Monday, October 30, 2023

UPDATED: P-O-W honors for Celebrini; Poll Story; SNL; New Roster Projection

 Macklin Celebrini Hockey East Player of the Week graphic featuring posed photo of Macklin.

Macklin Celebrini’s 3-goal, 2-assist performance in the UMass series has earned the freshman center Hockey East Player of the Week honors. After putting up a 1-2-3 line on Friday, the North Vancouver native scored twice in the third period Saturday, twice erasing one-goal deficits and forcing overtime.

With eight goals, Celebrini is the national —and Hockey East—leader in that category. He’s put the puck in the net on 27% of his shots on net. His 11 points is tops among all NCAA rookies and puts him first in Hockey East in points.

GoTerriers.com Celebrini named Hockey East Player of the Week

NEW Three Terriers earned spots on Hockey East's Weekly Top Performers list:

-Jeremy Wilmer, BU (So., F; Rockville Centre, N.Y.) Paced BU with four assists this past weekend against UMass, including three assists in Friday’s 5-2 win. Wilmer also had the primary assist on one of Macklin Celebrini’s two third-period goals on Saturday. Wilmer leads Hockey East with eight assists this season.

-Lane Hutson, BU (So., D; North Barrington, Ill.) Totaled three points on one goal and two assists in Friday’s 5-2 win at UMass and generated a team-high 11 shots on goal across the two games. 

                                                                                                                                          -Mathieu Caron, BU (Jr., G; Abbortsford, B.C.) Helped the Terriers clinch five of six points against UMass. He made 18 saves and was part of a Terrier penalty kill that held UMass to an 0-for-4 mark on the power play in Friday’s 5-2 win. Caron made a season-high 38 saves on Saturday and two clutch stops in the shootout to help BU earn a 3-3 tie and claim an extra point in the Hockey East standings


                                       Photo credit Kyle Prudhomme

NEW►In a Q&A interview with NHL.com, Head Coach Jay Pandolfo dishes on his transition to coaching, goals for this season and coaching Macklin Celebrini.

"You realize how much you enjoy competing, even as a coach. When you're done playing, there's definitely a hole there when your career's over as a player. And for me, I just enjoy the coaching side of it, just from a competitive standpoint. You feel like you're in the fight every day, you know, there's always a challenge, so I'm really enjoying that."

                                         

NEW►Boston Hockey Blog’s Mitch Fink spoke with junior transfer goalie Mathieu Caron—and Pandolfo--after a 56-save weekend that was culminated by a perfect three stops in Saturday’s shootout. (Photo credit Molly Potter)

“I thought he was excellent tonight,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said of Caron after Saturday’s game. “He had a lot of bodies in front of him, pucks coming at him from all over the place. He competes in there. So, I really liked his weekend.”

● Boston Hockey Blog A revitalized Mathieu Caron carried BU to success against UMass

►Several weeks ago, 2024 recruit Cole Eiserman wrote the first installment of his 2024 NHL Draft Diary for NHL.com. Now Macklin Celebrini has been given the same assignment. In his first installment, he writes:

I love playing for Coach 'Pando'. He's taught me a lot already and its only October. I like the fact he's hard on us and he sets the expectations high. He pushes us to be better.

About Eiserman, his buddy and line mate at Shattuck St. Mary’s:

We have a great friendship. We FaceTime every couple of days to catch up and see how things are going. Obviously, I want to see him do well and he wants to see me do well, so we're tight. I think he's one of my best friends and I value that friendship.

Poll Story

While the new USCHO College Hockey Poll saw considerable shuffling of teams up and down, the Terriers remained in the #9 spot following the wins against UMass. BC took over the top spot, while last week's #1 Minnesota--swept by Wisconsin--dropped to #6. BU's next opponent, North Dakota, moved up from fourth to third, after defeating and tying unranked Minnesota State.      

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BU fared better in the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll, moving up a slot to #8, between #7 Quinnipiac and #9 Providence. BC also claims #1 in this poll while North Dakota remains #4.

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John Buccigross's ranking has BU at #8. He has Wisconsin on top followed by BC, Denver and Quinnipiac. North Dakota is #6.


SNL (Saturday Night Leftovers)

► Saturday was Celebrini’s third multi-goal game and fifth multi-point game in six contests.

►Post-game, Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said of the standout freshman: "He's that type of player, he's a big-time player, embraces the challenge, wants to be in big moments. He doesn't cheat the game, he's just as good defensively as offensively. For a 17-year old to have the maturity is huge."

►Jeremy Wilmer is the Hockey East assist leader with eight in six games.

►Freshman defensemen Aiden Celebrini and Tom Willander, who have emerged as a dependable and effective pairing, are BU’s co-leaders in +/- with plus six. They are followed by Macklin at +5 and Wilmer and Luke Tuch, each at +4.

►BU’s streak of a dozen consecutive penalty kills ended midway through the opening period Saturday night with Jack Musa’s goal

►But other streaks continue. With Friday’s win, BU had won six straight against UMass and improved its record against the Minutemen at Agganis Arena to 21-3-4. And with Saturday’s tie, it gave the Terriers an 8-0-2 mark in the last 10 meetings with UMass.

►Friday's GoTerriers.com game preview noted that Pandolfo had never lost to UMass as a player or as a coach. He was 8-0-0 on the ice and now is 6-0-2 behind the bench.

►A USCHO poster pointed out “That was Jay Pandolfo’s first tie as head coach, so the first shootout as well. Now 5-3-1 in OT.”

►We’ve searched high and low for a standalone video of Quinn Hutson’s shootout goal. No luck so far, so here’s a clip of his breakaway goal against Providence in the game that clinched the Hockey East regular season title. The finish is virtually the same: a quick, hard wrist shot past the goalie's glove.

Bernie got the angle just right to display the skill of Celebrini's finish on Friday. 

Looking ahead

Our friend Burnt Boats has posted a new roster projection chart reflecting one decommit and the NHL Central Scouting list of Players to Watch.


2024 recruit Max Lacroix  stopped 39 of 44 shots in NAHL Colorado’s 6-4 loss to Shreveport.

Looking back

@BU_Tweets alum Owen Gund made the call on Patrick Harper's first ECHL goal. The former Terrier star returned to North America after spending the past two seasons in Finland and Sweden.


AJ Greer drives to the net to score his first goal as a Flame in Calgary's 5-2 loss to Edmonton.


Former Terrier Lachlan Getz, now at Michigan Tech, scored his first NCAA goal in the Huskies’ 3-1 loss to Clarkson. He has played in all seven games this season

 

 

 

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