#2 Terriers begin a home-and-home series against Connecticut with a road game in Storrs. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. for the contest that will be live streamed on ESPN+ and internationally (links below). The Huskies are the only conference team left on the schedule that BU hasn’t already faced this season. Terriers will be off next weekend.
"Every weekend is tough, but we certainly want to go into this bye week playing the right way and playing with some urgency,” Coach Jay Pandolfo said on Thursday. “Making sure that we go into the bye week having some confidence…It’s very important that we have a solid weekend."
BU currently is in second place in the Hockey East standings, one point behind BC, who has a game in hand.
Tonight's game will be BU's first ever at UConn's new Toscano Family Center, which opened in January 2023. This season the new facility hasn’t been overly friendly to the home team, which has a 2-6-0 record there.
The Huskies are coming off a bye week and the previous weekend, they were swept by UMass—2-0 and 3-1—despite out-shooting the Minutemen in both contests. Earlier in the month, UConn split a series with Providence, losing, 5-0, at home and winning, 2-1, at Schneider Arena.
Junior Chase Bradley leads the UConn offense with 11 goals and 22 points. Matthew Wood, a Hockey East All-Rookie selection a year ago with 34 points in 35 games, has eight goals and 18 points. He was a first-round pick by Nashville in 2023 and played for Canada in the 2024 World Juniors last month. They’re supported by senior Hudson Schandor (17 points) and freshman Jake Richard (15). Anchoring the defense are senior Andrew Lucas (13), in his second year as a Husky after transferring from Vermont, and grad student Jake Flynn (5), who, it seems, has been at UConn forever.
Grad student Ethan Haider, a transfer from Clarkson with a 2.72 GAA, and sophomore Arsenii Sergeev (2.45), have split the goaltending. Haider stopped 42 shots in UConn’s 2-1 win over the Friars.
Pandolfo who was pleased with BU’s thorough performance last Saturday, a convincing 5-2 win against Providence following some tweaking of the forward lines, is inclined to stand pat.
“See how I feel when I wake up tomorrow,” Pandolfo said. “I anticipate we’ll start that way tomorrow night with the lines that we finished with on Saturday.”
That line chart featured an all-freshman top line with the first, second and fifth leading USHL goal scorers from the 2022-23 season: Mackline Celebrini, Jack Harvey and Shane Lachance.
Junior Ty Gallagher, who has been dressing as the seventh defenseman for much of the season, saw considerable ice time in the 5-2 win.
“We could see that he had good energy on Saturday versus Providence and I think he earned more ice time with his play,” Pandolfo explained. “He played very well Saturday and I’m sure he’ll get a good look Friday.”
"He’s handled it (fewer opportunities in games) very well,” Pandolfo added. “I know he’s not happy about it, there’s no question about that. But he’s a really good team guy. He wants to see us win, that’s really what he cares about."
TONIGHT’S TERRIER LINEUP
Gallagher joins Tom Willander on the third blue line pairing and Aiden Celebrini is the extra defenseman.
● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, BU All-Access (audio), BU Men's Hockey Twitter
● Live Stream ESPN+, International stream
● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape
● Boston Hockey Blog Terriers look to ride momentum into weekend series against UConn
● HockeyEastOnline Friday GameDay links
►The new edition of Inside BU Hockey has two separate podcasts. The first one features Bernie Corbett's interviews with Pandolfo and Harvey. The second one has Bernie's talk with women's team head coach Tara Watchorn, as well as Paige Capistran's chat with senior Madison Cardacci.
►On this week’s Terrier Hockey Talk podcast, the BHB
crew talks with freshman forward Lachance. The son of BU d-man Scott
Lachance and grandson of legendary coach Jack Parker, Lachance became the
fourth Terrier to reach double digits on goals when he scored his 10th
and 11th against Providence. A year ago, he enjoyed a breakout season
at USHL Youngstown scoring 33 goals. BU’s freshman class has three of the top
five USHL goal scorers from a year ago as Macklin Celebrini had 40 and Jack
Harvey collected 40. Lachance also captained the Phantoms to the USHL’s Clark
Cup Championship. A natural leader, he’s
envisioned to be a future BU captain.
►For ESPN.com, former BU All-American Colby Cohen projects the field for the 16-team NCAA tournament.
● ESPN.com Road to the Frozen Four
► In his latest NHL Draft Diary, Celebrini addresses important games down the stretch, Beanpot disappointment and the Terrier he feels does receive enough recognition.
● NHL.com 2024 Draft Diary: Macklin Celebrini
►TSN’s Craig Button announced his list of top 50 NHL-affiliated prospects. He pegged Tom Willander (Vancouver) at #9 and Lane Hutson (Montreal) at #16
Looking ahead
BU’s 2024 recruit class shrunk a bit this week when Owen
Keefe decommitted and verballed to Northeastern where his father Jerry Keefe is
the head coach. Keefe had not signed an NLI during the early signing period
last November, leading to speculation his commitment to the Terriers wasn’t 100
percent solid. According to New England Hockey Journal, Keefe will play a third USHL season before arriving on Huntington Ave.
As things stand, the 2024 class includes seven recruits, for now: forwards, Cole Eiserman, Kamil Bednarik, Jack Pridham, Brandon Svoboda and Nick Roukounakis; defenseman Cole Hutson and goalie Michael Chambre.
Looking back
For the second game in a row, the winning shot came off Charlie McAvoy’s stick. Monday, his shootout winner gave Boston a 4-3 over Dallas. Wednesday, he scored in overtime in the Bruins’ 6-5 win in Edmonton. For McAvoy, it was his ninth goal of the season. He also recorded an assist as did Charlie Coyle.
tw-align-centerCHUCK SAID GOOOOODNIGHT 👋 pic.twitter.com/JbxKjV0JCr
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 22, 2024
Last night Charlie Coyle scored both Bruins goals--his 19th and 20th--in Boston's 3-2 overtime loss to Calgary.
tw-align-center✌️ for the game.
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 23, 2024
2️⃣0️⃣ for the season.#NHLBruins | @CharlieCoyle_3 pic.twitter.com/EksrSnN6Bw
Women’s team
Terriers are in the final week of the regular season and begin a home-and-home series with the first-place Connecticut at Walter Brown Arena for Senior Day. Puck drop is at 6 p.m. for the contest that will live stream on ESPN+. With BU in sixth place in Hockey East, this very possibly could be the team’s final appearance on home ice this season.
● GoTerriers.com preview, Live Stats, BU All-Access (audio), BU Women's Hockey Twitter
● Live Stream ESPN+, International stream
● Boston Hockey Blog preview
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