Friday, February 5, 1993
Hockey East league game at Walter Brown Arena, Boston, Mass.
 
New Hampshire (12-11-2, 7-7-1 HE 3rd)      0  -  0  -  0  --  0
Boston University (18-5-2, 11-4-1 HE 2nd)  2  -  2  -  0  --  4
 
Scoring:                                                           UNH-BU
first period:
 
1. BU, Sacco 15 (Pomichter, O'Sullivan) 8:37                         0-1
2. BU, Pratt 7  (Jenkins)              10:07                         0-2
 
second period:
 
3. BU, Donato 2 (Sacco)                 6:02                         0-3
4. BU, Wood  3  (unassisted)            7:17                         0-4
 
third period:
 
no scoring.
 
Shots/saves:  UNH 18 shots, BU Derek Herlofsky 18 saves.
              BU  41 shots, UNH Brett Abel 37 saves.
 
Referees: Frank Cole, Drew Taylor.
Linesman: Benendetto.
Attendance:  2,825
 
Summary:
        The opening faceoff of the game led to the best opportunity UNH
would have all night as BU dominated the following 59 minutes of play
and rolled to a 4-0 win over the Wildcats in Boston.
        UNH won the opening face-off of the game and immediately
Greg Klym and Eric Royal came in on BU goalie Derek Herlofsky, and Royal's
shot came right back out, but Klym missed the net as Herlofsky was out
of position and BU narrowly avoided giving the Wildcats a very quick 1-0
lead.
        It was all BU from there, as UNH was unable to generate any
further offense...at all! The shots tell the entire story, as BU outshot
the Wildcats by better than a 2-1 margin. Later into the first period,
UNH suffered a lapse on defense, as Dave Sacco notched his 15th at 8:37
and Jon Pratt tallied his 7th of the year less than 2 minutes later to
give BU a 2-0 snappy 2-0 lead.  Sacco took a nice feed from Mike Pomichter
in the slot, walked in and faked UNH goalie Bret Abel, then wheeled around
and flipped the puck up into the net on a beautiful play. Jon Pratt
took the puck on the near boards from Jon Jenkins and pulled right in
the slot, beating Abel with wrister on his glove side.
        With about 8 minutes left, UNH's Eric Royal left the game with
a leg injury, leaving the Wildcats with a little less steam. The first
penalties of the game came with about 4 minutes left, but neither team
mustered any quality chances. UNH's penalty killing was satisfactory
early on, but in subsequent disadvantages later in the game it was just
plain awful. Bret Abel deserves credit for standing tall with 37 saves,
enduring most of the game with little defense to protect him.
        The next two goals were both scored by defensemen, an impressive
feat considering that D Kaj Linna with 1-19-20 was out following an injury
in last Wednesday's UMass-Lowell game.
        At 6:02 Dan Donato tallied his second of the season when he took
a pass from Dave Sacco and flipped it over the sprawling Bret Abel
for a 3-0 lead. Just over a minute later at 7:17, freshman Doug Wood's
slapshot from the left point sailed in when Abel was screened for his
3rd of the season and a commanding 4-0 lead.
        UNH did try to fire things up with a power play at 15:00, but
again careless mistakes by the UNH defense made the Wildcats pretty much
kill the penalty themselves.
        The third period was pretty evenly played, 9-9 in shots as
BU slowed down a bit. Bret Abel and Derek Herlofsky, with his 2nd season
shutout, both looked impressive. With just under 10:00 left UNH's Sean
Perry camped out on the blue line and took a long pass, breaking in
all alone, but Herlofsky made a nice butterfly save to preserve the
shutout bid.
        I'm having a difficult time describing how each team played,
so I'll put it this way: BU played well--they moved the puck well,
and I noticed Herlofsky was making more of an effort to fire the puck
up to the neutral zone rather than dump it behind the net, which
sparked several quick breaks by the Terriers. UNH seemed hampered by
the overall lack of intensity offensively, then the subsequent collapse
on defense. Unlike the game at Snively last month, UNH did almost zero
forechecking. They have some speed in Kevin Thomson and Jason Dexter
as well as good passing, but I saw precious little of either tonight.
The UNH defense clutters up the slot--leaving lots of open space everywhere
else. Again, Bret Abel deserves more credit than he'll probably get. He
made some great saves in a valiant effort to keep UNH alive, particularly
in the the third period.
        BU's defense looked suprisingly solid without the leadership
of Kaj Linna, but Kevin O'Sullivan has proved he's capable of putting
forth the extra effort. Frosh walk-on Doug Wood has made good progress
since the beginning of the season, and as of late has seen much more playing
time since Chris O'Sullivan's injury.
        This was a big win for the Terriers, proving they were not looking
ahead to the Beanpot matchup with Harvard, and a confidence builder for
Derek Herlofsky in the shutout (2 weeks ago Herlofsky gave up 3 goals in
3rd period to UNH as the Wildcats came back from a 2 goal defecit to win
6-4).
        BU takes on Harvard Monday night at 8:00 in the battle for
the Beanpot Trophy at Boston Garden, while UNH visits Merrimack
to round out its weekend.
 
Sid
BU '94