Vermont Topples Boston University, 7-3

Six different players scored for Vermont as the team rolled over Boston University with a decisive 7-3 victory in Hockey East action at Gutterson Fieldhouse Friday night.

Junior Josh Burrows scored two goals and freshman Tobias Nilsson-Roos, senior Brayden Irwin, junior Brett Leonard, senior co-captain Brian Roloff, and sophomore Drew MacKenzie also scored.

Senior Zach Cohen, sophomore David Warsofsky and sophomore Vinny Saponari scored the goals for BU.

“Tonight we got back in the win column and they were rewarded for 60 minutes of unbelievable hockey,” Vermont head coach Kevin Sneddon said. “ I thought our forecheck was great, there was really very few mistakes or weaknesses in our game tonight, obviously playing against a very talented team in BU I thought we did a good job of pressuring them.”

“The focus, the speed, the attention to detail, the physical play from the team in black as opposed to the team in white was like night and day,” Boston University head coach Jack Parker said. “ We weren’t ready to play, we masked it at times during the course of the game but in general, they out-fought us for every puck.”

“We both needed it badly, they got it because they wanted it,” Parker said. “We may have needed it but we didn’t want it that bad and I was very disappointed in my team.”

The scoring started early for the Catamounts as Burrows kicked things off at 4:22. Freshman Chris McCarthy fired a hard shot that bounced off the left post, bouncing right to a waiting Burrows who knocked it in, giving Vermont a 1-0 lead.

Irwin increased the lead for the Catamounts at 11:00. He got the puck at the very edge of the crease, got control and maneuvered it around sophomore goalie Kieran Millan.

The Terriers made some noise of their own soon after at 13:44 when Cohen scored, picking up a rebound and sliding it in, getting a goal back for the Terriers.

The Catamounts were not quite finished in the opening period though, adding another goal at 17:20. Roloff took a shot that bounced off of Millan. Nilsson-Roos was there to collect the rebound and fire it into the back of the net, giving Vermont a 3-1 advantage that it would carry into the second period.

The Catamounts came out firing once again in the second period, with Leonard scoring at 2:05. It looked as though Millan had the puck safely in his glove but it came loose and ended up in the back of the net, giving Vermont a 4-1 lead.

Boston University got one back at 5:35 on the power play when Warsofsky fired a hard shot from the slot and got it past Madore.

Any momentum that the Terriers may have been able to gain from Warsofsky’s goal was lost at 15:55 when Roloff scored, carrying the puck around from behind the net and getting it over the line.

The shots taken in the first period were an even 13-13. This completely changed in the second as Vermont outshot the Terriers 21-2.

The final period of the game started out with a slashing penalty for Irwin at 51 seconds. Though Vermont was able to clear the puck out of the zone a few times and temporarily avoid damage, the Terrier’s wouldn’t let it last, scoring at 2:32 when Saponari fired the puck past Madore from the left side.

When both freshman Sean Escobedo and senior Eric Gryba went to the box for cross-checking a few minutes later, at 4:15 and 5:30, the Catamounts took the opportunity to get a goal back. Burrows scored his second goal of the night at 6:13, finding an unguarded spot of the net and sliding the puck in, increasing Vermont’s lead to 6-3.

Boston University, after previously making the switch from Millan to sophomore goalie Grant Rollheiser, decided to pull the goalie from the net all together while there were still a few minutes left to play in the period.

Freshman Sebastian Stalberg got the puck in the offensive zone soon after and was almost able to score on the empty net but couldn’t get the puck to go in.
MacKenzie did though, scoring the final goal for the Catamounts on the empty net with less than a minute left to go in the game at 19:06.

This wrapped up the game, cementing the 7-3 victory for the Catamounts.

The Catamounts ended the game with 38 shots, compared to 24 for Boston University. The two teams will meet again on Sunday to wrap up the weekend.