BU 3, Maine 2 (OT) (men)

 

The No. 14- ranked Boston University men's ice hockey team needed overtime to do it, but swept the No. 19 Maine Black Bears with a 3-2 overtime thriller last night. 

Maine jumped out to an early, 2-0, lead and held the advantage through most of the game. The Terrier's Tynan Lawrence scored twice in the third period, first on a power play and then even strength, to force the OT. Freshman Caleb Malhotra found the back of the net 1:35 minutes into the overtime period to give BU the win and the weekend sweep. Goaltender Mikhail Yegorov made 34 saves in the net.

For those of you keeping score at home, that's three straight wins for the Terriers and fourth of their last five games.

BU improves to 6-2-0 overall and 4-2-0 in Hockey East. The Terriers lead the conference with 11 points, two ahead of second-place Vermont and eight ahead of sixth-place Boston College. To be fair (to Vermont, not BC because fuck those guys), BU's 11 points are largely due to the fact that they've played more conference games, six, than Vermont (four) or BC (two).

The real test comes next weekend when the Terriers skate over to East Lansing, Michigan for two games against the No. 4-ranked Michigan State Spartans (4-1-0). As if that wasn't enough of a challenge, three nights later they play Harvard (1-1) back on home ice. To those of you unfamiliar with the quirks of college hockey and are dismissive of Ivy League sports teams, Harvard has won the Beanpot championship ten times, were the ECAC (BU's former conference) champions nine times, and were national champions in 1989. Granted, 1989 was a long-ass time ago, but the point is the Crimson team is not to be taken lightly, especially three nights after getting manhandled in Michigan.