#9/8 Terriers will seek to “get their confidence back” and end a four-game skid as they begin a two-game road series tonight against Vermont at Gutterson Field House in Burlington. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. for the contest that will Live Stream on ESPN+.
“We’re obviously struggling a little bit
here, dropping four in a row, which is tough,” Head Coach Jay Pandolfo told the
media. “But you know, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we have to find a way
out of this. We went back to work this week in practice, try to, you know,
shore up some things. Get better in all areas of our game.”
He ascribed some of the team’s execution
issue more to a bit mental fatigue rather than physical fatigue. Practices have
focused on getting back to the game that made the Terriers successful in
November, December and January when they went 15-3-0.
BU goes into the penultimate weekend of
the conference
race in second place, one point behind Northeastern and one point ahead of
Merrimack. The Catamounts are at the other end of the standings, having won
just four Hockey East games, the most recent one being a 2-1 OT win over
Merrimack on Jan. 28. Since then UVM has two losses and two ties. Outside of
Hockey East, they are 5-3-2.
Scoring has been a season-long problem for
the Cats, who are averaging 1.83 goals per game, but did score seven times in
the two ties against UMass. Strong goaltending has kept them in games
throughout the season. Junior Gabe Carriere has a 2.46 GAA while Oskar Autio, a
grad transfer from Penn State, stands at 2.59.
Junior forward Isak Walther leads in both goals (7) and points. He’s aided by Andrei Buyalsky (14) and a trio at 13, Joel Maatta, Jacques Bouquot and Will Zapernick.
Despite the scoring woes of the past few
weeks, BU is #5 in scoring in Division 1 with a 3.90 average. Matt Brown
(14-26-40) and Lane Hutson (10-28-38) are the top two scorers in Hockey East,
followed by Jeremy Willmer and Jay O’Brien with 25 points each and Ryan Green
and Wilmer Skoog with 24 apiece.
Pandolfo reported that he hopes to have senior forward Jamie Armstrong available for one of the games at Vermont. He said that Drew Commesso will be in goal Friday and that, other than the top line of Brown, Skoog and Devin Kaplan, the forward combinations will see different combinations. John Copeland will be the sixth defenseman.
TONIGHT'S BU LINE-UP
Brown-Skoog-Kaplan
Tuch-Greene-O'Brien
Wilmer-Zabaneh-Peterson
Phillips-Stevens-Q. Hutson
Armstrong
Fensore-Gallagher
L.Hutson-McCarthy
Webber-Copeland
Commesso
Duplessis
Schena
● GoTerriers.com preview,
Game Notes, Live
Stats, BU All-Access (audio),
BU Men’s Hockey Twitter
● Live Stream ESPN+ , International Stream
● Boston Hockey Blog preview
● WTBU Sports preview
● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape
►This week, Boston Hockey Blog’s Terrier Hockey Talk blog series features a conversation with junior forward Luke Tuch. (Spotify Link)
Looking ahead
2024 or 2025 recruit Cole Hutson is one of three NTDP U17 skaters who have moved up to the U18s. He's the top scoring blueliner—and third overall— on the U17s with 42 points. That ties him with Dom Fensore for 12th most points by an NTDP defenseman in a season. Hutson is seven points away from tying Chad Krys’ record (49) for most points by a defenseman in an NTDP U17 season.
The list of highest
single-season point totals by an NTDP defenseman includes 7 Terriers in the
top 13: Lane Hutson’s 63 with the U18s trails only Cam York’s 65. Others are:
Freddy Meyer (51), Adam Clendening (49), Krys (49), Bryan Miller (46) and
Fensore and Cole Hutson (42).
Lane Hutson also was elevated to the U18s late in his U17
season. He had eight points in six games in the 2021 IIHF World U18
Championships and was named a “Top 3 Player” on the U.S. Squad, an honor he repeated
last year at the U18s, along with Top Defenseman
Looking back
tw-align-centerfirst of (hopefully) many tonight 🚨 pic.twitter.com/KsaZpg69sp
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 24, 2023
Jack Eichel scored his 19th goal and assisted on the game-winner in the Vegas
Golden Knights’ come-from-behind 4-3
win against Calgary.
Charlie McAvoy and Charlie Coyle assisted on third-period goals as the Bruins outlasted the Kraken, 6-5. McAvoy had two helpers and now has 37 for the season. Coyle has 19 assists.
Women’s Team
The Terriers’ season—and the 18-year head coaching career of Brian Durocher—came to an end Wednesday night with a 5-4 overtime loss to Merrimack in the opening round of the Hockey East Tournament.
Following the game, BU’s only varsity coach said, “I’ll miss the place and everything about it,” referring to Walter Brown Arena when he had coached the women’s team, been an assistant to Jack Parker and played goal for four Frozen Four teams, including the 1978 national champions.
“There will certainly be some sad thoughts in my head, but
the other part of the emotions were kind of based on this game, that I thought
we didn’t quite get what we might’ve deserved,” he added. “I’m not worried
about Brian Durocher, I’m worried about those people that I was wishing there
was another game in their future.”
Over 18 seasons, his teams won 336 games and claimed the Hockey East championship five times, including four straight from 2012-15. The 2010-11 and 2012-13 squads reached the NCAA championship game.
tw-align-centerCongrats to long-time @TerrierWHockey head coach Brian Durocher on an amazing 45-year career!@BUAthletics #ProudtoBU @hockey_east #WhereChampionsPlay @BOShockeyblog @dailyfreepress pic.twitter.com/3lcWqTWL0z
— Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) February 24, 2023
In a back-and-forth contest with five lead changes, BU gave
up a 3-2 second period advantage when Merrimack scored and even-strength goal.
Late in the period, the Warriors scored short-handed but Julia Shaunessy scored
on the same power play and the teams were tied at four apiece.
The third period was scoreless. Then nine minutes into overtime Alex Pongo scored on a sharp-angle backhander sending Merrimack to the quarterfinals.
BU outshot Merrimack 40 to 25 and received a first-period goal from Julia Nearis and second-period tallies from Brooke Disher and Clara Yuhn. Grad student goalie Andrea Brandli had 36 saves for BU.
● GoTerriers.com recap
and comprehensive
box score
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