BC-BU takes rivalry to a new arena

BOSTON n Boston College and Boston University have played numerous memorable games in their long and storied history. But the two Commonwealth Avenue rivals took their rivalry into an entirely new arena on Friday night: Fenway Park.The old girl on Lansdowne Street played host to an evening called “Frozen Fenway” and the Terriers and Eagles didn?t disappoint the near capacity crowd that braved 21 degree temperatures at puck drop and off and on snow showers.And leave it to the defending national champions to play the role of shocker in front of 38,472 fans, the most to ever see a college hockey game in the east. In fact, it was a bigger crowd than the Bruins had when they played the Winter Classic on New Year?s Day against the Flyers.BU jumped out to a 3-0 second period lead and then used the goaltending of sophomore Kieran Millan and a solid defense to upset the No. 7 ranked Eagles, 3-2.Both teams paid homage to the building that played host to the once in a lifetime event as both teams sported specially designed uniforms to mark the occasion.The Eagles donned a gold jersey trimmed with green to match the wall in left field while the Terriers spelled out “Boston” on the front of their uniforms in the lettering of the Red Sox.In front of the biggest crowd to ever watch a BU-BC game, the Terriers jumped on top on the power play when defenseman David Warsofsky?s shot hit the post, bounced off BC goalie John Muse and trickled back across the goal line.Warsofsky was back in the lineup after returning from helping lead Team USA to a gold medal in the World Junior Championships earlier this week.Despite dominating the play for most of the period, Warsofsky?s was the only goal as the Terriers headed into the visitors dugout with a 1-0 lead after one period.BU kept right on plugging at the start of the second as third line winger Joe Pereira picked up a rebound off the backboards to the left of Muse and shoveled it over the junior?s pad to give the Terriers a 2-0 lead as the temperature dropped to a balmy 19 degrees with a seven degree wind chill.Just past the midpoint of the game, BU extended the lead to 3-0 when Wade Megan batted home a Nick Bonino rebound out of midair.Desperately in need of a boost, the Eagles got it late in the middle period when Brian Gibbons drove to the net and scored on a rebound to cut the gap to 3-1.Cam Atkinson increased the drama at 7:43 of the third when he scored a shorthanded goal to cut the lead to 3-2.NOTES: The Eagles had back the services of freshman forward Chris Kreider of Boxford on Friday. Kreider, a first round draft pick of the New York Rangers last spring, returned from playing for the gold medal winning U.S. team at the world juniors.The opening act to the Terriers and Eagles came in the form of the Northeastern and New Hampshire women, two of the top 10 ranked teams in the country.The Huntington Hounds started fast, taking a 2-0 lead in the first 3:41 of the game and carried a 3-1 lead into the third period. But the Wildcats came out flying as Julie Allen?s goal at 1:30 of the third began a UNH onslaught. By the time they were done, the Wildcats had outshot the Huskies, 14-5, in the third period and scored four times to take a 5-3 win.