York comes up short in Mason bid as BU beats BC

Boston, MA -- Jerry York's pursuit of the all-time NCAA wins record will have to wait one more game.

Wade Megan picked up a goal and one assist, while Matt Nieto added two helpers and Matt O'Connor stopped 35 shots as Boston University downed Boston College, 4-2, in the front end of a home-and-home series from Agganis Arena on Friday night.

The Eagles could have given York, still stuck on 923 wins, a chance to eclipse Ron Mason's record of 924 victories with back-to-back victories this weekend, but the Terriers put together one of their best defensive efforts of the season.

Yes, O'Connor had to face 37 shots, but many of those were low-percentage, point drives or rebounds at either post, not quality chances.

"We had some excellent chances, but for the most part, I thought BU had the territorial edge, York said. "I don't think we were as sharp as I would have liked to have seen us. BU played good defense. We did have four or five Grade-A scoring chances."

Garrett Noonan, Evan Rodrigues and Matt Grzelcyk also tallied for the Terriers (8-4-0), who also must prevent a record-tying performance at Conte Forum on Saturday night.

Johnny Gaudreau and Pat Mullane lit the lamp, but it wasn't enough to help Parker Milner, who stopped 30 shots as BC (10-2-0) saw its 10-game win streak come to an end.

Grzelcyk netted a valuable insurance goal less than two minutes into the third period, stretching the Terriers' lead to 3-1. The freshman winger raced up the left-wing side, swung around Milner's cage and beat the senior netminder with a sweeping shot

BC kept pressing from there, racking up an 11-8 shot edge in the final 20 minutes and also taking away some of the territorial advantage. The Eagles, however, couldn't capitalize in the final minutes after Alexx Privitera was given minors for hitting from behind and unsportsmanlike conduct, plus Sean Escobedo's penalty for slashing 43 seconds later.

The visitors pulled Milner and sustained an attack, but Cason Hohmann gathered a rebound of an errant point shot and fed Megan for a short-handed empty-netter with 1:39 to play.

Gaudreau eventually beat O'Connor with 24 seconds remaining to account for the final score.

“I thought we played extremely well,” said BU head coach Jack Parker. “I thought we played smart and didn’t let our emotions take over. All-in-all, it was a good effort by us. I thought we deserved to win tonight. I’m glad we raised our game up.”