Knocked Off Their Feet

For just the eighth time in 255 meetings between Boston College and Boston University, the Terriers shut out the Eagles, 5-0, on Sunday at Kelley Rink. The story of the game was special teams, as BU capitalized on its man advantage opportunities, while BC did not.

"They just played better than we did," head coach Jerry York said. "As a team, we weren't as sharp as we'd like to be and weren't as thorough as we'd like to be. BU outworked us, they worked harder than we did. Their special teams were just much better than we were tonight."

Corey Trivino got the scoring going for the Terriers just 54 seconds into the game. The BC defense was caught with just one defenseman back in its own zone, and Trivino slipped through to put the puck into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.

Following Trivino's goal, the Eagles had three straight power plays on which they failed to score, despite creating solid scoring chances.

"They scored early, and then we had three successive power plays, and that was our chance to get back in the contest," York said.

The Terriers took advantage of a power play at the end of the first period, as Wade Megan camped outside the crease waiting to receive the puck. Once he did, he chipped it over Parker Milner's left shoulder, and the puck trickled down Milner's back and across the goal line.

"I thought we were in a small hole, because there's still two-thirds of the game left to play, and we're capable of scoring goals," said York of his feeling after the first period. "So we just wanted to play better and come out and attack, attack, attack. We never got it started."

The Eagles began the second period on a power play, nearly cutting the deficit in half multiple times, but came up empty on the man advantage.

Midway through the period, the Terriers once again took advantage of BC penalties. BU began a five-on-three power play, and less than a minute later, it took a 3-0 lead on a goal by Alex Chiasson.

Before the second frame ended, BU stretched its lead to 4-0, when Charlie Coyle sent a pass from behind the net to Matt Nieto, who one-timed the puck past Milner's stick side.

BU's final goal in the third period summed up the essence of the Eagles' performance throughout the entire game. On yet another BC power play, Megan intercepted a sloppy pass in his own zone and flew down the ice before blasting the puck between the pipes for the 5-0 lead. The shorthanded tally was the icing on the cake for the Terriers, and the nail in the coffin for the Eagles.

BC went 0-for-7 on the power play, which came back to bite the Eagles, especially considering the strength of BU's special teams on the night.

It was also a typical BC-BU game, with physical play and 10 penalties for hitting after the whistle. In all, there were 28 penalties committed between the two teams.

Despite the poor result, York said he hoped the game would provide a wake-up call for his team going forward.

"Sometimes, it's not bad to get hit right in the nose," York said. "You lose tight games once in a while, and no one likes to lose. But sometimes you get hit square in the jaw like tonight. You can benefit from it. We'll use it as a pretty good motivating force for us to get better here. We've been riding along pretty well on a wave here, and all of a sudden, bang. So you've got to get up off the mat and play better."