Friday, December 01, 2023

UPDATED: Game Day: BU visits Merrimack; D-O-M honors for Hutson; Milestone for Eichel

For the third time in his season and a half BU career, Lane Hutson has been named Hockey East’s Defender of the Month. The sophomore blueliner, who earned D-O-M honors in October and November a year ago, had a standout November with six goals and five assists. That raised his career scoring line to 23-41-64 in just 52 games.

Hutson currently leads all D1 defensemen with eight goals, while his 16 points is tied for fourth.

Macklin Celebrini was runner-up for Rookie-of-the Month, an award he won for October. The center from Vancouver, BC, had 11 points (G,10A) in November.

● GoTerriers.com Hutson named Hockey East Defender of the Month

● HockeyEastOnline report 

 

Game Day Graphic featuring posed photo of Shane Lachance. BU at Merrimack, Dec. 1, 7:30 PM on ESPN+                           

#4/5 Terriers resume Hockey East action after a pair of games against ECAC teams. They begin a home-and-home series with always-challenging Merrimack on the road at Lawler Arena in North Andover. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. for the contest that will be streamed lived on ESPN+.

Despite having won five of their last six and six of the last eight, Head Coach Jay Pandolfo is looking for more consistency from his squad. He told the media Thursday, “I think we’ve been inconsistent. That’s probably my biggest takeaway up to this point is we haven’t been consistent in our game and how we play with our execution.”

BU defeated the Warriors in the Hockey East championship game last March, but has come home empty-handed in its last two visits to North Andover. Terriers are 3-3-0 in the last six games at Lawler.

“We’ve got to get back to playing really good hockey going into this weekend against a very good Merrimack team who we had some tough games against last year,” Pandolfo added.

“It’s a tough place to play. There’s not a lot of space in that rink,“ he continued. “Things happen very quickly. We have to make sure we’re ready from the start. I think last year we weren’t ready from the start.”

Addressing the team's depth on defense, Pandolfo noted that freshman Gavin McCarthy has adapted well to speed and skill of Hockey East.

“He’s come a long way from the start. Seems like he’s getting better every week, every game. He’s getting much better defensively with his stick, much better ending plays. Seems like he has a lot more confidence with the puck as well.”

Following Thursday’s practice, junior defenseman Ty Gallagher told the Boston Hockey Blog, “"Our biggest focus is being hard to play against this weekend. They’re a big strong team and they’re a good team as well. Just being hard to play against and letting our skill take over as well is definitely the key to this game."

After losing its last three conference games, Merrimack rebounded with non-conference wins against Army and Bentley. The veteran offense is led by familiar names: Zach Bookman (2-14-16), Matt Copponi (3-13-16) and Alex Jefferies (7-6-13). Once again the Warriors goaltending is split between Hugo Olas (2.55, .913) and Zachary Borgiel (2.36, .916); each has three wins and three losses. Aided by its smaller rink, Merrimack is killing 86% of penalties.

BU and Merrimack are #1 (211) and #2 (196) in blocked shots among conference teams. Cade Webber is the individual leader with 36 while Case McCarthy is second with 32.

TONIGHT’S BU LINEUP

Tuch-M.Celebrini-Q. Hutson

Lachance-Greene-Kaplan

Wilmer-Hughes-Peterson

Zabaneh-Stevens-Grimes

L. Hutson-Willander 

Webber-C. McCarthy

G. McCarthy-Gallagher

A. Celebrini

Caron

Graham

Howard

Logan Gatto--Team Impact

● GoTerriers.com preview, Game Notes, Live Stats, BU All-Access (audio), BU Men’s Hockey Twitter

● Live Stream: ESPN+. TSN+ in Canada

● Coach Pandolfo’s Media Call

● Boston Hockey Blog game preview

● College Hockey News: Tale of the Tape

►Freshman Doug Grimes is this week’s guest on BHB’s Terrier Hockey Blog podcast. A lifelong BU fan, the Brookline, Mass., native has thrived on the Terriers’ hard-checking fourth line and he scored his first collegiate goal in the second period of Saturday’s Red Hot Hockey game.

►Saturday home gain against Merrimack (6 p.m. start) will be the annual Agganis Arena Teddy Bear Toss.

►Writing for NHL.com, Mark Divver calls out the top ten NCAA defensemen to watch this season, including Lane Hutson and Tom Willander.


►McKeen’s Hockey’s latest 20 Prospect Points includes a future Terrier and one from the past trying to get back to the NHL.

#14 Another tournament recently wrapped up as well, the U18 5 Nations Cup saw the USA dominate most of the event, winning three of their four matches. Cole Hutson, the younger brother of Montreal Canadiens’ prospect Lane Hutson, was arguably the top defender in the tournament, putting up seven points (two goals, five assists). His creativity and elusiveness were on full display at the event.

#3 It’s been a long road for Kieffer Bellows, being drafted back in 2016 by the New York Islanders 19th overall and never being able to break into the NHL. This season, he attended the Carolina Hurricanes training camp on a pro tryout before getting cut and signing a pro tryout with the Toronto Marlies. He’s been extremely impressive since then, putting up 12 points (six goals, six assists) in nine games with points in eight of those nine games. He’s done everything he can to earn himself a contract.

Looking Back

In his 500th NHL game, Jack Eichel scored his ninth goal and assisted on two others as Vegas defeated Vancouver, 4-1. The 2015 Hobey Baker Award winner and All-American has a career line of 189-281-470.

Evan Rodrigues scored his fourth goal as Florida thumped Montreal, 6-1.

Minnesota defeated Nashville, 6-1, for its second straight win since John Hynes was named head coach of the Wild.

Women’s Team

Following their split of the two-game Smashville Showcase, the Terriers return to Hockey East play with home games against Northeastern (tonight) and Providence (Saturday).

Tonight’s contest at Agganis Arena is set for 6 p.m .and will live stream on ESPN+

BU opened its season with a pair of losses to the Huskies.

● GoTerriers.com preview, Live Stats, BU All-Access (audio)

● Live stream: ESPN+, International Stream

● Boston Hockey Blog game preview

 

 

 

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