Hockey Terriers Take On St. Lawrence on Saturday

The men’s hockey team will face the St. Lawrence Saints on Saturday, November 29, in post-Thanksgiving play at Agganis Arena after defeating Holy Cross, 3-2, at home on Tuesday night. The game was the Terriers’ first meeting with the Crusaders in more than 50 years; normally BU plays Harvard on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but since the Terriers and the Crimson are set to meet in the first round of this year’s Beanpot, the teams agreed to take a one-year break from their annual November matchup.

Colin Wilson (CAS’11) scored the eventual game-winner and added an assist for the Terriers, who improve to 8-4-0 on the year.BU never trailed in the game, as it broke a scoreless tie early in the second with back-to-back goals from Brandon Yip (CAS’09) and Zach Cohen (CAS’10) before giving one back and entering the third with a 2-1 lead.

Wilson helped the Terriers regain a two-goal advantage with apower-play tally at 9:25 of the third only to see the Crusaders mustera short-handed goal 23 seconds later. BU held off the visitors down thestretch, including a last-minute penalty kill, to snap its two-gamelosing skid.

The Crusaders got a 25-save performance from sophomore goaltender Adam Roy and moved to 3-8-1 on the year. Grant Rollheiser(CGS’10) recorded 19 saves in goal for the Terriers. BU scored on half of itsfour power-play chances while keeping Holy Cross scoreless on all sixof its opportunities with the man advantage.

Neither team was able to get on the board in the first period, but the visitors wasted a great opportunity in the early stages.

The Crusaders dumped the puck along the right boards, and Rollheiserwent behind the goal, but elected not to stop it. The rookie netminderwas slow to return to the crease as the puck made its way to Holy Crossfreshman Jay Silvia in the left corner. Silvia spotted junior RyanDriscoll positioned right above the left post, and following a quickpass, Rollheiser lunged to get just enough of a piece of Driscoll’sredirect attempt to keep the puck from crossing the goal line.

A slashing penalty on Holy Cross sophomore Matt Celin in the closingseconds of the first led to the first goal, as Yip opened the scoringat 1:57 of the middle period with just a second left in Celin’spenalty.

Yip one-timed a pass from the top of the left circle following a pass from Matt Gilroy (CAS’09), as Roy got a piece of the shot only to watch it trickle behind him. Chris Connolly (CGS’10) earned the secondary assist after knocking the puck to Gilroy at the right point from the right boards.

Under five minutes later, BU doubled its lead when Cohen executed a wrap-around following a give-and-go with Kevin Shattenkirk (CAS’11).

From center ice, Wilson found Cohen skating along the left sideright before he reached the blue line. After dropping the puck off toShattenkirk, Cohen kept his momentum and quickly received a return passbefore skating around the back of the net and tucking the puck insidethe right post at 6:32.

The Crusaders got a goal back at 15:10 when sophomore JordanCyr followed up a rebound. After Cyr’s initial shot from the slot wasstopped by Rollheiser, the puck dropped in front of the crease, wherejunior Brodie Sheahan stabbed at it before it could be covered up bythe netminder. As Rollheiser tried to gain his balance, Cyr spotted thepuck just above the left post and jammed it home.

After taking its 2-1 lead into the second intermission, BU founditself on the penalty kill at the 7:30 mark of the third aftera penalty on junior Eric Gryba (CAS’10).Just over a minute later, however, the Terriers drew two penaltieswithin four seconds of each other and were suddenly given a manadvantage of their own.

Following a blocked shot from the stick of Gilroy, Chris Higgins (CAS’09) gathered the puck and sent it up to David Warsofsky (CGS’10),who was in the middle of the slot. Warsofsky spotted Wilson all aloneat the bottom of the right circle, and Wilson beat Roy at 9:25for the Terriers’ second power-play goal of the night.

Gryba’s penalty expired just seconds after the goal, giving theTerriers another chance with the man advantage. However, the Crusadersturned the tables with a short-handed goal to get back within a goal at3-2.

Just as the Terriers were setting up their offense, Holy Crossintercepted the puck and sent it down the ice. Cyr raced to the puckbefore Rollheiser could get to it and was followed into the zone bysophomore Everett Sheen, who took a pass from Cyr on the inside portionof the left circle and converted at 9:48.

BU allowed the Crusaders to have two power plays in the final nineminutes of the game, including one with just 46 seconds left in regulationthat turned into a 6-on-4 advantage with an empty net, but the Terriersheld on for the win.

Saturday’s 7 p.m. game against St. Lawrence will be the last matchup for the Terriers before facing archrivals Boston College for a two-day,two-game series, at Agganis on Friday, December 5, at 7:30 p.m., and at BC’s ConteForum on Saturday, December 6, at 7 p.m.