BU 4, Icecats 2
In a battle of top-10 teams, third-ranked University of New Hampshire saw its Hockey East lead sliced to just four points as No. 6 Boston University erased an early deficit to take a 4-2 win before a capacity crowd of 6,501 at the Whittemore Center.
BU (17-5-8, 12-4-7) 0-2-2 -- 4
UNH (22-6-1, 17-4-1) 1-0-1 -- 2
GAME RECAP
Mike Radja got the Wildcats on the board 8:47 into the game, taking a feed all alone in the slot and firing past John Curry for his third power-play score in the last three games. The league's leading scorer now has 18 goals on the season.
Brandon Yip tied things with 12:10 to play in the second when the Terriers capitalized on a UNH turnover. Brad Flaishans and Joe Charlebois couldn't move the puck out from behind the UNH net, and subsequently lost it to Pete MacArthur along the left wall. He slung a pass to the front of the net, where Yip had the room to lift a backhander just under the crossbar.
BU then gained the lead on the shorthand when the puck jumped over Craig Switzer's stick at the offensive blue line and Luke Popko raced the other way with it before blasting a wrister past Regan. That goal came less than two minutes after Yip's.
Yip struck again early in the third, when he poked home a loose puck that sat in a pile without anyone else able to cover or clear it. Coming at 2:54, it opened a two-goal edge that remained a couple minutes later when Brett Hemingway's goal was disallowed because he kicked it in.
UNH got its second power play strike of the night with 5:20 to play in regulation, coming off some crisp passing that resulted in a Trevor Smith stuff of a doorstep feed from Matt Fornataro.
Sean Sullivan added the empty netter for BU in the final minute.
GAME NOTES
- As expected, Kevin Regan (UNH) and John Curry (BU) were in the nets, marking a matchup of the league's two best goalies in terms of save percentage.
- UNH outshot BU, 33-30, though each team took 25 shots over the final 40 minutes.
- UNH debuted its newest jersey, a different blue sweater. It's their fifth uniform, and fourth used this season.
- Hockey East's 2006 Rookie of the Year, Yip was in the lineup tonight for just the ninth time this season. BU has 32 goals in those games, and only 47 in the 21 other tilts.
- The Wildcats were 2-for-6 on the power play, the Terriers 0-for-3.
- With 11:15 to play in the second, Matt Fornataro tried to jump past Sean Sullivan, who clipped him instead and sent the junior wing crashing to the ground shoulder first. Fornataro lied there for a few seconds, causing a stoppage in play, but ultimately skated off under his own power, didn't leave the bench, and took his next shift.
- BU's Kevin Schaeffer retained his team's one-goal edge in the second, when Jerry Pollastrone's power-play blast caught Curry in the shoulders and floated toward the net. It took one bounce, and seemed ready to roll over the line, but Schaeffer -- who had lost his stick earlier -- dived toward it and swept it away with his glove.
- It looked as though UNH would take a power play into the third period, after BU's Matt Gilroy was whistled for an infraction with 14 seconds left in the second, but Jacob Micflikier slashed Curry in pursuit of the puck and was whistled for a minor just 11 seconds after Gilroy's.
- UNH defenseman Craig Switzer, with a minus-2 last night, is minus-5 in his last 12 games. He was a plus-20 over his first 17 tilts. Partner Brad Flaishans is minus-3 in that same span.
POST-GAME AUDIO
