Chestnut Hill, MA– Boston University and Boston College have played 278 times entering Saturday night. They have written different chapters in those times, ranging from Beanpot thrillers, to complete blowouts, to a National Championship game. But since 1918, no game had ever ended in a scoreless tie. Then the teams met at Conte Forum on Saturday night and battled to that score.
The Eagles dominated the majority of the night. They controlled a clean yet physical first period on the shot counter 16-10 and thoroughly dominated an ugly second period 14-5. That frame saw six different penalties with a plethora of power play chances. Jake Oettinger did yeoman’s work to keep his team afloat on enemy territory infront of a close-to-capacity and loud Conte Forum.
BU tilted the balance in their favor for the third period but barely made a dent. They outshot BC 10-9 and made Joseph Woll work, but he continued his excellent play against BU, stopping 64 of 65 shots faced against the Terriers over two days.
BC had the better chances for much of overtime, winning the shot total 3-1. That only BU shot, though, came in the final seconds. Woll kept BU at bay, and for the first scoreless tie in the Green Line Rivalry’s history.
Eagles Head Coach Jerry York offered high praise to both teams.
“That’s a terrific weekend of college hockey,’ York said. “A lot of good players on both sides. And as I said last night, our records are deceiving. As the winter progresses, I think there’s gonna be an ascent. There’s a lot of excitement in both buildings. Tonight, Joe (Woll) was solid, as was Oettinger. Two of the premier goaltenders in the country.”
BC improves to 4-6-2 overall and 4-1-2 in Hockey East. The Eagles have one more conference matchup before sitting for exams. They’ll face the Connecticut Huskies at the XL Center in Hartford on Thursday, December 6th, and back home at Conte Forum on Friday, December 7th, to conclude the first semester. Puck is scheduled for 7 pm both nights.
Terrier Head Coach Albie O’Connell spoke well of his team’s effort, particularly Jake Oettinger.
“For not a lot of goals, it was a really entertaining game,” O’Connell said. “Our goalie stood really tall. He was our Number One star. It was good to see he can go into a hostiel building and play a really good game. We were worried about it as a staff, energy wise, guys played a lot of minutes and were pretty gassed. I think the travel coming back from Ireland really caught up with us. In the third period, we really woke up. No one likes to tie, but we were really happy with the effort.”
BU gains a point and rises to 4-7-2 overall and 4-4-2 in Hockey East. The Terriers play a home-and-home against UMass Lowell next weekend. Puck drop at Agganis Arena on Friday is at 7:30 pm while the Saturday game drops at 7 pm at the Tsongas Center.
