By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff

The No. 16 Boston University men’s hockey team continued to take steps forward in the early part of its season as it won back-to-back games for the first time with a 4-3 win over the University of Vermont Friday night at Agganis Arena.

Despite the positive result in the standings, however, coach Jack Parker was not pleased with his team's total effort.

"I thought we played a pretty solid game for a while, but once it was 4-2, I thought we just reverted back to stupid, selfish," Parker said.

"We have a mindset that we can do what we want at times. We can play the way we want to play. We can play selfish and we can play stupid because we’re winning 4-2. And Vermont’s not that good. They’re in last place in the league. Vermont should have won that game I thought."

Indeed it was the Catamounts (1-6-1, 0-5-1 HE) who struck first in the game when, 5:26 into the first period, a shot from Brett Leonard bounced up and over Rollheiser, then died in the crease. Blake Doerring tapped the puck in before Rollheiser could turn around to cover it, giving the Catamounts a 1-0 lead.

BU (5-4-1, 4-3-1 HE) tied the game soon after, as senior forward Corey Trivino slipped a centering pass from sophomore forward Sahir Gill through Vermont goalie Rob Madore’s five-hole.

The Terriers took the lead 1:19 later, when Nick Bruneteau put BU on a power play due to a cross-check. Vermont attempted to clear on the penalty kill by throwing a loose puck in front of the net, where sophomore forward Charlie Coyle was stationed waiting for a pass from a teammate. Coyle instead roofed Vermont’s miscue, beating Madore high and putting the Terriers up, 2-1.

The Catamounts tied the game early in the second period, as Kyle Reynolds crossed in front of the net and then tossed a backhander past Rollheiser for an easy goal 2:38 into the period.

"I would have had liked to have either one of the first two goals back probably," Rollheiser said. "That’s probably the second full game I’ve played in almost a year, so I can’t really saw I'm displeased with the way I played and I felt like I got better as the game went on too. I was a little bit nervous, a little bit jumpy going in, but I felt pretty comfortable as the game went on."

The Terriers regained the lead a little less than four minutes later when junior forward Wade Megan found a rebound off senior captain Chris Connolly’s shot. Megan tucked the rebound between Madore and the left post to put BU up, 3-2.

The Terriers potted their second power-play goal of the night 16:34 into the period. Following a holding penalty on Doerring, sophomore forward Matt Nieto sent a cross-ice pass to sophomore defenseman Garrett Noonan, who buried the pass to give the Terriers a 4-2 lead.

"Nieto just made a great play," Noonan said. "He was looking off two defenders and usually I like to go down on the power play. Luckily I snuck down there and he looked off the defensemen and put it on my stick. Corey had a great screen, and I think Chiasson was down there too. It was good to have those two bodies down there. Lucky shot."

The Catamounts cut the deficit to one with less than three minutes left in the game when they capitalized on a too many men penalty against BU. Sebastian Stalberg slipped a puck past Rollheiser after sustained Vermont pressure on net during the power play.

Vermont put together a frenzied effort with an extra-attacker in the final two minutes of the game, but the BU defense and Rollheiser just barely found a way to stave off the Catamount attack.

"I think we got away from being ourselves a little bit there," Noonan said. "I need to be better. We all need to be better. Luckily Grant played so well in front of us. That was one of our bright spots."

After the game, Parker said Rollheiser played "great", but noted that senior goaltender Kieran Millan will get the start in net Saturday night after having been benched Friday for skipping class.

"Kieran Millan was sat for one game," Parker said. "Kieran Millan just came off a terrific shutout. He should have played tonight. [Buzzer sound]"