BU men’s hockey got a quality win over Quinnipiac with third-period heroics

The teams delivered an instant classic for the 5,296 in attendance at Agganis Arena, with the Terriers rallying for a 3-2 win behind a pair of goals from sophomore Ryan Greene and 27 saves from Mathieu Caron .

After reaching the Frozen Four last spring, both squads struggled briefly at the beginning of this season. But the two had righted the ship in recent weeks, with Quinnipiac riding a five-game winning streak and seven-game unbeaten streak, while BU was 7-1-1 in its last nine games, the one blemish an overtime loss to No. 1 North Dakota.

The calendar indicated it was the night before Thanksgiving, but Wednesday’s men’s hockey game between Boston University and Quinnipiac had a distinct March/April feel to it.

“It’s big win for us, especially with it being a comeback,” said Greene. “It’s something we can build off of.”

Both entered the showdown ranked in the top five, with Quinnipiac, the defending national champion , coming in at No. 3 and BU at No. 5. They also held the top two spots in the Pairwise, with the Bobcats in first.

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Neither team scored in the first two periods. The Terriers killed off consecutive penalties in the first five minutes of the game to keep the Bobcats off the board, and Quinnipiac finished the game 0 for 5 on the power play.

“The penalty kill was great,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo. “[Associate head coach] Joe Pereira runs it, he made some adjustments, and at the end of the day [Caron] was there any time they had some quality chances. He was excellent tonight as well. Both goalies played well.”

Quinnipiac (9-4-1) broke through in the third period and jumped to a 2-0 lead on goals from Andon CerboneCharles Alexis Legault.

The Terriers (9-3-1) finally got on the board when Lane Hutson carried the puck in from the point and sent it in toward the goal, where Jeremy Wilmer was able to deflect it past former BU goalie Vinny Duplessis (25 saves) for his first goal of the season at 7:48.

“It was a really good play,” said Wilmer. “I feel like everyone on the ice touched it, and then Lane just finished it off and made a really good pass. I just sort of tapped it in.”

Quinnipiac was still hanging on to the 2-1 lead with less than five minutes remaining before BU scored the equalizer when Devin Kaplan gathered his own rebound and backhanded it to Greene, who flipped it in at 15:26.

The Terriers went on the power play after Quinnipiac’s Cooper Moore was whistled for interference at 17:09. One minute later, Greene struck again when he took a pass from Hutson at the point and fired a wrister past Duplessis, who was screened by 6-foot-5-inch freshman Shane Lachance. It was BU’s only power-play conversion in four attempts.

“They have a great penalty kill,” said Pandolfo. “They’ve had one of the best penalty kills in the country for a long time. We didn’t get much going the first few we had but we made an adjustment and found a way to get one at the end.”

Quinnipiac is now 9-4-1, with the four losses coming against Hockey East schools. The Bobcats split series with Maine and UNH, and lost to BC. The previous three losses were in OT, as Quinnipiac has gone 2-4 against Hockey East. It was Quinnipiac’s first loss in regulation since dropping a 3-2 decision last season on Jan. 21 against Colgate, a game the Bobcats also led, 2-0.

Next up for the Terriers is a trip to New York for a game with Cornell (4-3-1) at Madison Square Garden Saturday.

Weekend matchups

BC (9-2-1) will be in South Bend to take on Notre Dame (7-4-2) Friday, then returns home to play at Harvard Sunday at 1 p.m. The Eagles moved up to No. 2 in the polls behind North Dakota after sweeping UConn last weekend, and have looked impressive the first two months of the season.

“It’s just believing in one another, and sticking to our system,” said captain Eamon Powell. “It’s just playing a consistent 60 minutes. Keep piling on shifts, shift after shift. I think if everyone does their job and does their role well, I think we can make a really long push this year.”

Before they face the Eagles, Harvard (1-1-3) will host UMass Friday at 4:30 p.m. The Crimson had a bye last week after posting their most impressive performance of the young season when they traveled to Cornell to hand the Big Red a 3-2 loss. Coach Ted Donato will be going for his 300th win.

UMass (8-3-1) is coming off a sweep against Providence to move up to 11th in the rankings and will be making its first trip to Bright-Landry Hockey Center in 20 years. The Minutemen planned to travel to Harvard Thursday for a practice so the players could get acclimated to a different rink, and stay over in a nearby hotel.

“I wouldn’t want to drive in the day of,” said coach Greg Carvel. “It’s an early game. It screws up when you’re going to eat. [The players’] routine for the day would be really off, going into a building that most of the team has never been in before.”

Carvel had no new injuries to report, except for himself after he suffered a broken wrist when he was struck by a puck at Monday’s practice.