GRAND FORKS, N.D.—Alexx Privitera said he did not know why the University of North Dakota student section heartily booed him during Saturday night’s game, but by the end of it he certainly gave the fans reason.
The sophomore defenseman assisted freshman forward Matt Lane’s game-winning goal — the first tally of Lane’s NCAA career — with 1:50 left in the third period to help the No. 12 Boston University men’s hockey team to a 4–2 win over No. 5/6 UND.
“That’s 120 minutes of hard effort,” Privitera said of the series split at Ralph Engelstad Arena, which started with a 4–2 loss Friday night. “We played real hard all weekend, got great goaltending in both games. Grinded it out and it worked out for us. We were a better team the second game, bar none, and the score depicted that.”
BU (4–2, 3–1 Hockey East) followed up Lane’s goal with an insurance tally from freshman forward Danny O’Regan 11 seconds later. The goal sent the Terriers home a happy bunch after a few days in the Midwest.
BU coach Jack Parker was also pleased with his team’s effort against North Dakota (3–2–1), particularly Privitera’s.
“Alexx Privitera had his best weekend in a BU hockey uniform,” Parker said.
The praise was an extension of the bench boss’ words following Friday’s loss.
“He gave us a heck of a night,” Parker said. “Both offensively and defensively he moved the puck. He got the puck out of our zone. He blocked shots. I was very, very impressed with his play.”
Privitera finished the series a plus-three with two assists, the other coming Friday night on freshman defenseman Ahti Oksanen’s first career goal.
He also blocked 10 shots, far and away the most of any Terrier on the weekend. Senior defenseman Sean Escobedo was second with four.
Privitera is second on the team with 16 on the season, but Parker said the increase is not the product of any conscious effort on Privitera’s part.
“He’s always done that,” Parker said. “He has a certain way to block shots … He goes sideways and puts his knee down sideways, so he’s got a little bit more area exposed to block with, and he’s real great at timing. You have to have great timing to do that.”
But as a defenseman, Privitera’s game is measured in much more than assists and blocked shots.
Parker has put the sophomore with Escobedo as the team’s top defensive pair in recent games, and the former has accrued more and more ice time positioned at the point when BU has a man-advantage.
The result has been an uptick in confidence for the player Parker recruited to replace former Terrier assistant captain David Warsofsky, a confidence boost that Parker said could spread to the team on the whole.
“It was important for our psyche not to get [swept],” Parker said. “It was important for us to grow. No matter what happened this weekend … we knew we were going to be a better team coming out of this weekend than coming in. This gives us a big boost.”
And as for the booing, Privitera acknowledged he drew the ire of the loud and large raucous student section at the Ralph with his penalty-box shenanigans Friday night, retaliating against some especially vocal UND fans.
“[The booing] fired me up a lot,” Privitera said. “It was an emotional game and that definitely added to the adrenaline and got us the win.
“Hopefully when we play BC next weekend they’ll boo me.”