BOSTON - Junior Cody Ferriero and sophomore Adam Reid lit the lamp on Friday night against No. 19 Boston University, but the Northeastern men's hockey team could not contain a determined Terriers' team in a 4-2 setback on Senior Night at Matthews Arena.
Seniors Drew Ellement, Steve Morra, Chris Rawlings, Vinny Saponari and Robbie Vrolyk all skated in their final contest at Matthews Arena. Vrolyk assisted on Reid's goal while Rawlings turned aside 33 shots in the loss.
The Terriers outshot Northeastern, 37-33, as BU's Sean Maguire stopped 31 shots in his ninth win of the season. Both clubs went 0-for-3 on the power play.
Rawlings crafted a great defensive play by making the stop on Ryan Ruikka's rebound on the far post, but on a nearly identical play at 12:19 of the first period, the Terriers grabbed the 1-0 advantage.
Ahti Oksanen triggered the scoring play by hammering the puck into traffic in front of Rawlings. The disc caromed off of Ryan Santana in the crease to a perfectly-positioned Jake Moscatel to roof the rebound to give BU the early edge. For Moscatel, it was his first-career point.
The Terriers took a 2-0 lead with just over three minutes to play in the first frame after Sahir Gill intercepted freshman Mike Gunn's cross-ice pass along BU's blue line. Gill raced the puck down the right side of the ice and linked up with Wade Megan unbothered on the left dot. Megan picked his spot and snuck the wrister through Rawlings' five-hole at 16:55.
Just as it looked like Boston University would take a two-goal pad into the first intermission, but Ferriero had other ideas with 1.2 seconds left to play. Ferriero stripped BU's outlet pass between NU's circles, carved over to the left side of BU's zone and danced around Ruikka on the left dot. Ferriero finished the finesse play with a sharp wrister over Maguire's glove to cut into the deficit, 2-1.
Neither team could sneak one in during the second period, but each club had their chances. The Huskies' penalty-killing unit snuffed out a junior Braden Pimm trip at 5:03 whereas Sam Kurker's contact to the head call at 13:08 did not yield a change in score either. Northeastern picked up a late power play after another Kurker infraction at 19:27, but the Terriers limited NU's chances during the window.
Boston University used its penalty-killing momentum and turned into its third goal of the game at 2:14 of the third frame.
Santana cleared the puck out of BU's corner out to Matt Nieto just a couple feet ahead. Nieto wheeled through the zone and saucered a pass into the goal mouth where Danny O'Regan was waiting to tip it over Rawlings' pad to regain the two-goal cushion, 3-1.
The Terriers killed off their third-straight penalty (Cason Hohmann - tripping) at 3:19 and scored nine seconds after the infraction expired.
Ruikka cleared the puck out to Hohmann, just exiting the box, on the right size of the zone. Hohmann redirected the puck back to the other side where Matt Lane sniped a wrist shot by Rawlings on the far post at 5:28 for some insurance and a 4-1 lead.
Two minutes later, Reid negated Lane's goal at 7:28 of the third on a great rebound tally from Ferriero and Vrolyk. Vrolyk triggered the play from just inside the blue line with a tight pass to Ferriero at the top of the circles. Ferriero missed wide on his attempt, but the velocity of his rebound bounced back so hard off the backboards that Maguire could not shift over in time to deny Reid on the far post. Reid smoked the carom to the back of the net to creep back to within two, 4-2.
In an attempt to get back into the game, rookies Dustin Darou and Colton Saucerman were whistled at 9:35 and 15:45, respectfully. The Terriers had their chances, but Northeastern's penalty-killing corps killed of BU's second and third power plays of the night.
Head coach Jim Madigan lifted Rawlings at 18:30 in favor of the extra skater and called timeout at 18:44, but the Huskies could not attack with the extra skater as BU came away with the 4-2 triumph.
Northeastern caps the 2012-13 season tomorrow night at Agganis Arena when the Huskies run it back in the season finale at Boston University for a 7 p.m. puck drop.
Game Notes
- Cody Ferriero scored his 12th goal of the season and added his 14th assist to notch his fifth multi-point game of the season and eighth of his career.
- Adam Reid potted his sixth goal of the season.