Friday, March 29, 2024

UPDATED: Caron sharp as BU defeats RIT, 6-3, and gains berth in Regional final

 UPDATES FROM THE SIOUX FALLS REGIONAL

►In Chicago, he was "Magic" Jack Harvey. In Sioux Falls, it's "Nasty" Jack.

► Extended video highlights of Thursday's 6-3 win 

►Who is the hardest working women in college hockey news? It's BU's Belle Fraser who produced the game reports for Boston Hockey Blog and The Boston Globe and still had time to join Bernie Corbett for their post-game wrap-up video. All linked below. 

 

Image

 

#2 Terriers received goals from six players and a dialed-in Mathieu Caron stopped 28 shots—and covered up numerous defensive gaffes—as BU pulled away from a tenacious #17/18 RIT squad for a 6-3 in the semifinal of the Sioux Falls Regional. Terriers will face Minnesota, who rallied in the third period to edge Omaha, 3-2, in the regional final Saturday night.

The win improved BU's record to 27-9-2. Terriers, playing in their 39th NCAA tournament have a 46-39-0 in tournament games.  

BU scored twice in each period while the Tigers scored once each period. Terrier goals were from Lane Hutson, Ryan Greene, Sam Stevens, Macklin Celebrini, Jack Harvey and Dylan Peterson. Devin Kaplan, Nick Zabaneh and Tom Willander each had a pair of assists.

BU men's ice hockey players celebrating a gosal

"We're certainly happy with the win,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo said. “We started off a little slow, had a really tough first period. Weren’t managing the puck. Our goaltender was very good… third period, we started playing our game...the first one's always tough, give RIT credit."

"We knew that we had to be better than we were in the first period. You can hear the guys talking about it in the locker room. It doesn't have to come from me all the time."

As the ESPN announcers pointed out, Caron was the MVP of the initial 10 minutes of the game. Early on, BU turnovers led to three grade-A chances, including one with a Tiger alone in the slot, a two-on-none and a breakaway. Caron kept his net clean and the game scoreless. 

Following the game Hutson pointed out that Caron "was huge for us. He’s been our rock all year. Obviously we don’t want to give up that many high-quality chances, but he stood tall for us. We always know he’s going to have our back.”

BU finally got on the board with eight minutes left in the period. Kaplan kept a puck in the offensive zone, sending it into the right corner where Celebrini quickly sent a cross-ice pass to Lane Hutson in the left circle. The sophomore defenseman’s drag sent a defender to the ice and goalie Tommy Scarfone sliding out of position, allowing Hutson to flip a backhander into the half-empty net for his 14th tally.

Just over a minute later, the Terriers doubled the lead when Greene scored unassisted. He stripped a Tiger skater along the boards in BU’s defensive zone and raced up ice, eventually on a two-on-one with Jack Hughes. Reaching the left circle he fired back to the short side over Scarfone’s glove for his 12th goal of the season.

The two-goal lead didn’t last long. A questionable hooking call on Jeremy Wilmer sent RIT to the power play. With 30 seconds left in the man-advantage, Caron stopped a long shot from the right point and then a follow-up, but Elijah Gonsalves outdueled two BU defenders and flipped the puck over Caron’s glove from in close. The Tigers outshot BU, 13-6, in the period, but trailed 2-1.

Terriers came out fast in the second period creating numerous scoring opportunities, but Scarfone made some strong saves to keep his team close. BU had four shots on goal during an early power-play and Wilmer’s shot from the bottom of the right circle went off iron.  

BU extended the lead to 3-1 at the 8:16 mark. Stevens’ shot from the slot was blocked but recovered by Lane Hutson, who sent the puck back to Stevens in the right circle. With Luke Tuch positioned at the left post for a redirection, Stevens instead rifled a low shot through Scarfone’s five hole for his ninth goal, a new career high.

At 13:13, Stevens and RIT’s Gianfranco Cassaro were whistled for cross-checking and the teams played 4-on-4. Just after the dual minors ended, an RIT clearing pass slid past Stevens and was picked up by Cassaro on a breakaway. He beat Caron high to the glove side slicing BU’s lead to one. The Terriers challenged the goal for possible offside, but a review upheld the tally.

BU responded quickly scoring on the rush with the prettiest play of the game. After Celebrini forced a turnover in BU’s d-zone, Zabaneh headed up ice and passed to Peterson in the neutral zone. They traded passes and then Peterson dished the puck to Celebrini trailing the play and he hit the half-open net for his 32nd goal, which would prove to be the game-winner. With an 18-10 shot advantage in the period, BU emerged with a 4-2 lead.

BU expected RIT to push hard beginning the third period, but it was the Terriers who added to their lead.  Shane Lachance head-manned a pass to Harvey at center ice with two Tigers dropping back. Harvey slid the puck between the two defenders, went around one defenseman and reached the rolling puck just before Scarfone could stick it away. Reaching out, Harvey flicked the puck over Scarfone on the blocker side for his sixth goal and a 5-2 lead. Tom Willander had the second assist.

BU limited RIT’s offensive chances and maintained the three-goal lead for the next 13 minutes. The Tigers pulled their goalie and pressed the attack. Willander's long clearing pass connected with Peterson as he entered the offensive zone. His shot attempt was deflected by a Tiger skater's stick but still found the empty noet for a 6-2 lead. 

A Cody Laskosky goal in the final minute closed out the scoring.

Terriers finished the game with a 33-31 shot advantage and a 31-25 edge at the face-off dot. Both Celebrini and Stevens won 10 of 15 draws. 

Asked about his team's shaky start to the contest, Lane Hutson said “I don’t think necessarily [it was] nerves. Like coach was saying, the first [game] is the hardest one. I think we just had to get our feet moving and get to our game. Just took us a minute, and hopefully, it doesn’t happen again.”

Celebrini added, “We need to clean up our breakouts, enough turnovers. We’re just not being smart with the puck and we’re not managing the puck.” 

In a post-game interview, Harvey said, “I don’t think it was our best game by any means. But the good thing about our team is we’re always able to find a way to win. So, we’re happy about that today.”

With eight points (3G,5A) in the past five games, Greene has 36 points and is tied with Wilmer for third in team scoring. 

►FloHockey’s Chris Peters tweeted: “Macklin Celebrini scores his 32nd goal of the season. He passes Craig Simpson for most goals by a U18 player in NCAA history.”

►Celebrini also moves past Tony Amonte to #14 on BU's single-season goal-scoring list. He's also the first Terrier with more than 60 points in a season since Jack Eichel (71) and Evan Rodrigues (61) in 2014-15.


● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Highlights

● Post-game comments: Pandolfo, Celebrini, Hutson

● Photo gallery

● Boston Hockey Blog Three Takeaways from BU's 6-3 win over RIT

● College Hockey News BU Gets Its Swagger Back in First-Round Win Over RIT

● USCHO BU pulls away from RIT, gains 6-3 victory

● Boston Globe #2 BU Rolls Over RIT to get One Step Closer to the Frozen Four

 

Posted by at

1 comment:

Skolzman said...

The boys definitely have to clean up their game, but they always had an answer when things got tight. Let’s take it to those Gophers on Saturday and go Michigan Tech Friday afternoon. I can dream, can’t I?

7:48 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Site Meter