The BU Terriers won the HE Championship and are going to raise
the banner on opening night at Walter Brown Arena before a game
against the Maine Black Bears. The Terriers have a large
senior class and have been picked by the HE coaches to win the
league this season. The Terriers have also been picked by
pollsters around the country as the #1 team in the nation. The
Terriers are opening the season late, on the last weekend in
October. The rest of the league teams have already played
several games while BU has yet to play a game.
Finally game time arrives. There is a great crowd to see the
Terriers raise the Banner and start the defense of their title.
Everything goes according to plan, until the game starts. The
Black Bears take control of the game and lead 2-1 after one
period. They score again in the second period and lead 3-1
after two periods. Sunday night's game? No, it was the
BU-Maine game on 31 October 1986, and the Black Bears held on
for a 3-2 win. The Terriers never got it together that year
and stumbled to a 19-15-3 record, a 4th place finish in HE, and
a first round loss to NU.
Flash forward to 30 October 1994. The Black Bears lead the
Terriers 3-1 after two periods. This time BU gets two quick
powerplay goals to tie the game at 3-3, but can not get the go
ahead goal. The game ends in a tie and goes to the shoot-out
which BU wins 3-0. Instead of a disappointing loss or tie, BU
gets an exciting and upbeat shoot-out 'win' and 2 points. I
hope this is a good sign and this year's team has a better
season than the 1986-87 team.
The highlight of the evening was the return of J.P. McKersie to
the ice, as he helped raise the Hockey East banner. He
received a long and loud standing ovation by the sellout crowd
at Walter Brown Arena. Whether he ever plays hockey again he
has made a remarkable recovery from his injuries.
As for the game itself, BU started the first period well, but
as the penalties mounted they lost their offense and became
tired on defense. Maine looked like a decent team, but not
anything like the last several years. Jacques Joubert opened
the scoring at 5:54 of the first, on some good passing by Bob
Lachance and Ken Rausch. Maine got on the board when Jacque
Rodrigue scored on a powerplay at 9:02. Maine took the lead on
a 5-on-3 powerplay goal by Dan Shermerhorn at 13:21.
The second period was rather lackluster, until Maine went up
3-1 on their third powerplay goal, scored by Shawn Wansborough
at 14:07. Just after the goal was scored Wansborough was
knocked over Derek Herlofsky by Rich Brennan and Rich's stick
got under Derek's mask, causing it to come off. Derek was all
right, but the game was stopped for a few minutes while he was
checked out by the BU trainer. This was the turning point of
the game as BU got fired up and outplayed Maine the rest of the
second period and all of the third. This was reflected in the
seven penalties Maine took from that point on, including two
late in the second giving BU a 5-on-3 that carried over to the
third period.
The third period opened with a resurgent BU team setting up on
the 5-on-3 powerplay and getting a goal at 0:57 by Bob
Lachance. On the ensuing center ice face-off, BU won the puck
and Chris O'Sullivan rushed down the right side with Mike Grier
on the left side. As Chris attempted to cut in front of the
net he lost control of the puck, which ended up on Mike's stick
and then in the net at 1:10 tying the game 3-3. BU had 4 more
powerplays in the third, but were unable to get another goal.
Maine almost got the game winner when Herlofsky went for a
stroll out to the top of the right face-off circle (his left)
with about 50 seconds left and attempted to clear the puck out
of the zone. Instead it deflected off of a hard charging Brad
Purdie and missed going into the empty net by a few inches.
Maine played better in the overtime and got the only to shots
on goal during the 5 minute period, but did not score. The
shoot-out had Maine, as the visitor, go first. Barry Clukey
skated in on goal slightly to the left of center and Derek
stopped his attempt. Jacques then went for BU skating straight
in on Blair Allison, before cutting to the right and shooting
the puck into the net between the post and Blair's skate. Next
Maine's Scott Parmentier skated out to the right face-off
circle and back in on Derek, who stopped his attempt. Mike
Prendergast went next for BU and skated straight down the
middle, put a little fake on Blair, and shot the puck through
the five hole.
Tim Lovell went next for Maine, and he also skated out to the
right face-off circle then he cut across the front of the net
before shooting, but Derek again made the save. Ken Rausch
then had a chance to win it for BU, which he did, skating in on
Blair and going up over his shoulder into the top of the net.
Random observations: BU took too many poor penalties and it
nearly cost them. They will need to play more intelligent
hockey in the future if they want to win Hockey East this year.
They also need to work on their powerplay, as it was not very
good in their first two games. It appears that special teams
are going to be *very* important at least in the early going
this year. I do not like the shoot-out personally, but I think
it is much more exciting than a tie. It also gives the fans a
'winner' and a 'loser' for the game. It looked to me that
Maine will be playing 'ugly' hockey this year, instead of the
'pretty' hockey they have played the past several years.
On the injury front, Jay Pandolfo is still out with a stomach
muscle pull. He may not be able to play until the games versus
Northeastern.
BU Roster
1 Shawn Ferullo, G; 2 Kaj Linna, D; 3 Chris O'Sullivan, W; 4
Chris Kelleher, D; 5 Doug Wood, D; 7 Rich Brennan, D; 8 Bill
Pierce, W; 9 Shawn Bates, C; 11 Bob Lachance, W; 12 Mike Grier,
W; 15 Mike Sylvia, F; 16 Ken Rausch, W; 18 Chris Drury, F; 19
Steve Thornton, C; 21 Mike Prendergast, W; 22 Matt Wright, W;
24 Jacques Joubert, C; 26 Jon Coleman, D; 27 Shane Johnson, D;
30 Tom Noble, G; 35 Derek Herlofsky, G
Maine Roster
2 Jason Dekker, D; 3 Jeff Tory, D; 4 Chris Imes, D; 5 Jacque
Rodrigue, D; 7 Jason Mansoff, D; 9 Shawn Wansborough, F; 11
Barry Clukey, C; 12 Wayne Conlan, F; 13 Dave MacIsaac, D; 15
Jamie Thompson, F; 16 Reg Cardinal, F; 17 Scott Parmentier, F;
20 Brad Purdie, C; 21 Dan Shermerhorn, F; 22 Tony Frenette, F;
27 Tim Lovell, F; 29 Brad Mahoney, F; 33 Greg Hirsch, G; 35
Blair Allison, G; 37 Blair Marsh, G; 40 Trevor Roenick, F
Box Score
Goals
Maine 2 1 0 0 - 3
BU 1 0 2 0 - 3
Shots
Maine 9 7 5 2 - 23
BU 7 8 9 0 - 24
Saves: Maine - Allison 6 8 7 0 - 21 of 24 0.875%
BU - Herlofsky 7 6 5 2 - 20 of 23 0.870%
Power Plays: Maine - 3 for 8 .375%
BU - 2 for 11 .182%
Penalties: Maine - 11 for 22 minutes
BU - 8 for 19 minutes
Game Summary:
1st Period
5:54 BU - Jacques Joubert (Bob Lachance, Ken Rausch); 9:02 M -
Jacque Rodrigue (Scott Parmentier) ppg; 13:21 M - Dan
Shermerhorn (Chris Imes, Jeff Tory) ppg Penalties 1:47 BU -
Doug Wood (2 min - holding); 3:41 M - Shermerhorn (2
min - cross-checking); 7:21 BU - Shawn Bates (2 min -
interference); 9:26 M - Barry Clukey (2 min - interference);
10:26 BU - Rich Brennan (2 min - tripping); 10:56 BU - Joubert
(5 min - hitting from behind); 12:54 BU - Bates (2 min -
interference)
2nd Period
14:07 M - Shawn Wansborough (Imes, Tory) ppg
Penalties
1:37 BU - Kaj Linna (2 min - interference); 3:50 M - Trevor
Roenick (2 min - high sticking); 6:04 M - Jason Dekker (2 min -
holding); 10:58 BU - Brennan (2 min - holding); 12:49 BU - Jon
Coleman (2 min - cross-checking); 14:56 M - Jamie Thompson (2
min - charging); 19:07 M - Dave MacIsaac (2 min - hooking);
19:14 M - Jason Mansoff (2 min - cross-checking)
3rd Period
0:57 BU - Lachance (Brennan, Joubert) ppg; 1:10 BU - Mike Grier
(Chris O'Sullivan) ppg
Penalties
3:10 M - Rodrigue (2 min - hooking); 5:33 M - Brad Mahoney (2
min - interference); 11:00 M - Roenick (2 min - hitting from
behind); 15:51 M - MacIsaac (2 min - roughing)
Referees - Tim Benedetto, John Gravallese Linesman - Bill
Jones
Attendance: 3806
Points:
Maine
Chris Imes (2a), Jeff Tory (2a), Jacque Rodrigue (1g), Dan
Shermerhorn (1g), Shawn Wansborough (1g), Scott Parmentier (1a)
BU
Jacques Joubert (1g, 1a), Bob Lachance (1g, 1a), Mike Grier
(1g), Chris O'Sullivan (1a), Ken Rausch (1a), Rich Brennan (1a)
All information is unofficial and may be wrong.
Sean Pickett - Go BU Terriers, 1994 Hockey East
Champions!
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