BC Outshot Northeastern 97-42 and Still Only Split. BU Got Outshot by Maine and Swept. Hockey East Halloween Weekend Was a Goalie Clinic

If you want to understand college hockey in one weekend, here it is. Boston College threw 97 shots at Northeastern over two games and got a split. Boston University got outshot by Maine and swept. Shots are nice. Goalies decide things.

<h3>BU 7, Maine 2</h3>

Friday at Agganis Arena, BU beat No. 19 Maine 7-2 with goals from seven different players, per BU Athletics as summarized by The Boston Report. The Terriers scored three goals in the first 1:31 and had four by 4:49, which The Boston Report called the program's fastest start this century. All 12 BU forwards got a point. BU went 2-for-4 on the power play and outshot Maine 37-30, and goalie Mikhail Yegorov made 28 saves.

Four goals in under five minutes. Maine's night was over before people found their seats. And when every one of your 12 forwards gets on the scoresheet, that's not one hot line. That's depth, and depth is what wins in March.

<h3>BU 3, Maine 2 (OT)</h3>

Saturday was a different game. Maine led 2-0 and outshot BU 21-8 in the first period, The Boston Report wrote, citing BU's recap. Yegorov made 19 of his 34 saves in that first period alone, and that's why BU was still in it.

Then Tynan Lawrence took over the third period. He scored on a power play at 6:56 and tied it with 2:12 left. Caleb Malhotra won it 1:35 into overtime. BU is now 3-1-0 in overtime games.

BU sits at 6-2-0 overall and 4-2-0 in Hockey East, ranked No. 14 and No. 13 in the two national polls, per The Boston Report.

<h3>BC 3, Northeastern 2 (OT)</h3>

At Kelley Rink on Friday, Matias Vanhanen scored 26 seconds into the game, and Dean Letourneau ended it 45 seconds into overtime, per BC Athletics and The Boston Report. The win snapped a four-game losing streak against Northeastern. BC outshot the Huskies 48-18. Forty-eight to eighteen, and it still needed overtime. That should have been a blowout, and Northeastern's goalie is the reason it wasn't.

<h3>Northeastern 4, BC 3 (OT)</h3>

Saturday, Northeastern flipped it. Tyler Fukakusa scored 2:06 into overtime, Jacob Mathieu scored twice and Amine Hajibi added one, according to Northeastern Athletics as cited by The Boston Report. Senior goalie Lawton Zacher made 46 saves on 49 shots.

For BC, Alex Pelletier had a goal and two assists. It was his first college goal, per BC Athletics. Letourneau and Jake Sondreal also scored. The game drew 1,508 at Kelley Rink.

<h3>The goalie math</h3>

The Boston Report ran the numbers from the box scores. BC outshot Northeastern 97-42 across the weekend, 2.3 shots for every Husky shot. Zacher stopped 91 of 97, a .938 save percentage. BC's Louka Cloutier faced 42 shots and made 36 saves, an .857.

Over in the BU series it went the other way. Maine outshot BU 66-64 over the two games, and BU still outscored the Black Bears 10-4. Yegorov stopped 62 of 66, a .939, almost exactly Zacher's number on far fewer shots.

The Boston Report's conclusion: in a two-game series, goaltending and finishing moved the results more than shot volume. I'd put it more simply. Zacher stole a game. Yegorov stole the Saturday one.

<h3>Where everybody stands</h3>

BC is 2-4-1 overall and 1-1-0 in Hockey East. Northeastern is 3-2-0 and 1-2-0, per The Boston Report. Elsewhere in the league, UMass beat Harvard 4-2 on Friday, Vermont swept New Hampshire, and Merrimack and UConn won and tied, with UConn taking the shootout point, according to Hockey East Online as cited by the outlet.

<h3>Next up</h3>

BU heads to No. 4 Michigan State on Nov. 6 and 7, then hosts Harvard on Nov. 10. BC hosts Vermont on Nov. 5 and 6. Northeastern is at Holy Cross on Nov. 7.

<h3>Dez's take</h3>

BC fans, I know. You dominated Northeastern for 120-plus minutes and walked away with three points out of six. But 2-4-1 isn't about effort. It's about finishing, and Cloutier's .857 isn't going to cut it against Vermont. Northeastern, Zacher just bought you a weekend. BU, that Michigan State trip is a real measuring stick. Yegorov can't make 19 saves in a period every Saturday and get away with it. But right now he's the best thing going in this city's college hockey.