Boston University, Vermont battle to draw

The oldest team in Hockey East (Vermont) and the youngest team in the nation (Boston University) fought tooth and nail for 65 minutes Saturday afternoon but the young versus old debate will have to wait in the wake of the 3-3 overtime tie before 3,168 fans at Agganis Arena.

Both teams took positives from the game. In BU’s case, it was surviving a manpower shortage after losing two players early in the first period to game misconducts, while UVM took solace in working back from deficits of 1-0 and 3-2.

“Better effort from us tonight than last night (3-0 loss). Down 3-2 in somebody else’s building, we battled through it,” said UVM coach Kevin Sneddon, a member of Harvard’s 1989 NCAA champions. “The guys did a really nice job regrouping. It’s a really good building block.”

BU coach Albie O’Connell, who sat a one-game, league-mandated suspension on Friday night, was back behind the bench and pleased with the effort.

“In general, I thought we played a pretty good game when we weren’t in the penalty box. We put ourselves behind the 8-ball for about four-plus minutes early. That could have been a game-breaker right there but we did a good job killing penalties,” he said. “I think you have to tip your cap to them. They kept working.”

BU (4-4-5, 3-3-4 HE) sat star freshman Trveor Zegras (4-9-13 in 12 games), an Anaheim draft pick, as a healthy scratch after coaches were not pleased with his play in the series opener in which he incurred 15 penalty minutes, including a misconduct. That hardly deterred the Terriers, who jumped ahead 1:09 into the contest when defenseman Domenick Fensore (2 assists) sent a pass toward the goalmouth that freshman Sam Stevens, subbing for Zegras on the top line, steered past Stefanos Lekkas (32 saves). It was the first collegiate goal for Stevens and came in his third game. Stevens added another later in the game for a huge breakthrough performance.

“I felt really good, getting to the net. It was right place, right time, I guess,” said the Montreal product. “I have to admit I was probably a little nervous but I just focused on playing my game. Those guys (linemates Patrick Curry and Patrick Harper) are really good players. So, I just tried to do my thing and help them out.”

Matters went down hill quickly for BU as forward Gabriel Chabot (roughing) and defenseman Kasper Kotkansalo (hit from behind) earned separate 5-minute majors and game misconduct penalties 62 seconds apart starting at 6:22. That handed the Catamounts a 5-on-3 lasting nearly four minutes. UVM (1-8-1, 0-5-1 HE) cashed in when junior defenseman Christian Evers sniped a shot from inside the blue line that hit under the crossbar at 10:52 for his third goal of the year.

Vermont went ahead 2-1 with a  power play goal at 3:20 of the middle period when center Derek Lodermeier connected from the mid-slot after taking a pass from right wing Thomas Beretta. A bit later, a shot by Lynnfield sophomore Johnny DeRoche, a converted forward, moved deep from his defensive position and fired a shot that broke off Sam Tucker. The puck got behind the goalie, sliding just outside the post four minutes into the stanza.

BU clawed back to knot the score at 6:22 when Stevens connected for his second Just over one minute later, Vermont’s Evers went off for a tripping minor and the Terriers power play took over. Junior defenseman David Farrance sent his team-high 10th goal into the back of the net with 6-foot-3 teammate Matthew Quercia of Andover providing a timely screen at 8:20, giving the Terriers a 3-2 lead.

Vermont’s Lekkas, who is on pace to surpass Bruins’ legend Tim Thomas’ career saves mark (3,950) at UVM, came up big early in the third period when he foiled BU wing Ethan Phillips, who had taken possession of a loose puck in the low slow.

BU, averaging 20.9 years of age, had trouble controlling the puck behind its own net while competing against the oldest (22.3 years) UVM team in Hockey East and the tell-tale factor made a difference. The result was a scramble goal by UVM junior center Alex Esposito at 15:56 and forced overtime.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2KKMr5K