BOSTON, Mass. - The No. 7/8 Boston University men's ice hockey team suffered a 5-4 loss at the hands of Holy Cross on Saturday evening at Agganis Arena. Junior Alex Chiasson tallied two goals and an assist for the Terriers, who fall to an even 2-2-0 on the year.
After giving up an early goal, BU scored goals 40 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead. The Crusaders responded with four unanswered goals, including three on the power play, to jump out to a 5-2 advantage.
The Terriers tried to rally back with two third-period goals, but it was too little, too late, and the Crusaders escaped with the victory.
Sophomore Matt Nieto scored a goal for the fourth straight game and added an assist while classmate Sahir Gill potted his first goal of the season. Senior Corey Trivino and sophomore Charlie Coyle each registered a pair of assists.
Holy Cross (2-1-0) was paced by sophomore Adam Schmidt who helped the visitors take the lead for good with the first two tallies of the four-goal run. Senior Andrew Cox contributed a goal and two assists.
Each team recorded 31 shots on the evening, as senior Kieran Millan made 26 saves for the Terriers and freshman Matt Ginn stopped 27 BU shots in goal for the Crusaders.
The Crusaders took advantage of BU penalties throughout the night, going 3-of-6 on the power play. The Terriers (0-for-3) were held without a power-play goal for the first time this year.
Junior Erik Vos opened the scoring with a marker 6:46 into the contest to give Holy Cross an early 1-0 lead. Gill responded less than two minutes later when he one-timed a cross-slot pass from sophomore Adam Clendening past Ginn.
Just 40 seconds later, Chiasson gave BU what would be its only lead of the night when he earned his first goal of the night with assists from Nieto and Coyle.
The Crusaders fought right back, however, and regained the lead before the end of the opening stanza thanks to power-play goals by Schmidt at 11:41 - on a 5-on-3 - and 17:37.
Cox provided the first multi-goal cushion of the night when he gathered a rebound off his own shot and flung the puck towards the top of the crease, where it went off a BU defender and past Millan at 12:09 of the middle period.
The Crusaders scored their second 5-on-3 goal of the evening just 10 seconds into a major penalty on BU junior Wade Megan, who was also given a game misconduct for the hitting from behind call. Junior Brendan Baker gave the visitors a 5-2 lead with a blast from the top of the point at 7:17 of the third.
The Terriers cut into the deficit while skating shorthanded with the major penalty when Chiasson drilled home a shot directly off a faceoff win by Trivino with 10:29 left in regulation.
Nieto made it a one-goal affair when he backhanded the puck past Ginn at the goalmouth at 12:45 of the third.
BU threatened to complete the comeback with a handful of chances in the closing minutes and pulled Millan for the final 1:31, but the deficit proved to be too much to overcome .
The Terriers will return to action on Friday (Oct. 28) when they travel to Amherst to face Massachusetts in the opener of a home-and-home weekend with the Minutemen. The game, which will be broadcast live by NESN, will start at 7 p.m.