no points after all.
With the game tied, 1-1, in the second period, Vlasic skated in from the left point and fired a shot from the face-off circle into the net. But the officials went to video review and determined that junior Wilmer Skoog had interfered with the goalie. No goal for Vlasic after all.
"I didn't think the other player was battling too hard to get by me," Skoog said, "but I just have to be more careful in those situations."
"I don't know; I mean, it stinks," Vlasic said afterwards, shrugging. "Then again we got the win, so I can't be too upset. Obviously, I'm doing something right, so I just have to keep doing what I'm doing, and good things will come."
After scoring no goals in 14 games this season, graduate student Max Kaufman ended up getting the puck into the net twice...but only the second one stuck.
In that same bizarre second period, Kaufman also seemed to get his first goal of the year and just his second in two seasons with the Terriers. In a near carbon copy of Vlasic's earlier play, the 6-foot-6 defenseman skated in from the left point and fired a shot that ricocheted off of Kaufman and into the back of the net. Another lengthy video review led to the conclusion that BU had been offside at some point earlier.
"I felt something go off the back of my shoulder," Kaufman said afterwards, "but I think the play was really made by our defenseman Ty Gallagher, who passed the puck over to Vlas."
So Kaufman joined Vlasic in being denied his first goal, but the grad student enjoyed some poetic justice by sealing the win with an empty-netter in the final minute.
"Yeah, we had two goals taken back, but we weren't really worried about that; we were just worried about playing winning hockey," Kaufman said. "That's what we did tonight."
Vlasic and his teammates relished seeing Kaufman light the lamp with the empty-netter to seal the win.
"He's definitely a leader on this team and one of the humblest guys I've ever met," Vlasic said. "It's great to learn from him because he's been around for a while. I'm so happy for him."
"That's awesome," Skoog said. "He's been working hard all year, and his leadership is so important. Everyone was happy to see him rewarded."
Wilmer Skoog scored a nice tip-in goal but otherwise factored in three near misses...basically all of the team's best scoring opportunities that did not lead to goals.
Skoog had perhaps the oddest night of all. He did a great job of tapping in a Matt Brown shot for the first goal of the game, but he could have had a hat trick. Vlasic threaded a gorgeous pass to Skoog to set up a breakaway in the first period. The Swedish centerman beat the Wildcat goalie but clanged the shot off the crossbar. Then Skoog clanged another one off of a pipe in the second period shortly after getting called for goalie interference to negate Vlasic's goal.
"Those will go in the net some other night," Skoog said.
In a regulation game that did not go to overtime, the teams played for a total of 62 minutes, 28 seconds.
But wait, there's more! For those who enjoy a mash-up of ice hockey and time travel, you got your wish in Friday's game. After a whistle blew with 5:57 left in the second period, BU head coach Albie O'Connell challenged a no-call on an UNH player. An epic-length video review ensued. Finally, UNH left wing Liam Devlin was assessed a major penalty for slew footing. The only thing was that it happened a LONG time before that whistle. So the penalty that was called with 5:57 left officially got called as occurring with 8:25 left. That meant the teams ended up playing that same stretch of two minutes, 28 seconds twice.
"We came into that second intermission, and it may have been the longest period we've ever been involved with, what, three reviews?" Kaufman said. "Then two TV timeouts. We just kept talking to each other on the bench and saying, "Let's stay in it, and when the puck drops be ready to go.'"
After what must have been a half-dozen video reviews for various reasons, one would imagine that the referees saw more screen tonight than many a Netflix viewer. With a 7:30 start, the game wore on well after 10. But hey, if it's a W, the Terriers would be happy to pull up a box of popcorn while the calls get sorted out.
Although there was only one official goal scored in the second period, the scoreboard showed five changes of score.
If you kept a careful eye on the Agganis Arena scoreboard in the second period, here is the sequence of scores that you saw: 1-1. 2-1 BU. 1-1. 2-1 BU. 3-1 BU. 2-1 BU.
In some ways, this second period felt like a metaphor for the BU team's season so far. There have been exciting steps forward — such as an overtime win at UMass in mid-November — but also frustrating and unexpected steps back. The question now is whether tonight represents an inflection point toward a consistent stretch of success. Perhaps this odd game was a harbinger of more good things to come.
"Whenever you play the right way from the goaltender out, you're going to get good puck luck," Kaufman said. "Even though we haven't come out on top the last few weeks, the mood in the locker room has been great. We're just moving forward and worrying about the long haul rather than short-term success. Success came tonight and we just have to keep building off of that."
Although we all could live with a few less video reviews for the duration of the season, the Terriers won't mind seeing repeated replays of tonight's result.
BOSTON – When the going got weird on Friday night, Boston University got going.
The Terriers had been through a tough stretch over the last five weeks or so, posting a 1-6-2 record over nine games going into December. Clearly BU needed to find a way to win tonight, and it certainly found a most unusual path to victory with a 3-1 win over New Hampshire at Agganis Arena. Consider the following:
Junior Alex Vlasic celebrated his first goal of the season tonight as well as the primary assist on another goal…but he ended the night with no points after all.
With the game tied, 1-1, in the second period, Vlasic skated in from the left point and fired a shot from the face-off circle into the net. But the officials went to video review and determined that junior Wilmer Skoog had interfered with the goalie. No goal for Vlasic after all.
"I didn't think the other player was battling too hard to get by me," Skoog said, "but I just have to be more careful in those situations."
"I don't know; I mean, it stinks," Vlasic said afterwards, shrugging. "Then again we got the win, so I can't be too upset. Obviously, I'm doing something right, so I just have to keep doing what I'm doing, and good things will come."
After scoring no goals in 14 games this season, graduate student Max Kaufman ended up getting the puck into the net twice...but only the second one stuck.
In that same bizarre second period, Kaufman also seemed to get his first goal of the year and just his second in two seasons with the Terriers. In a near carbon copy of Vlasic's earlier play, the 6-foot-6 defenseman skated in from the left point and fired a shot that ricocheted off of Kaufman and into the back of the net. Another lengthy video review led to the conclusion that BU had been offside at some point earlier.
"I felt something go off the back of my shoulder," Kaufman said afterwards, "but I think the play was really made by our defenseman Ty Gallagher, who passed the puck over to Vlas."
So Kaufman joined Vlasic in being denied his first goal, but the grad student enjoyed some poetic justice by sealing the win with an empty-netter in the final minute.
"Yeah, we had two goals taken back, but we weren't really worried about that; we were just worried about playing winning hockey," Kaufman said. "That's what we did tonight."
Vlasic and his teammates relished seeing Kaufman light the lamp with the empty-netter to seal the win.
"He's definitely a leader on this team and one of the humblest guys I've ever met," Vlasic said. "It's great to learn from him because he's been around for a while. I'm so happy for him."
"That's awesome," Skoog said. "He's been working hard all year, and his leadership is so important. Everyone was happy to see him rewarded."
Wilmer Skoog scored a nice tip-in goal but otherwise factored in three near misses...basically all of the team's best scoring opportunities that did not lead to goals.
Skoog had perhaps the oddest night of all. He did a great job of tapping in a Matt Brown shot for the first goal of the game, but he could have had a hat trick. Vlasic threaded a gorgeous pass to Skoog to set up a breakaway in the first period. The Swedish centerman beat the Wildcat goalie but clanged the shot off the crossbar. Then Skoog clanged another one off of a pipe in the second period shortly after getting called for goalie interference to negate Vlasic's goal.
"Those will go in the net some other night," Skoog said.
In a regulation game that did not go to overtime, the teams played for a total of 62 minutes, 28 seconds.
But wait, there's more! For those who enjoy a mash-up of ice hockey and time travel, you got your wish in Friday's game. After a whistle blew with 5:57 left in the second period, BU head coach Albie O'Connell challenged a no-call on an UNH player. An epic-length video review ensued. Finally, UNH left wing Liam Devlin was assessed a major penalty for slew footing. The only thing was that it happened a LONG time before that whistle. So the penalty that was called with 5:57 left officially got called as occurring with 8:25 left. That meant the teams ended up playing that same stretch of two minutes, 28 seconds twice.
"We came into that second intermission, and it may have been the longest period we've ever been involved with, what, three reviews?" Kaufman said. "Then two TV timeouts. We just kept talking to each other on the bench and saying, "Let's stay in it, and when the puck drops be ready to go.'"
After what must have been a half-dozen video reviews for various reasons, one would imagine that the referees saw more screen tonight than many a Netflix viewer. With a 7:30 start, the game wore on well after 10. But hey, if it's a W, the Terriers would be happy to pull up a box of popcorn while the calls get sorted out.
Although there was only one official goal scored in the second period, the scoreboard showed five changes of score.
If you kept a careful eye on the Agganis Arena scoreboard in the second period, here is the sequence of scores that you saw: 1-1. 2-1 BU. 1-1. 2-1 BU. 3-1 BU. 2-1 BU.
In some ways, this second period felt like a metaphor for the BU team's season so far. There have been exciting steps forward — such as an overtime win at UMass in mid-November — but also frustrating and unexpected steps back. The question now is whether tonight represents an inflection point toward a consistent stretch of success. Perhaps this odd game was a harbinger of more good things to come.
"Whenever you play the right way from the goaltender out, you're going to get good puck luck," Kaufman said. "Even though we haven't come out on top the last few weeks, the mood in the locker room has been great. We're just moving forward and worrying about the long haul rather than short-term success. Success came tonight and we just have to keep building off of that."
Although we all could live with a few less video reviews for the duration of the season, the Terriers won't mind seeing repeated replays of tonight's result.
Players Mentioned
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