Sunday, January 08, 2023

Rally falls short, Terriers edged by MTU UPDATED

A 3-0 first-period deficit proved too big a hole for the #6 Terriers to dig out of, leading to a 3-2 loss to #15/16 Michigan Tech in the Desert Hockey Classic championship game in Tempe, Ariz.

UPDATE: Video highlights from MTU added.

Goals by Matt Brown and Devlin Kaplan cut the margin to one with nine minutes remaining, but BU was unable to produce an equalizer. The Huskies’ standout goalie Blake Pietela turned aside 31 of 33 BU shots.

“It was not the start we wanted,” said Head Coach Jay Pandolfo. “We dug ourselves a hole getting down 3-0 in the first period. For whatever reason, we weren’t ready to play.”

While the Terriers created early pressure, it was Tech that struck first when Logan Pietila collected a loose puck in the left circle and beat Drew Commesso five hole at 7:06. Four minutes later, the puck found an unmarked Kyle Kukkonen in the high slot for a one-timer. 2-0.

Later in the period, MTU struck again. Tristan Ashbrook, on a partial breakaway, got position on captain Dom Fensore and backhanded the puck past Commesso from in close. 3-0.

Five minutes into the second period, Lane Hutson broke up an MTU entry in the BU zone, sending the puck to Jeremy Wilmer, who head-manned a pass to a streaking Brown. From the slot, he shot in stride, beating goalie Pietila high to the blocker side. For Wilmer, it was his fourth primary assist of the tournament.

BU had 12 shots in the middle period but was unable to cash another. Meanwhile, the Huskies were limited to four shots with two coming on a power play forcing Commesso to flash the pads and glove to keep the score at 3-1.

A BU power play in the final minutes of the second period didn’t produce a shot on goal and another man-advantage early in the third only yielded a single shot. But just shy of the 11-minute mark, the Terriers scored on the rush. Jay O’Brien sent Luke Tuch up the right side and into the offensive zone. The junior wing’s cross-ice pass set up Kaplan for a shot from bottom of left circle that Pietila defended but the puck went of a stick and the goalie’s skate and slid into the cage. 3-2.

Minutes later the fourth line of Dylan Peterson, Brian Carrabes and Nick Zabaneh created a flurry of chances, all saved by Pietila.

With Commesso pulled for the final two minutes, BU pressed for a tying goal, but a packed in Huskies’ defense allowed just one shot on goal by Wilmer. A bouncing puck went over Brown’s stick as he attempted to deflect it home in the final seconds.

“Once [Brown] scored, it gave us a little life,” Pandolfo pointed out. “And I think our guys, they believe in themselves, they felt we had a really good chance to come back. They knew if we started playing our game we were going to get our chances.” 

He added, “Give them credit, they came out hard. They fore-checked us hard, they did a really good job and we weren’t ready for their pressure off the start so I’ll take some responsibility for that.” 

With the loss BU dropped to #10 in the PairWise ratings, but thanks to later losses by Merrimack (6-2 to Brown) and Harvard (4-1 to Quinnipiac) the Terriers finished the evening at #8.

The loss, bringing BU’s record to 13-6-0, was the team’s first of the season on a Saturday night, reversing an early-season pattern of losing Friday, then winning on Saturday.

BU was 0-for-3 on power plays and killed MTU’s only man-advantage, to run their streak of penalty kills to 13.

Michigan Tech is now 10-5-0 all time against BU and seven of their wins have come in tournaments including four in the Great Lakes Invitational and one each in the Boston Arena Christmas Tournament and the NCAA Frozen Four.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Post-game comments Jay Pandolfo

● Video highlights (from MTU)

● Boston Hockey Blog recap

 

Looking ahead

2023 recruit Jack Harvey scored a pair of goals (22nd, 23rd) in Chicago’s 8-5 loss to Muskegon. 2023 or 2024 recruit Mack Celebrini assist on both Harvey goals and scored one of his own (17th), assisted by 2023 recruit Hunter Hady.

 

2024 recruit Brandon Svoboda scored his seventh goal in Youngstown’s 5-4 win against the NTDP U17s. Cole Hutson had an assist for Team USA. Svoboda, a 6’3” center, will be playing in the January 16 BioSteel All-American Game as will Harvey.

 

2023 recruit Doug Grimes’ power play goal was his seventh tally and the game-winner as Lincoln edged Fargo, 3-2. The power forward from Brookline, Mass., also assisted on the Stars first two goal and now has an 8-10-18 line in 16 games.

 

2024 recruit Jack Pridham scored twice and added an assist as St. Andrews College defeated the Nichols School, 6-1, in the opening game of The Prep Cup in North Andover, Mass.

 


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