The Terriers of Boston University and Catamounts of Vermont split a weekend series at Agganis Arena. BU took the opener Friday night behind a Matt Nieto natural hat trick and 49 saves from freshman goalie Sean Maguire. Nieto scored 3 goals in a row after Vermont opened the scoring with 1:33 left in the first. Nieto matched it 68 seconds later and then went on to score a goal in the second and finished off the hat trick early in the third. The Terriers were solid defensively despite giving up 50 shots. A majority of the chances were from the perimeter and Maguire made numerous easy stick saves. This was the type of effort the team needed as they won their second in a row after beating Merrimack on Tuesday night. I thought particularly, Ryan Ruikka and Pat MacGregor stepped up defensively for the Terriers and supported Maguire well. To watch the magic that was Nieto's hat trick, enjoy the highlights below.
Saturday night was a different story as the Terriers failed to have the same spark as the night before and found themselves in a quick 2-0 hole. Maguire was pressed into duty for a second straight night as goalie Matt O'Connor (unknown at the time) had suffered a collapsed lung. O'Connor will be out indefinitely per a team source this afternoon and remains in the hospital. UVM's first goal was a short handed breakaway after the puck jumped over Evan Rodrigues' stick at the point. The second goal came from an off angle shot that somehow found it's way through Maguire's pads. The Terriers made it 2-1 on a Nieto goal(his 6th in a row for the Terriers) but gave up another goal on the first shift of the second to quickly give UVM it's two goal lead back. The Terriers would make it 3-2 but never get closer than that as UVM tacked on another breakaway goal and an empty netter to win 5-2. The loss leaves the Terriers sitting 5th in the conference and eliminates them from any chance of winning the regular season conference title. They can still finish as high as 2nd however and have plenty to play for this last weekend to gain an NCAA at-large berth.
The Terriers take on Northeastern next weekend who has already been eliminated from the conference playoffs and have nothing to play for. Well nothing besides ruining BU's season and gooning it up. It should be an interesting weekend to say the least and hopefully BU can stay focused and take care of business on the ice. Can't wait to say bye to Vinny Saponari at Agganis where it all started on October 10th,2008 against North Dakota and will end Saturday night.
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