Maine forward Steven Swavely (#11) battles a BU Terrier in a previous game between the Black Bears and BU. Friday night, the two teams would renew their rivalry and face-off for the first time this season. Photo courtesy of Black Bear athletics.
ORONO- The Boston University Terriers hockey team skated into Alfond Arena Friday night and despite a good Maine Black Bear effort, skated out with a 5-2 Hockey East victory in front of 4,474 fans.
The Black Bears had a strong start outshooting the Terriers 15-13 in the opening period but a goal just over 14 minutes in by Matt Grzelcyk gave BU the lead at 1-0.
4:18 into the middle period the Terriers struck again on a goal from Ahti Oksanen to make it 2-0. Maine was able to respond on a powerplay a little less than 2 minutes later as Cam Brown scored on assists from Steven Swavely and Blaine Byron to cut the lead down to 2-1.
A little less than 6 minutes later though, Mike Moran increased the Terrier lead back to a pair to make it 3-1.
Less than a minute into the third period, Jacob Forsbacka Karlsson put the game away with another Terrier goal to make it 4-1. Maine got another powerplay goal, this time from Byron with a little less than 3 minutes left to make it 4-2, but Oksanen scored 24 seconds later for his second of the night to thwart any thoughts of a Maine comeback.
The shots on goal were 34-34 for the game. Sean McGuire made several grade A stops in earning the victory for BU with his 32 saves. Matt Morris had 29 stops for the Bears. Maine had good success on special teams going 2 for 3 on the powerplay and shutting down the Terrier powerplay that went 0 for 4.
Maine is now 5-14-6 on the season and 2-7-2 in Hockey East. Boston University improves to 12-7-4 and 6-4-3 in league play. Maine will now travel to Commonwealth Avenue in Boston for the series finale at Agannis Arena Saturday night. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
