ALLSTON, Mass. - Sophomore Chris Connolly capped a wild contest between cross-town rivals with an overtime winner to lead the Boston University men's ice hockey team to a 6-5 victory over Harvard on Tuesday evening at Bright Hockey Center. The Crimson took a 5-4 lead with 1:18 left in regulation on Conor Morrison's fourth goal of the contest, but senior Zach Cohen scored an extra-attacker goal with 19.5 ticks left to send the game into overtime.
Junior Joe Pereira tallied a career-high four points on two goals and two assists for the Terriers, who improve to 4-7-1. Harvard is now winless in its last seven games (0-5-2) and moves to 1-5-2 on the year.
The Terriers scored the first goal of the game, but never held a lead again, as they erased four one-goal advantages by the Crimson before coming through with their second overtime win of the season.
Junior Nick Bonino scored his first goal of the year to make it a 4-4 contest with 6:09 remaining in the third, and as time winded down, it appeared the teams would head into overtime with that score. The Terriers would have to answer one more time, however, in order to set up their overtime heroics.
Morrison, a freshman who had scored just one goal through his team's first seven games, capped his hat trick at 5:06 of the third before adding his fourth tally of the night with just 78 seconds left in regulation to give the home team a 5-4 lead.
Sophomore goaltender Kieran Millan, who made 21 saves on the night, was pulled in favor of an extra attacker in the final minute of regulation and the offense came through 25 seconds later. Cohen, who was positioned just outside the crease, redirected an offering from sophomore David Warsofsky past Harvard netminder Kyle Richter for his second goal of the night. In overtime, Bonino won an offensive-zone faceoff and Pereira controlled the puck in the left corner before passing off to Bonino behind the net. Bonino curled around the net and looked to shoot, but temporarily lost control of the puck before finding Connolly with a cross-slot pass. The sophomore converted, sending home the puck from above the left post to end the game and ignite the Terriers' biggest celebration so far this season.
The Terriers outshot the Crimson by a significant 49-26 margin, as Richter finished the night with a career-high 43 saves.
BU went 3-of-5 on the power play, as its first three goals came with the man advantage. The Terriers committed just three penalties on the night and killed off both of the Crimson's power-play chances.
Pereira opened the scoring just 3:53 into the game before Morrison and sophomore Alex Killorn scored consecutive unassisted goals to give the Crimson its first of four leads on the night.
Cohen tallied a power-play goal with 3:28 left in the opening period to make it a 2-2 game entering the first intermission.
Each team scored one goal in the second, as Morrison and Pereira both scored their second markers of the night.
Bonino finished the night with three points (1g, 2a), while Warsofsky and sophomore Vinny Saponari each recorded two assists. Connolly also had a two-point night, assisting on Pereira's second tally in addition to his game-winner.
The Terriers will return to action on Saturday (Nov. 28) when they visit New York City to face old rival Cornell at Madison Square Garden in the second Red Hot Hockey game. The inaugural game on Nov. 24, 2007, saw BU post a 6-3 win over the Big Red. Saturday's game will begin at 8 p.m. and will be streamed live on GoTerriers.com.