Saturday, January 28, 2023

Terriers double up BC, 6-3; Cardacci hat trick powers Women

 

Paced by a pair of goals from junior Ty Gallagher, #4/5 Terriers scored six unanswered goals en route to a 6-3 win over Boston College before a sellout crowd at Agganis Arena. 

More offense came from the second line of Jay O'Brien, Luke Tuch and Dylan Peterson, each of whom contributed a goal and two assists. O'Brien's tally in the final second of the opening period tied the game at 1-1.

Drew Commesso was on his game, stopping 24 shots including a couple of game-changing, 5-bell saves.

With the victory, the Terriers improve to 18-6-0 and 12-4-0 in Hockey East and they move into first place, a point ahead of Northeastern and two ahead of Merrimack. The victory also bumped the Terriers up to #5 in the PairWise ratings.

"A huge win for us,” said Head Coach Jay Pandolfo. “I think we started off a little slow, turning way too many pucks over. Gave them some chances. Towards the end of that period, we began finding our game. Obviously it was a huge momentum boost for us, scoring there with basically no time on the clock." 

He added, "In the second, we played much better. We controlled the second period.”  

Then, addressing the production from the O'Brien line, he noted,“They had a huge impact on the game tonight. [Peterson and Tuch] were getting to the net, they were hanging on to pucks down low… I just think overall, they read off each other really well. I thought it was the best game they've played together.”

BU is now 3-0-1 in its last four home games against the Eagles and leads the all-time series 138-130-21. Completing the current homestand at a perfect 5-0, BU is 18-4-2 in its last 24 games at Agganis Arena, with three of the four losses coming in OT.

The visitors carried the play early in the opening period, transitioning through the neutral zone and creating scoring chances. They finally broke the ice on a power-play goal at 10:43. After Commesso made two stops, Case McCarthy was unable to clear a loose puck  just outside the crease and Trevor Kuntar popped it over the goalie for a 1-0 lead.

BU got its own transition game going later in the period, but with 3:37 remaining, BC nearly doubled its lead when Nikita Nesterenko broke in alone, only to be stoned by Commesso.


 

As clock wound down in the period, Gallagher fired a shot from the right point that BC goalie Mitch Benson stopped, but could not control. Peterson got a stick on the rebound but it was O'Brien who flipped the puck into the net for his fourth goal of the season and a 1-1 tie with four-tenths of a second left.

 

 

Following an ineffective power play to open the second period, BU turned on its speed and possession game to put 17 shots on the Eagles' goal. At 6:48 the freshman line delivered a go-ahead goal. On a 3-on-2 rush, Quinn Hutson's shot from the right circle went off Benson's glove. Hutson recovered the puck and dropped it to Jeremy Wilmer in the circle. He wheeled to the high slot and whipped a shot just under the crossbar on the glove side for his seventh goal and third in the past two games. Ryan Greene had the second assist.

 

Six minutes later, the Terriers extended the lead scoring on the rush. Lane Hutson gave himself time and space for a shot from the high slot that Benson turned away. Hutson followed the shot and nudged the loose puck to Peterson who fired it home, again high to the glove side, for his second goal. O'Brien also assisted.

Early in the third period Commesso came up with another highlight-reel save, lunging to rob BC's Seamus Powell. 

After matching penalties had the teams skating four aside, BU scored on the rush at 3:32. O'Brien dropped a pass for Tuch that he controlled in the left corner. The Montreal draft pick backhanded the puck into the slot where a hard-charging Gallagher banged it home for his second of the season.

With eleven minutes left in the period, Gallagher scored again. Passes from Tuch and Lane Hutson set up the blueliner up for hard wrister from the top of the right circle. With the 6'4" Peterson setting a screen, it flew past Benson, ending his night and stretching the lead to 5-1.

With five minutes remaining, Tuch skated from the BU zone through center ice and across the BC blueliner. He fired a shot that went through a defender's legs and past back-up goalie Henry Wilder. Peterson and Gallagher provided the helpers. 

Tuch nearly had a second tally, but it was ruled he'd kicked it into the net. BC would score twice in the final minutes. First they converted a power-play goal on a redirection of a shot from the right circle. Just a minute later, a center-ice turnover created a 2-on-1. Commesso made the initial save, but Cutter Gauthier buried the rebound.

BU's top scorer, Matt Brown, skated in his 100th career college game. The New Jersey native played his first two seasons at Lowell.

 

Senior forward Jamie Armstrong returned to the line-up, but Captain Dom Fensore remained sidelined and will also missed Saturday's rematch with BC, according to Pandolfo. 

One negative was BC's decided domination of the face-off dot as the Eagles won 38 of 55 draws.

The teams will conclude the home-and-home series Saturday evening at Conte Forum at 7 p.m. 

 

Mark Linehan’s Terrier Takeaway

▪Clearly a big W vs a desperate BC team…that might be even more desperate tomorrow night.

▪Survived the expected 1st 5 minutes of BC aggressive fore-check.. 2 forwards down… week side D crashing.. took a while before BU made them pay... as they usually do  with its fast-break transition game. 

▪Dom Fensore’s absence reminds you just how valuable he is.  Credit Coach Joe Pereira for juggling the D combinations all night to shut down BC’s big guns.

▪Commesso was huge.  Thought he got robbed of being 1 of 3 stars.

▪Lane Hudson… as fun of a player to watch as I’ve ever seen. Can be both a QB on offense, then quickly a free safety on D.

▪Ty Gallagher … another example of Terrier coaches involving talented, weak side D in the offense .

 

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights and post-game press conference

● Boston Hockey Blog recap

 

2023 recruit Doug Grimes scored his 10th goal, a power-play tally in Lincoln’s 6-3 loss to Waterloo.

2024 recruit Kamil Bednarik scored his 12th goal (video) in the NTDP U17s’ 5-4 overtime win against Dubuque. Earlier in the game, the left-shot center, who has 24 points in 34 games, rang a shot off the post.

Looking back

Jake Oettinger stopped 26 shots in the Stars' 3-2 overtime loss to New Jersey. Jack Hughes scored the game-winner on a deflected shot 20 seconds into overtime.

 

Women's Team 

A natural hat trick by junior Madison Cardacci staked BU to a 3-0 lead early in the third period, leading to a 4-1 win against Merrimack.  After the Warriors scored on a power play, Clara Yuhn scored an empty-net goal in the final minute.  Andrea    Brändli stopped 25 of 26 shots.

● GoTerriers.com recap and comprehensive box score

● Video highlights and post-game comments

 

 
 

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