The BU Terriers dropped a hard fought 3-2 game to Notre Dame on Saturday in South Bend which meant the conclusion of their season. Notre Dame got out to a 1-0 lead off a Bryan Rust goal where he made a nice move to beat Matt O'Connor midway through the first. He got in on O'Connor after a blueline turnover by Ahti Oksanen. Notre Dame's captain and resident pest Jeff Costello beat Matt O'Connor 5 hole right at the conclusion of a ND powerplay to make it 2-0 in the second. It appeared O'Connor was screened on the shot. BU would get back in it on a great play by Evan Rodrigues who shoved his own rebound past ND goalie Steven Summerhayes to make it 2-1 going into the third. ND would extend the lead to 3-1 on a laser of a shot by Peter Schneider after he got a break up the right wing after a lofted puck bounced over Doyle Somerby's stick. BU would give themselves a chance when Robbie "Carrots" Baillargeon scored on the powerplay with a little over 5 left in the third. BU got the powerplay opportunity after ND goon Stephen Johns ran Garrett Noonan from behind. He was called for charging but should have been tossed in my opinion. He should have been called for charging, interference, hitting from behind, and boarding yet he was only given a two minute minor penalty. BU captalized on the ensuing powerplay but couldn't get the equalizer and finished the season 10-21-4. The effort was there once again but a few costly mistakes ended up costing them a chance to move on to the QF round of the Hockey East Tournament.
It is certainly never fun when your season ends with anything less than a NCAA championship trophy but there were certainly plenty of positives to this season. The younger players gained invaluable experience due to the lack of depth on the roster and the team still beat some very good teams. The 2013-2014 BU Terriers had 70% of their wins come against teams in the top 15 of the pairwise rankings. This team battled night in and night out and certainly left fans nothing to complain about when it came to effort. This season will be a building stone for the future as the players and coaches seemed to only get better as the season progressed.
The Terriers now head to the offseason looking to rebound from this season and get back to the NCAA tournament next season. The four seniors leaving will leave holes in the lineup especially the captains Garrett Noonan and Patrick MacGregor both who will be missed in the defensive corps that will be very young next year. They both will be missed as leaders as well. BU has been blessed with fantastic captains throughout history but especially these past two season. Wade Megan was everything you wanted in a captain last season and I believe Noonan and Macgregor were on that level as a captain duo this past season. It was a difficult year to be a senior on this team but they never gave anything but 100% for this team and set a great example for the young guys moving forward. We will be following what we did last year and doing our own version of Senior Week this week with each of the four senior getting their own post as they deserve.
We will be looking ahead to the 2014-2015 season throughout the summer but a few quick notes are that BU will return 87% of their points from this past season to the team next year(barring any early departures). They will also return all 3 goaltenders from this year's squad as well as welcoming in a 9-10 member freshman class. Things are certainly looking bright for the program moving forward especially as the coaching staff has it's first full summer to recruit and oversee an offseason program. This should be critical to players improving and making a jump next season.
We would also like to take the time to thank everyone who reads the blog throughout the season. We appreciate the support and if there is anything we can do better, we certainly will consider all suggestions.
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