LOWELL, Mass. - The No. 10/11 Boston University men's ice hockey team skated to a 3-3 draw at UMass Lowell on Saturday afternoon in the regular-season finale, securing the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Hockey East tournament in the process. The Terriers earned an extra point with a 3-2 win in the shootout.
BU closes the regular season with a record of 10-3-1 and will host a Hockey East quarterfinal contest next Sunday (March 7) as the No. 2 seed. UML moves to 7-8-1 on the year.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- BU erased deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 with goals from sophomore Jay O'Brien and freshman Luke Tuch before sophomore Domenick Fensore gave the Terriers a 3-2 lead five minutes into the second period.
- UML used its second power-play goal of the game to send the game into overtime, where BU hit the right elbow and then the left post in the closing seconds before settling for a draw.
- In the shootout, BU converted its first two tries from the sticks of sophomore Wilmer Skoog and senior David Farrance before the River Hawks were successful on their final two tries to send it to a sudden-elimination round.
- Sophomore Robert Mastrosimone provided the shootout winner as freshman netminder Drew Commesso turned aside Reid Stefanson's must-make try.
- Lowell opened the scoring on a power-play tally by Chase Blackmun 12:29 into the contest.
- Minutes later, the Terriers earned a 5-on-3 power play and used it to come up with an equalizer off a one-timer from O'Brien in the left circle.
- The River Hawks regained the lead at 2-1 just over a minute later as Charlie Levesque potted his first of two goals in the contest.
- In the final seconds of the opening period, Tuch picked off a clearing attempt before flinging the puck towards the net and beating UML netminder Owen Savory with just 0.2 seconds remaining, allowing the Terriers to head into the first intemission without a deficit.
- Fensore scored the lone goal ofthe second period as he fed Skoog to start a rush and then trailed him the entire way before pouncing on his rebound and sending it in for a go-ahead goal at 5:01 of the middle stanza.
- UML's power play came through once again and pushed the game overtime as Levesque completed his multi-goal effort by sneaking the puck past Commesso at the right post at 2:59 of the third.
- The Terriers had the lone power-play chance of the third but could not capitalize and the game went to overtime.
- Commesso stopped all four shots he faced in the extra session and Mastrosimone and sophomore Markus Boguslavsky were the ones who had shots hit the pipes late in overtime.
GAME NOTES
- Farrance and O'Brien shared the team lead in points during the regular season with 16 apiece.
- Lowell held a 38-28 shot advantage and went 2-for-4 on the power play.
- The Terriers were 1-for-5 with the man advantage and got 35 saves from Commesso.
UP NEXT
- The Terriers will enter the Hockey East tournament as the No. 2 seed, their highest seeding since 2017.
- BU will learn its quarterfinal opponent on Wednesday evening following the first-round results.
- As it stands now, the Terriers would face either UMass Lowell, Maine or New Hampshire.
