For the experience alone, this was a big game for our team but we also wanted to continue winning while working on getting even better against a long-time opponent. Red Hot Hockey a great test. You walk into a big venue with lots of distractions. How do you manage that? And, being in New York City, are you following your pregame routine, getting your food, getting your rest? It’s a tremendous challenge for the team and coaches. We had great support from a lot of alumni that showed up in New York City … it’s just awesome!
Our 6-4 win over Boston University was our third consecutive Red Hot Hockey victory at Madison Square Garden. We seem to have a pattern for freshmen scoring their first collegiate goal in this game. Seven minutes into the game, Freshman forward Kyler Kovich redirected a point shot from Junior defenseman Sebastian Dirven to make it 1-0. This was the fourth time in the last five games that a freshman scored their first goal at Madison Square Garden.
At the 10:30 mark, BU tied the score and the Terriers went ahead 2-1 at 13:00 of the opening stanza for their only lead of the game. It didn’t long for us to tie the game at 2-2, as Freshman forward Ondrej Psenicka converted a rebound. His 6-6 presence around the net is certainly noticed. Our final goal of the first period came at 18:29, with Senior forward Max Andreev scoring on the power play. The two teams combined for five goals in the final 13 minutes of the opening period.
Midway through the second period, Senior forward Brenden Locke scored an unassisted goal to give us our first two-goal lead, 4-2. The score remained that way until 1:48 was left in the second period when BU narrowed the gap to 4-3. At the 3:40 mark of the final period, Junior defenseman Sam Malinski scored a goal on a solo-rush that started in his own zone and would have made any highlight reel! At the 15:21 mark of the third period, Junior forward Ben Berard made it 6-3. BU finished the scoring with 57 seconds remaining.
Freshman Joe Howe started in goal after missing last weekend’s games due to injury. He made 26 saves while the BU goaltender stopped 23 shots. I thought Joe was a little shaky in the first period but he settled in. It was good to see a young goaltender on the big stage settle down. We were very happy with how our young players responded in the environment. We had confidence on the bench even though it was a back and forth game. Our special teams did a great job. We were 1-for-4 on the power play and BU was 0-for-5.
We finish the first semester on the road in the North Country on Friday night at St. Lawrence (3-6-4 overall, 2-2-2 ECAC) and at #19 Clarkson (8-4-3 overall, 3-2-1 ECAC) on Saturday. We are 8-1 overall, 5-1 in the conference and #1 in the ECAC standings. We moved into 9th position in the National Rankings in the USCHO poll. We would love to see your Big Red support on the road this weekend as we work hard to finish strong.
BOX SCORE | GAME RECAP | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Mike Schafer
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