Saturday, January 14, 2023

Game Day: Terriers host the Big Red UPDATED

#7 Terriers (14-6-0) will host #15/14 Cornell for a Saturday matinee at Agganis Arena as a longtime rivalry returns to a campus site for the first time since 2002. The game will be livestreamed on ESPN+. Fans attending the game are encouraged to wear red.

In December 2002, BU visited Lynah Rink and droped a pair of games to Cornell. The previous season, the Big Red came to Walter Brown Arena and split two games with the Terriers. Since then, all meetings have been at neutral sites: eight Red Hot Hockey match-ups at Madison Square Garden (teams are 3-3-2 ) and an NCAA regional in 2018, won by the Terriers. In the all-time series, Cornell leads 26-20-3. Tonight’s contest will be the 50th meeting and the first at Agganis Arena.

The Big Red (10-5-1) started their season slowly, losing four of their first six including a 2-0 loss to Quinnipiac. Since then, Cornell is 8-1-1 with the sole loss coming at the hands of Harvard, 2-1 in overtime. Last weekend, Cornell, which now is #10 in the PairWise, swept a pair of ECAC foes: Union, 6-1, and Rensselaer, 6-4. A College Hockey News feature story this past week suggests the Big Red is “Looking Like Its Old Self Again.”

In the Big Red, BU will face a physical, opponent that is more like Michigan Tech than the UMass team the Terriers handled on Wednesday.

Coming off what Coach Jay Pandolfo termed “a pretty complete game from the goalie on out…against UMass,” BU will face a big, physical opponent in the Big Red.

“Cornell will be a tough match-up. They’re a really solid team, a lot of structure. They’re a big heavy team. It will be a challenge for us,” he explained. “They play a similar style to Michigan Tech. I think we started really slow against Michigan Tech and that was a big problem for us. 

"We have to be ready to start from the drop of the puck," Pandolfo asserted. "We have to make sure to put pucks behind them and go to work. I don’t think we’re going to be getting odd-man rushes against this team. They have really good structure and they’re going to have four or five guys back. They have good sticks and protect the middle of the ice. We can’t expect an easy game or an up-and-down game either.”


Like BU, Cornell has a balanced attack with eight forwards who have nine or more points in 16 games. Senior Ben Berard (3G,12A) and junior Gabriel Seger (4G,11A) lead the way with 15 points each. Freshman Nick DeSantis is the top goal-scorer with five to go with six assists. Classmate Dalton Bancroft and senior Max Andreev have 10 points each.  Senior Sam Malinski (2-7-9) leads a veteran defense while sophomore goalie Ian Shane owns a 1.67 GAA, third best in Division 1.

Berard and DeSantis were, respectively, ECAC Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week following the team’s two wins. Those two and Seger comprise Cornell’s top line.


The Terriers will be seeking to continue their success at Agganis Arena, where they have a 14-4-2 record in the last 20 games. Coming off the dominating win against UMass, the Terriers have won 11 of their last 14 games, thanks in large part to getting production from throughout the line-up.

“We have some balanced scoring this year,” Pandolfo notes. “We still don’t have a guy in double digits for goals. It’s up and down our line-up that we’re getting production.”

Matt Brown remains the Terriers’ leader in goals with nine and points with 26. Quinn Hutson has eight goals, while three other Terriers have seven (captain Dom Fensore, Wilmer Skoog and Lane Hutson) and two (Ryan Greene and Devin Kaplan) have six. Of the top nine in scoring, five are freshmen.

BU will be without forwards Jamie Armstrong and Ethan Phillips once again.

Puck possession in the offensive zone has helped BU to 3.9 goals/game, fourth best in Division 1.

"If we can keep sustained pressure in the zone, it will wear teams down and they can’t sustain anything in our end," Pandolfo added. "Against UMass, we had a lot of O-zone possession That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to possess pucks and get to the net. We tell our guys when it’s your turn to go to the net, we want [them] going to the net. The guys are buying into it and it’s paying off for us."

TODAY’S BU LINE-UP

Brown-Skoog-Kaplan

Tuch-O’Brien-Peterson

Wilmer-Greene-Hutson

Zabaneh-Stevens-Amonte

Carrabes

Fensore-Gallagher

Hutson-McCarthy

Webber-Copeland

Commesso

Duplessis

Schena

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, BU All-Access (audio), BU Men’s Hockey Twitter

● Live Stream ESPN+

● Pandolfo Media Call

● Boston Hockey Blog preview

● Terrier Tales: Red Hot Hockey Since 1925

 

►Skoog’s ankle-breaker goal to open Wednesday’s win didn’t make Sports Center’s Top 10, but it was featured between periods of Thursday’s Dallas Stars-Rangers game.

►Junior goalie Drew Commesso is among 41 goalies on the watch list for the 2023 Mike Richter Award. There are eight Hockey East goalies on the list as is Cornell’s Shane.

● USCHO.com report

 

Looking ahead

NHL Central Scouting releases its mid-term rankings for the 2023 Entry Draft and five BU recruits are ranked: Among North American skaters: defenseman Gavin McCarthy #39, center Brandon Svoboda (2024 recruit) #69, left wing Jack Harvey #132 and defenseman Aiden Celebrini #142. Among North America goalies, Michael Chambre is #24.

On Thursday night, Chambre stopped 29 shots to gain his fifth win as the NTDP U18s defeated Madison, 6-2.  2023 or 2024 recruit Kai Janviriya scored his fourth goal for the U18s.

Harvey notched his 24th goal and added an assist in Chicago’s 5-3 win against Madison. 2023 recruit Hunter Hady, a 6’4” defenseman, recorded his ninth assist for the Steel. Harvey leads the USHL is scoring with 43 points.

2023 recruit Shane Lachance’s 18th goal was Youngstown’s only tally in a 3-1 loss to Muskegon.

2023 recruit Doug Grimes scored his ninth goal in Lincoln’s 4-1 win against Tri-City. The 6’2” power forward has goals in each of the last three games with six points in that span.

Colby Cohen, now an analyst from ESPN and the Blackhawks, reports heralded center Macklin Celebrini's intent to accelerate and arrive at BU with the 2023 recruit class.  

 

Looking back

Heartbreaker for Jake Oettinger Thursday night. He was less K’Andre Miller scored on his own rebound. Then New York won in overtime. Earlier in the week, Oettinger had become the fifth fastest American goalie with 60 NHL wins.

Jack Eichel’s breakaway goal (#15) began a Golden Knights’ comeback, leading to a 4-2 win against Florida.

Brady Tkachuk also potted his 15th goal as Ottawa defeated Arizona, 5-3.

Evan Rodrigues scored his 10th goal for Colorado, but the Blackhawks edged the Avs, 3-2.

 

 

 

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