Sunday, March 08, 2026

UPDATED: Terriers fall short against Lowell, will host Vermont in opening playoff round

   

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● Hockey East Men's Tournament Field Set 

● Boston Hockey Blog Forget the first-round bye. BU played “losing hockey” at Lowell, and it can’t afford to do that again

 

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Terriers went into their final regular-season game looking to extend their winning streak to four games and also hoping Maine would lose to Vermont, which would move BU into fifth place and thus avoid playing in the opening round of playoffs.

The Catamounts did their part, knocking off the Black Bears, 5-2 in Burlington, but the Terriers failed to take advantage, losing on the road to Lowell, 4-3, in a disheartening effort that in many ways was a microcosm of this disappointing season.

BU finishes in sixth place in Hockey East and will host Vermont on Wednesday as the conference playoffs begin. Game time is TBD.

"We had too many passengers tonight, Coach Jay Pandolfo said post-game. "Passengers. They just didn't want to play a hard game.

"We're not playing through guys," he added. "We're just reaching and hoping that we're gonna get the puck. Happened a lot tonight. That's just will. That's just not playing the game the right way."  

Among the self-inflicted wounds, the Terriers committed eight penalties resulting in seven UML power plays, with several short ones due to overlapping penalties. BU killed all seven but spent a large chunk of minutes shorthanded. 

BU opened the scoring in the first period on an Owen McLaughlin goal that Lowell matched in the second period. The River Hawks broke the tie with a pair of goals on the rush early in the third period. Cole Eiserman brought the Terriers within one, but Lowell scored an empty-net goal to restore the two-goal margin. Gavin McCarthy's late extra-attacker goal made it 4-3 but BU could not produce an equalizer.

Mikhail Yegorov stopped 23 of 26 shots and made the initial save on each of three goals he allowed. Second and third chances produced the Lowell tallies. 

BU took a 1-0 lead four minutes in when McLaughlin redirected a perfectly placed centering pass from the right boards by Sacha Boisvert. Brandon Svoboda had the second assist. 

Lowell tied the score seven minutes into the middle period. Yegorov defended Dillan Bentley's in-tight shot but Jay Ahearn got to the loose puck in the crease before the BU defense could clear it.  

The River Hawks broke the tie early in the third period, scoring on the rush. Libor Nemec dropped a pass to Diego Buttazzoni in the slot for a wrister past Yegorov. 

Lowell extended its lead at 8:37 with the teams playing 4-on-4. Yegorov turned aside TJ Schweighardt's shot from the right circle and Bentley's followed, but couldn't stop a third attempt by David Adaszynski. 

BU answered that one quickly. Kamil Bednarik won an O-zone draw back to Eiserman who one-timed a bullet past goalie Samuel Richard, cutting the lead to 3-2. 

Pandolfo pulled Yegorov for an extra attacker with two minutes left but Lowell's Jak Vaarwerk scored on a long shot. Gavin McCarthy added a final extra-attacker goal to close out the scoring. 

Advanced analytics from BU Hockey Stats. 

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● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Postgame Pandolfo

● Boston Hockey Blog BU squanders chance at first-round bye  

● BU Hockey Stats Recap: Sour Note 

Looking ahead

2027 recruit Brady Knowling stopped 26 of 28 shots in the NTDP U18s' 3-2 win against Green Bay. 

2026 or 2027 recruit Egor Shilov scored his 29th and 30th goals in Victoriaville's 5-4 Baie-Comeau. He has 78 points, tied for fifth in the QMJHL and first among rookies. 

Looking back

Trevor Zegras scored the shootout winner (video) in the Flyers' 4-3 win against Pittsburgh. He also assisted on a goal and has a 21-30-51 scoring line.

Clayton Keller assisted on a pair of goals for Utah in its 5-4 overtime win over Columbus. Charlie Coyle assisted on two Blue Jackets' tallies. 

Macklin Celebrini scored his 32nd goal in San Jose's 2-1 overtime loss to the Islanders.  With 89 points, he's fifth in NHL scoring.

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