Never on Sunday. Boston University’s hockey team learned that the hard way the last time they met Northeastern in a playoff series in 2011. After dropping the opener of their best-of-three Hockey East quarterfinals at home that year the Terriers were forced to go the distance, dropped the finale, and were done for the season.
So even though the hosts had two chances to win one more game after Friday’s 3-2 overtime victory, they were in no mood to extend these proceedings any longer than necessary. They just stayed on script Saturday night. Same outcome, same score.
“It was just eerie how the whole thing transpired similar to what happened last night,’’ said BU coach David Quinn after his second-seeded varsity (23-10-3) ended NU’s season on a power-play goal by defenseman Chad Krys with 25 seconds to play before 2,728 at Agganis Arena to earn a semifinal date with either archrival Boston College or New Hampshire next weekend at TD Garden.
Once again the Terriers fell behind by two goals in the first dozen minutes. Once again they broke out on a second-period power play. Once again they drew even in the third. Once again freshman goalie Jake Oettinger (24 saves) slammed the door. And once again BU won it with a Husky defenseman in the penalty box.
“My mum told me if you can’t say anything nice about people, don’t say anything at all,’’ said NU coach Jim Madigan, whose team came in as the defending champion and had won 11 of its previous 14 games. “And I can’t talk about this series without two calls that didn’t go our way. For me that was the difference in the game and in the series. I just don’t want to go there because I don’t want to risk a future suspension.’’
On Friday a hooking call on Jeremy Davies led to Jordan Greenway’s winner. This time Garret Cockerill was sent off on a hook with 1:34 to play and the Terriers made sure they took care of things in regulation. “I thought about calling a timeout but I thought they were a little tired and our guys were fresh,’’ said Quinn. “So I decided not to.’’
Had the Huskies been able to cash any of their three power plays (they were 0 for 7 with just eight shots in the series) there might have been a Sunday showdown. The biggest missed opportunity came at the end of the first period after Biagio Lerario (2:23) and Nolan Stevens (11:21) had put NU up two and BU’s Chase Phelps was in the box. “That was probably our best kill of the night,’’ observed Quinn. “They were buzzing.’’
When Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (three points) redirected Clayton Keller’s feed past goalie Ryan Ruck (25 saves) at 14:38 of the second period the Terriers were energized. When Nick Roberto drew them even at 3:01 of the third, they smelled blood again. “You’re going to need to be resilient this time of the year and you can’t let situations put you down,’’ said Quinn. “You’ve got to keep moving forward and I think that’s what we did.’’
For NU, which had won only one of its previous 13 meetings with BU, prevailing on consecutive nights would have been a tall order against a Terrier bunch that now has won a school-record 10 straight home playoff games. Still, the Huskies had the guns and the grit to do it. “It’s never easy to end somebody’s season,’’ said Quinn. “That’s a heck of a hockey team we just played . . . We may move forward and not see teams as good as them.’’
BU’s body of work has guaranteed it a place in the NCAA Tournament, likely a No. 2 seed and probably a quick bus trip to either Manchester or Providence for the regionals. What the Terriers would like, though, is to pick up a trophy along the way as they did two years ago. Maybe next time they’ll score first for a change.
“We can’t keep playing with fire the way we have been the last few weeks but I certainly like some of the characteristics we’ve shown,’’ said Quinn. “Being mentally tough and playing well in crucial, critical times, which is something you’re absolutely going have to do at this time of year.’’
John Powers can be reached at john.powers@globe.com.
