BURLINGTON, VT – The Boston University men’s hockey team (10-8-6, 7-4-5 HEA) defeated the University of Vermont Catamounts (3-17-4, 0-13-2 HEA) in a 4-2 game on Friday night.
The first period saw a BU team with little urgency or aggression. Vermont maintained majority control of the puck throughout the entire first twenty, notching a goal and forcing a penalty in the second half of the period to maintain their offensive pressure. BU did get a couple of opportunities with the pucks at least finding the net, despite them being fairly easy saves for Vermont’s goaltender Stefanos Lekkas.
In the second period, however, the Terriers seemed to wake up. They climbed their way into a 23-19 shot advantage, and an early goal from freshman defenseman Case McCarthy, his first collegiate goal, dug BU out of their one-goal deficit. To finish out the period, the game stayed tied at one.
Going into the third, not only were the Terriers firing up offensively, but tensions began to rise between the two teams. Vermont, a team who has not won a Hockey East matchup since their 4-1 win against New Hampshire last season on February 9, 2019, began to show their frustrations as the third period became the breeding ground for one major and eleven minor penalties.
The last twenty started off with a quick two goals, one from senior forward Gabriel Chabot to give the Terriers the 2-1 lead a little over a minute into the period and another from Vermont’s Christian Evers to tie the game again a minute later.
The first penalty came shortly after, putting senior captain Patrick Curry in the box along with UVM’s Vlad Dzhioshvili, both for hitting after the whistle, after Curry was pushed into the boards and threw a few cross-checks in retaliation. Freshman defenseman Alex Vlasic was called a minute after the matching minors expired for cross-checking.
An embellishment minor assessed to junior defenseman David Farrance and a tripping minor and ten-minute game misconduct assessed to freshman defenseman Dominick Fensore followed shortly after Vlasic’s.
The Terriers weren’t able to break the tie until after Vermont was called for hooking. Freshman forward Trevor Zegras was able to slide the puck between the post and Lekkas with seven seconds left in the power play and just over three minutes left in the game.
Now down to the wire, Vermont pulled their goalie for an extra skater, opening up the door for Curry to solidify the victory with an empty-net goal with less than a minute to play.
Despite the slow start, BU brought home the much needed two points to place them third in the conference and one point out of first. Next up, the Terriers will have a rematch with Boston College on Monday at 8:00 pm in the Beanpot semifinals.
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