To Boston University, Maine goaltender Ben Bishop might have seemed more like the Riddle of the Sphinx than a 6-foot-7 duffle bag. He was nearly impossible to solve for more than 120 minutes of play over this weekend’s two-game series.
The fact that the Terriers were able to finally solve him, barely, earned them two overtime victories on the weekend, Saturday’s coming thanks to a goal from rookie Colin Wilson, who buried the game-winning goal with 1:30 remaining in overtime to break a scoreless tie as BU earned a 1-0 victory.
Bishop finished the weekend with 68 saves, 37 coming on Saturday, but the three goals allowed were too many for a Maine team that is struggling to put the puck in the net.
“Our goalie was our best player tonight by far,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get a goal for him.”
The lone tally came off of a designed offensive zone faceoff play. Wilson won the draw back to Brandon Yip, who was stationed at the top of the faceoff circle. Yip put a low, hard wrist shot on net that Bishop handled.
Wilson, though, was crashing the net, waiting for the rebound. With little room to shoot, he roofed the puck just under the crossbar to send the crowd of 5,216 at BU’s Agganis Arena home happy.
“I just got to the net; Yip was going to get that shot on the faceoff play and I just took a whack at it,” said Wilson, who admitted that he didn’t pick the fortunate location of his shot intentionally. “It just would up going up top, so it worked out for me.”
Terriers’ goaltender Brett Bennett wasn’t tested nearly as much as his counterpart, but his 17-save performance was enough to earn him his first career shutout.
BU carried the play from the get go, despite deceptive shot totals early on. The Terriers had only a 10-9 advantage on the shot chart through one, though quality chances were lopsided in their favor. BU had seven grade ‘A’ attempts to Maine’s one.
The best chance came from the stick of Chris Higgins at 9:28. Bryan ‘Boomer’ Ewing sent a cross-ice feed to Higgins, who was stonewalled by Bishop, who followed the play perfectly to make the stop.
In the second, the Terriers dominated territorially, outshooting Maine, 15-2, but still couldn’t solve Bishop. The closest they came was yet another Higgins bid. He cut through the slot and deked the 6-foot-7 netminder, but misfired on the shot with a wide open net, pushing it just wide.
Neither team mustered much offensively early in the third, but as the period neared its end, each club had glaring chances to end it.
BU’s Bobby Weston was stopped point blank with 2:45 left and Higgins, seconds later, fired a shot from in close that forced Bishop to make a tough right pad stop.
In the final minute, it was Maine’s turn, as Keenan Hopson was left alone in the slot. His shot with 40 seconds to play sailed over the crossbar, sending the game to overtime.
The Terriers controlled the extra session, registering the only four shots.
The win is the fourth in a row for the Terriers and fifth in six games. BU is 7-2-2 in its last 11 league games and has almost miraculously climbed back near the top of the Hockey East standings after a rough 3-6-1 start.
Maine’s current fate is the polar opposite. The Black Bears have now lost seven in a row and, thanks to a 3-2 win by Massachusetts over Northeastern on Saturday, now sit six points behind the Minutemen for the final playoff spot in Hockey East.
To say that it’s desperation time is an understatement.
“It’s been playoff time for a while,” said Whitehead, noting that he was encourage by his team’s improved performance on Saturday, regardless of the outcome. “We’re six points back [of UMass] so we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’ve got to stay determined and control what we can control, which is our execution.
“We’ve got UMass coming into our rink for two next weekend, so we’ve got an opportunity to gain some ground, so we’re looking forward to that challenge.”
