Something happened Thursday night that has never happened in the history of the rivalry. The Terps won their fifth straight against the Blue Jays, the first time they have ever won five in a row. Maryland pulled out a 16-11 victory over the 4th seeded Johns Hopkins, setting up a matchup with the No. 2 seed Rutgers and ending the Jays season.
The usual suspects led the way for the Terps, with Wisnauskas recording seven points on four goals and three assists. Anthony DeMaio recorded his first hat trick of the season, and Malever, Khan and Murphy all scored multiple goals. The highlight of the night came when Eric Malever found a cutting Keegan Khan in front of the net, who caught and shot the ball behind the back all in one motion to score his first goal of the night.
On the defensive end, Logan McNaney was outstanding, finishing with a season-high 14 saves. The defense held Johns Hopkins scoreless for 15:10 between the second and third quarters. A couple bright spots for the Blue Jays were Garrett Degnon, who finished the night with four goals, and Jacob Angelus who finished with three goals and an assist.
Unlike the previous matchup, the Blue Jays seemed to play with the same intensity all 60 minutes. Goalie Josh Kirson kept the game from getting out of hand early with some huge saves in the first quarter. Maryland outshot Hopkins 20-5 in the first quarter, getting some great looks but were unable to finish in large part because of Kirson’s play.
Things got chippy towards the end of the fourth quarter, when Jonathan Donville gave a slight shove to a Hopkins player for holding his stick, which led to a short scuffle on the field. Owen Prybylski and Joey Epstein were given unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, and each team receiving a UC penalty as well with the in-home serving them. Luckily, there were no ejections handed out, which would have led to the player being suspended for the championship game tomorrow.
Now the Terps turn their attention to Rutgers, who held on the beat Ohio State 12-10 in the late game at Maryland Stadium. This was Rutgers first Big Ten Tournament win in six years, who is now going for their first Big Ten title. The championship game starts at 8pm tomorrow night on BTN.
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