By Marisa Ingemi
BU News Service
Three blown leads gave the Boston University Terriers their first tie of the season, but despite the “one” now in the tie column, it sure felt like it belonged in the loss column.
BU held a 2-1 lead heading into the third period over Northeastern and took two more leads before surrendering the game tying goal with :56 left on the clock to complete the 4-4 score.
“Their third goal was just sloppiness going for the big hit on the initial rush,” said BU head coach David Quinn. “We just gotta grow up and that’s asking an awful lot of a team that’s littered with 18 and 19 year olds. We’re gonna have to be patient. I’m certainly going to have to be patient.”
A shot from freshman defender Ryan Shea got deflected past 17-year-old goalie Jake Oettinger by Zach Aston-Reese for their fourth tally of the night with less than a minute left. BU had just taken a 4-3 lead just moments before with Clayton Keller’s second goal of the contest.
Keller got the Terriers on the board early in the first period when he got the puck off a turnover just moments after BU surrendered its first power play goal in 23 attempts. Northeastern scored on a 5-on-3 when defender Garrett Cockerill was able to break Oettinger’s shutout streak of over 130 minutes. Keller scored just moments after that faceoff.
Patrick Curry finally tallied the first goal of his collegiate career later on in the period to give the Terriers a 2-1 advantage. Curry was the first third liner to score other than Nick Roberto on the season.
With a 2-1 lead heading into the third period, the Huskies got on the board to tie it quickly. Jordan Greenway, who now has six points in his last three contests, tipped a shot from Brandon Hickey to take the lead.
Greenway took one of his three penalties on the night immediately after scoring when he taunted the Huskies bench and was pushed by Shea. That penalty led to the Huskies knotting the game at three, before Keller had scored his go-ahead goal.
“I think there’s definitely building blocks,” BU captain Doyle Somerby said. “I thought there was a couple mistakes we really don’t make that they capitalized on.
“Just a lot of mental lapses.”
The Terriers end up with the tie after killing a penalty in overtime where Oettinger was forced to make six saves.
“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight,” Quinn said. “I thought we played a good pace, I thought we were physical, we moved the puck well.”
Tonight, BU will face the Huskies in the rematch.
“There’s a lot I like about our team,” Quinn said. “But we’re not there yet. Not there yet, but I like the direction we’re going.”
