In a nutshell...
Lowell came to play. Who knows what BU came to do? The River
Hawks took a stunning 6-2 lead in the second period chasing
Terrier goalie Derek Herlofsky after Greg Bullock scored two
goals and three assists. After Chris O'Sullivan scored, David Mayes
tallied on a fluke bounce off his elbow past BU freshman Tom Noble
for the four-goal lead.
And so when Terrier Chris Drury took and interference penalty at 8:29 of
the second, The Hawks were poised to seal-up their first ever win
at BU's Brown Arena. There is a reason why that's never happened, as
the Terriers would quickly show.
Lowell defenMike Nicholishen was stripped of the puck at his own
blueline by BU's Shawn Bates, who walked in all alone on Lowell goalie
Martin Fillion, snapping the puck past his left skate for the
shorthanded goal cutting the lead to three. Moments later Bullock dished
to David Dartch for a point-blank stuff, but Noble beat him to the punch with his
left pad. Less than two minutes later, BU defenseman Jon Coleman
exploded down the left side and powered himself and the puck over and through
Fillion. It was now 6-4 Lowell, but the Hawks had lost the mo', their
legs, and the lead was quickly following.
BU tied the game at 6-6 before the second period was done. BU defenseman
(sorry forward) O'Sullivan scored on a short wrister from 15-feet out after
grabbing hold of a face-off scramble. He later missed an open-net on a breakaway,
but Mike Prendergast would tie it at 18:19 on a short backhand after bolting down
the right side.
Craig Lindsay came in to replace Fillion, but it was not enough.
O'Sullivan would tip-in a Bob Lachance shot to complete his hat trick, and
Jacques Joubert scored on the power play on a onetimer from the slot with
Mike Grier adding one for good measure barreling into the crease to
smash in a rebound for a 9-6 BU lead they would hold on to despite
Jeff Daw's late power play tally.
Quotables:
Lowell coach Bruce Crowder:
"Giving up the shorthanded goal when it was 6-2 was the momentum swinger.
We had been capitalizing and executing on the power play up until that
point, but the kid stripped the puck and he didn't make any mistakes.
The game was encouraging and discouraging, but we have a young team and we
don't always know how they're going to react."
"maybe we should have gone for the two-point conversion."
BU coach Jack Parker:
"We were absolutely horrendous. I can't remember any game I've coached
where we've taken so many stupid penalties. Our team was out of sync
from the opening faceoff. We could have easily lost this game 14-9.
Bates goal was the biggest of the game because it makes it 6-3 with
plenty of time left. Even of we don't tie it that period, we're still in the game.
"Maybe there's too much pressure on this team. We talk about needing to
be thorough in order to win, but it's not happening. We were fortunate to
win tonight."
BU goalie Tom Noble (first collegiate win):
"The team was real supportive of me when I came in the game and that made
it a lot easier. I think me coming in the game (1:54, second) put the
team in a different mindset."
Key stats:
Lowell 3 3 1- 7
BU 1 5 3- 9
Power plays: Lowell 4-11, BU 3-10
Goalies: Lowell, Fillion 32 shots- 26 saves. Lindsay (20:00 second) 10-7.
BU, Herlofsky 9-4, Noble 22-20.
Records with new fangled scoring system: Lowell (1-3-0, 1-1-0) 5 pts.
BU (2-0-1, 1-0-1) 8 pts.
Neil Goldberg, The Daily Free Press, BU
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