BOSTON -- New Hampshire’s five-game unbeaten run came to an end with Friday night’s 5-2 loss to Hockey East rival Boston University at Agganis Arena, but that result was certainly no fault of center Liam Blackburn who continued his run of team-leading play.
After the home team built a 2-0 lead in the first period, the junior from Prince George, British Columbia accounted for both Wildcat goals, logging his fourth two-goal game as a collegiate player and extending his scoring streak to 10 games before BU scored three unanswered goals to take the victory.
“Disappointing ending,” said UNH head coach Mike Souza, whose team is now 6-8-6 overall and 2-5-3 in league play. “I thought we showed great character coming back, but then to give away a game as quickly as we did was unfortunate. There were just some unnecessary breakdowns against a team that’s opportunistic and has a lot of skill and speed.”
It was the Wildcats’ first loss this season since Dec. 1 against Providence.
The visitors let their foot off the gas as BU scored its three third-period goals on the first nine shots that it put on UNH sophomore Mike Robinson (Bedford, N.H.). With this latest result, the Terriers haven’t lost in this all-time series since Feb. 14, 2015, going 0-7-2 over the last nine games.
But Blackburn first made sure the Wildcats would not go down without a fight, scoring back-to-back goals ― one on the power play, one at even strength ― to draw the game even. That’s been the way all season, though Friday was ultimately not one of those nights.
He first followed up senior Ara Nazarian’s (Boxford, Mass.) power-play shot, tipping home a puck that bounced off a skater in front at the 10:08 marker of the second period. Freshman Angus Crookshank set Blackburn up for the tying goal 2:24 into the third, slotting a perfect pass from behind the goal line.
“When you come back from a two-goal deficit, momentum shifts like that for us,” said Blackburn, who has recorded five of his six goals and 14 of 17 points this season during the last 10 games. “We had a couple good shifts from (senior captain Marcus) Vela's and (freshman Jackson) Pierson’s line. They were playing on their toes a little bit more and everyone followed their suit. Ara and Vela like to lead by example like that, so I think a lot of guys look up to those guys.”
Upperclassmen need to lead in order for college hockey teams to have success.
As Blackburn mentioned, Nazarian does so on the power play in scoring seven of his 13 points, a team-high eight of which are goals. And the former Malden Catholic star did again with a strong play and succeeding shift to gain some momentum against the Terriers.
Blackburn has been one of those guys since Day One for the first-year head coach Souza’s Wildcats. That effort is important to build off of, especially at this key juncture of the season with UNH battling for a spot in Hockey East’s postseason.
“He’s got tremendous hockey sense,” Souza said of Blackburn. “He's deceptive, got a long stick. He knows how to find the puck and pull it out of the pile. He gets to the net and gets around the net. He got (the first) one today ― I don’t know if it went off a shin pad or what, but that’s a result of being around the net and knowing where to be. He’s playing well for us right now.”
Blackburn knows what it takes to turn the scores back into positives like they were in last weekend’s overtime triumph against Merrimack and tie with Yale, the latter in which the Wildcats had to overcome 4-0 and 5-2 deficits.
“We kind of got that tie and thought we were done with the work, maybe,” said Blackburn. “We've got to stay on our toes and keep forechecking because that's been the thing we've been successful with all year ― just being on our toes, getting in guys' faces, and having good stick-on-puck.”
Streaks are meant to be broken, but the Wildcats have built a good habit of being a tough team to put away throughout this season even with a slew of young players like Crookshank ― who has skated on Blackburn’s wing along with junior Justin Fregona for each of the last six games ― serving as key contributors.
“They’ve got a good team and they’re really resilient,” BU head coach Albie O’Connell said of the Wildcats. “They’ve played a lot of games tight and been in a lot of overtime games. We talked about that between periods and they ended up coming back, but we had an answer in the third period with some big plays to get us over the hump.”
