NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Boston University men’s hockey team fell to Yale 7-5 to open the second half of the season.
Here are three takeaways from the win at Ingalls Rink.
Same old BU
The same issues that plagued the Terriers in the first half of the season were present on Sunday afternoon — discipline and a poor penalty kill.
Yale entered Sunday’s game converting on the power play at an 11.8 percent clip, good for 58th in the nation. The Bulldogs scored three times on the man advantage against BU.
BU’s penalty kill, which isn’t much better than Yale’s power play, ranked 57th in the country entering Sunday, killing penalties at only 73 percent. It was two point shots that beat both Caron and Lacroix on the penalty kill.
The Terriers took seven penalties Sunday, which continues an undisciplined first half of the season. Senior forward Tristan Amonte was assessed a five minute major and a game misconduct for head contact late in the second period that waved off a BU goal.
Missing key pieces on special teams
Without many of BU’s key players on special teams in freshman Cole Eiserman, Cole Huston, and Brandon Svoboda, and sophomore Tom Willander, who are all competing at the World Juniors in Ottawa, the Terriers were forced to shake things up.
On the man advantage, BU converted twice. The power play units looked as follows:
Lachance, Greene, Copponi, Hutson, and McCarthy rounded out the top unit. Zetterberg, Bednarik, Harvey, Hughes, and Boumedienne rounded out the second unit.
The aforementioned penalty kill struggled. These were the players who attempted to kill off penalties: Greene, Lachance, McCarthy, Engum, Copponi, Bednarik, Harvey, Boumedienne, and Celebrini.
Goaltending woes resurface
Caron was pulled after giving up his fourth goal of the day at 4:06 of the second period. He stopped 10 of the 14 shots he faced. Lacroix replaced Caron, and stopped 11 of the 14 shots he faced.
How it happened:
BU opened the scoring at 1:01. Freshman forward Alex Zetterberg picked the puck up in the neutral zone, skated it over the blue line, and found junior forward Quinn Hutson driving the net, who scored to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Yale responded at 5:13, courtesy of sophomore forward Will Richter. Senior defenseman Connor Sullivan found Richter in the slot from behind the net, and Richter finished, knotting the scoreline at 1-1.
The Terriers regained the lead at 6:59 of the first. Huston fired a pass from the top of the right circle down to Zetterberg at the back door, who tapped it home to give BU a 2-1 lead.
After freshman forward Nick Roukounakis was called for a hook, Yale tied the game on the power play. Junior forward David Chen fired a wrister from the point on the man advantage, beating senior netminder Mathieu Caron.
BU responded with a power play goal of its own. Freshman forward Hughie Hooker was sent off for hooking, and junior co-captain Ryan Greene buried a slick feed from senior forward Matt Copponi to retake the lead at 3-2.
2:54 into the middle frame, Yale tied the score. Freshman forward Micah Berger redirected a point shot from junior blueliner Bayard Hall to make it 3-3.
The Bulldogs took their first lead of the game at 4:06. On the penalty kill, junior forward Kalen Szeto beat Caron on a breakaway off a miscue by freshman defenseman Sascha Boumedienne.
On the same power play, Hutson tied the game at 4-4 for BU. With a wrister from the top of the right circle, Hutson collected his second goal of the game.
Chen scored his second power play goal of the game at 15:03 to give Yale the lead back at 5-4. Chen rifled a shot from the point, beating Lacroix. Lacroix didn’t see the shot because of a screen.
Yale extended its lead to 6-4 at 13:00 of the third period. Freshman forward Ronan O’Donnell shoveled the puck past Lacroix from the slot with his backhand.
The Bulldogs made it 7-4 at 15:51. Senior forward Will Dineen buried a loose puck in front of the net on the power play.
Zetterberg potted his second goal of the day at 19:26 to cut Yale’s lead to 7-5.
This story will be updated.
