Friday, January 19, 2024

UPDATED: Game Day: Terriers vs. Catamounts X2

 Game day graphic featuring posed photo of Gavin McCarthy. BU at Vermont, Jan. 19, 7 PM on ESPN+

#1-ranked Terriers are in Burlington for their first road series of second semester as they take on the Catamounts at Gutterson Field House. BU is looking to extend its five-game winning streak and continue its hold on the Hockey East top spot.

BU (14-4-1) is making the trip to Vermont for the second year in a row. Last season, BU swept the Catamounts twice in February and then in the HE quarterfinals at Agganis Arena behind Nick Zabaneh's hat trick.

The 10-9-1 Cats who are currently tied for seventh in Hockey East with New Hampshire, have won six of their last eight. Last weekend they split a series at Northeastern, winning, 5-4, and losing 3-1, both tight games.

The Vermont roster is comprised of skaters from nine different countries. Besides the U.S. and Canada, there is at least one player from Finland, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany and Kazakhstan.

Defenseman Jeremie Bucheler, a transfer from Northeastern, is the top scorer with a 6-10-16 scoring line. Ryan Miotto, a transfer from Canisius, has a team high seven goals, while senior Will Zapernick has 11 points and junior Timofei Spitserov has 10. Four-year starter Gabe Carriere, like BU’s Mathieu Caron, has been in goal for all of UVM’s games and has a 2.35 GAA and a .919 save percentage. 

Carriere was Hockey East Goalie of the Month for December. In eight games, he was 6-2 with a 1.75 GAA and .930 save percentage. In five of the wins, he yielded just one goal.

Caron has been at the top of his game in recent starts and earned conference Goaltender of the Week honors after a recording his first shutout (3-0) as a Terrier. He is undefeated in his last five games with a 1.39 GAA and a .948 save percentage during that span, including Saturday’s 36-save shutout of the Wildcats. Caron’s highlight reel save while BU was killing a 5-on-3 made Hockey East’s top plays of the week.

The Terriers are 26-for-28 (92.9%) on the penalty kill since Nov. 22, which ranks second in the nation during that span.  They have killed off the last 11 power plays they have faced dating back to the second period of a 5-2 win over Merrimack on Dec. 2.  Of the two power-play goals allowed since 11/22, one was on a 5-on-3.

A fourth-round draft pick of Carolina in 2019, Cade Webber has 53 blocks thus far. After finishing his undergraduate degree in three years, he's pursuing a Masters as a grad student.

Macklin Celebrini leads all Hockey East skaters with 22 points in conference games and 29 points overall. Lane Hutson’s 16 points are most by a conference defenseman in HEA games and also leads Hockey East blueliners in overall points with 23.

Grad student Sam Stevens has a five-game points streak (3G,3A) and has hit double figures with 10 points overall.

Last weekend, all four two-game series in Hockey East resulted in splits, pointing to the difficulty of sweeping a weekend series.  Despite its lofty ranking, BU is taking a one-game-at-a-time approach.

“I think it’s been talked about for a while now, how strong Hockey East is,” said head coach Jay Pandolfo. “There’s really no easy games, that’s clear. It’s tough to get wins. For us, we’re trying to just focus on Friday and try to get it done there, and then go from there.”

 

TONIGHT'S TERRIER LINEUP 

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

● Live Streams: ESPN+, International Stream

● Coach Jay Pandolfo’s Media Call

● Boston Hockey Blog series preview

● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape

Looking ahead

2024 recruit Nick Roukounakis scored his first goal of the season in Tri-City’s 4-3 overtime win against Fargo. The big left wing has a 1-3-4 line in four games after missing his team’s first 27 games with an injury.

 

Looking back

Brady Tkachuk scored his 19th goal in Ottawa’s 6-2 win against Montreal.

 

Wilmer Skoog, doing Skoog Things, redirects a shot on a power play for his second AHL goal in Charlotte's 5-4 overtime win over San Jose on Tuesday. He scored again Wednesday as the Checkers swept their two-games series with the John McCarthy-coached Barracuda. Skoog has a 3-4-7 line in 14 games since his call-up from the ECHL.

Women’s Team

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Terriers (9-10-3)  will look to build on Tuesday’s Beanpot semifinal win (see video below) as they host Vermont (9-12-1) for a two-game series at Walter Brown Arena. Friday’s game has a 6:00 p.m. puck drop while Saturday’s contest is a 3:00 p.m. start.

BU is 39-11-8 all-time against the Catamounts, including a 21-4-6 record at Walter Brown.

Senior Lacey Martin leads the team in goals (10) and points (19). Classmate Catherine Foulem and sophomore Clara Yuhn each have 13 points and sophomore Sydney Healey has 11. Junior goalie Callie Shanahan, who returned to action after missing first semester with an injury, stopped 27 BC shots in Tuesday’s win.

The Catamounts have lost four of their five games this month, including a pair to Providence last weekend (6-0 and 4-3 OT). Senior Natalie Mlynkova leads the attack with an 11-11-22 scoring line. Junior Evelyne Blais-Savoie has 16 points. Senior goalie Jessie McPherson has a 7-5-1 record and a 2.50 GAA.

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

● Live Stream ESPN+, International stream

● Boston Hockey Blog series preview

 

Video Maven Bernie Perisie's cinematic recap of Tuesday's Beanpot win. 

 

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