Wednesday, November 22, 2023

UPDATED Terriers rally past Quinnipiac on Greene PPG and Caron's 27 saves

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In a battle of NCAA heavyweights, #5 Terriers rallied from 2-0 in the third period to defeat #3 Quinnipiac, 3-2. BU received a pair of goals from Ryan Greene, including the game-winner with 1:51 remaining, and one from Jeremy Wilmer, with all three coming in the final 12 minutes.

A loud Thanksgiving Eve crowd of 5,296 was treated to true big-boy hockey.

Mathieu Caron delivered another sterling performance in goal with 27 saves and numerous 5-bell saves that kept his cage clean during the scoreless first two periods.

With the win, BU improves to 9-3-1 and extends its winning streak to five games. Terriers are undefeated in regulation in their last 10 games (8-1-1). And,they have supplanted the Bobcats as #1 in both the PairWise Ratings and the College Hockey News Power Ratings, which are based on KRACH.

BU also boosted its all time record vs. Quinnipiac to 4-1-0.

“It’s a great win for our team," Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said. " I think it’s a confidence booster. We want to keep improving, but this hopefully helps us later on.”

Addressing the comeback, he explained, “I had a feeling on the bench. The guys didn’t get down, and they kept pushing. Just a great response there, and it’s a huge win for us.” 

All five goals came in the third period, but the opening two stanzas had plenty of scoring opportunities. The game began inauspiciously for BU when Quinn Hutson went off for slashing 15 seconds in. A successful kill was followed seconds later by a Sam Stevens penalty, also killed.

Terriers, who also failed to score on a power play of their own, had an 11-5 overall shot advantage, and 6-3 at even strength. BU also had a 15-12 edge at the faceoff dot. Gavin McCarthy hit a crossbar and Vinny Duplessis made a big stop on a Macklin Celebrini bid.

The shot advantage flipped in the middle period with QU on top, 10-5. Early in, Duplessis made a key stop on Nick Zabaneh who had sped behind the Bobcat defense. That was followed by two big Caron stops around the three minute mark.

Three minutes later, Greene had a half-open cage to shoot at, but he fired the rolling puck wide.

Quinnipiac broke the scoreless deadlock at 2:36 of the third period when Zach Tupkar circled the BU cage and found an unmarked Andon Cerbone, who beat Caron from the bottom of the left circle.  

Just over two minutes later, Charles-Alexis Legault--a one-time BU commit--fired well wide of the net, but his shot glanced off Cade Webber and past Caron for a 2-0 Bobcat lead. 

Down but not deflated, the Terriers began to regain the offensive momentum. At 7:48, strong puck movement produced Wilmer's first goal of the season. Devin Kaplan zipped a pass to Greene in the left circle and he quickly sent it to Lane Hutson in the high slot. He closed to between the circles and sent a low shot toward the left post that Wilmer redirected behind Duplessis, cutting the lead in half.

The Terriers kept coming, with Quinn Hutson getting a good opportunity on the rush but Duplessis defended his shot. With under five minutes remaining, Greene set up Kaplan for a wrister from the right circle that Duplessis saved. The rebound came back to Kaplan, who backhanded the puck to Greene and the Paradise, Newfoundland, native whipped it past the goalie's blocker for his fifth goal of the season and a 2-2 tie.

At 17:09 an interference call on Cooper Moore put BU on the power play for the fifth time; the Bobcats' top-ranked penalty unit had stymied the Terriers' first four chances. Not this time. Celebrini passed to Quinn Hutson in the left circle. He dished to center point where Lane Hutson spun around to create space for Greene who closed to the high slot and wristed a shot past Duplessis whose "eyes were taken away" by yet another lights-out screen from Shane Lachance. 3-2 Terriers.

“Once we got the first one, we kind of knew obviously we were closer to tying the game,” Greene said, who has a six-game points streak (4G,5A). “Once we were able to tie it … we just had so much momentum and energy that we were able to bury that last one.”

Solid BU defense and a few mistakes by the visitors prevented any dangerous attempts at an equalizer. An icing call and a failed entry kept Duplessis from departing for an extra skater (which Bernie Corbett likened to the Hotel California: "you can check in anytime but you can never leave").  When Vinny finally got off the ice, Luke Tuch nearly added an empty-netter.

A final shot attempt was blocked by Case McCarthy, who had four of BU's 23 blocked shots.

Duplessis remained on the ice post-game to see his former teammates in the stick-tap circle.

►Post-game video and photos from BHB's Gracie Davenport.

The Terriers improved to 4-1-0 against top-10 teams this season, including two top-five wins, as well as four wins against the top-five teams in the current PairWise rankings.

BU was a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-4 on the power play.

Greene on the crowd:"It was awesome. I honestly didn't expect a turnout like that, especially on a Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It was super cool to see. It was loud, and obviously with a crowd like that, that's so into the game, it helps us a ton."

With his two assists, Lane Hutson is the points leader among Hockey East defensemen. Nationally, he's second behind Michigan's Seasmus Casey.

NESN's Tyler Murray tweeted that prior to tonight, Quinnipiac had outscored opponents 25-4 in 3rd periods this season, including the pair they scored tonight.

● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Highlights and Post-game comments: Pandolfo, Greene, Wilmer

● Boston Hockey Blog Sophomores stand out as BU comes from behind in benchmark win

 

►Terriers will have a happy Thanksgiving--and day off--before preparing for Saturday's 9th edition of Red Hot Hockey against Cornell at Madison Square Garden.  

The BU Alumni Association is sponsoring a pre-game gathering at nearby Stout beginning at 6:00 p.m. Details and registration information are here.

 

Looking ahead

2024 recruit Kamil Bednarik registered his first career hat trick and added a pair of assists while fellow recruit Cole Eiserman scored twice and assisted on three goal as the NTDP U18s routed Adrian College, 13-1.

A spin-o-rama score from Kamil! 😲#USAvsADR pic.twitter.com/6pGwJv9FMP

 

Looking back

Jack Eichel's eighth goal was the game-winner in Vegas' 2-1 win over Dallas as he beat Jake Oettinger in overtime.

 Charlie Coyle scored his seventh goal as the Bruins beat Florida, 3-1. 

Joel Farabee's eighth goal brought the Flyers within one of the Islanders, who held on for a 3-2 win. 

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