Terriers go Garden-ing
Oettinger saves season as BU advances to Hockey East semis
Boston University entered the postseason knowing it would probably need to win the Hockey East championship to book a trip back to the NCAA tournament. The first hurdle was cleared last night, a 2-1 win against UConn at Agganis Arena giving the Terriers a two-game sweep in the conference quarterfinals.
The Terriers got 36 saves from Jake Oettinger and goals from freshmen Brady Tkachuk and Logan Cockerill to set up a semifinal meeting with rival (and Hockey East top seed) Boston College at 5 p.m. on Friday at the Garden.
Oettinger was a steadying presence in net for BU (1913-4), which was out-possessed all game and outshot 37-19 by a UConn team still without a tournament victory (0-8) in four seasons of conference play.
The only goal he surrendered was a second-period deflection by Huskies junior Max Kalter on a point shot through traffic, tying things 1-1. Otherwise, Oettinger was locked in, controlling rebounds and showing great reflexes on shots close to the net, where UConn (15-19-2) consistently found opportunities.
“When you give up one goal on 37 shots, your goalie’s pretty damn good,” said BU coach David Quinn, whose team was outshot 15-5 in the third. “And (Oettinger) was pretty damn good tonight, that’s for sure. I don’t need to watch the film to figure that out.”
Tkachuk opened the scoring with just four seconds left in the first period. A late penalty against UConn put the Terriers on the power play in the final 20 seconds of the period, and Tkachuk found the back of the net on an off-angle shot through traffic from below the right circle.
Cockerill’s winner at 16:52 of the second was set up by fellow freshman Shane Bowers, who forced a turnover at the blue line and found Cockerill all alone in front.
“(Shane) plays so fast. He’s got a quick stick, quick mind, quick feet, and they usually all work together,” Quinn said. “He makes a great pass to Cockerill on the winning goal, and Cockerill shows great poise and makes a heck of a play.”
UConn’s late third period surge was fueled by a series of BU icings, but Quinn was happy with the way his team buckled down.
“To me, we showed a lot of characteristics we’re going to need going forward,” he said. “You have to be able to compete. You have to be able to handle adversity. That stretch where we took about four icings and just had to battle and weather the storm, that’s a good sign.”