Saturday, December 02, 2023

Terriers power past Merrimack, 4-1; Women lose to Northeastern in OT

 

Shane Lachance scored twice and Lane Hutson collected three assists to lead BU to a 4-1 win at Merrimack in a penalty-filled contest—and that’s an understatement—that also featured a pulled fire alarm that emptied the stands.

All four Terrier goals came off the sticks of freshmen: Doug Grimes scored for the second game in a row, while Macklin Celebrini registered his 10th.  Three of the goals came on power plays.

Mathieu Caron was sharp when he had to be, defending 22 of 23 shots, while his teammates rang up 38 shot on 6’8” goalie Hugo Ollas. 

With the victory, BU remains in first place in Hockey East (6-1-1), extending its lead over Providence to five points. Terriers have won their last five conference games and are 6-0-1 in their last seven.

“This is a tough place to play. We haven’t had a ton of success here recently, so it’s a huge win for us,” Coach Jay Pandolfo said postgame. “I’m glad we stuck with it.” 

Asked about the game's 103 penalty minutes, he said, “I don’t even know what to say. It was a bit of a — I guess you could call it a gong show in a way.”

Terriers followed Pandolfo's directive to be ready from the start, applying a hard forecheck and entering the offensive zone with speed. Midway through the period, BU opened the scoring. Lane Hutson’s pass led Sam Stevens to the right point for a quick shot that Ollas defended. But Grimes, who had outmuscled a defender to gain position at the goalmouth, popped home the loose puck.

BU held a 9-4 shot advantage later in the period, but a flurry by the Warriors in the final minutes leveled the shots at nine apiece.

A harbinger of things to come arrived 1:19 of the second period when Matt Copponi leveled Cade Webber into the boards drawing a five-minute major and a game misconduct. Webber went to the locker room briefly before returning to the ice.

The Terriers capitalized quickly—In just 11 seconds. From the left circle Quinn Hutson passed to Ryan Greene below the goal line. The sophomore center drew a defender towards him and then dished to Lachance, open at the goalmouth, for a shot over Ollas’s blocker. It was his fourth goal.

Eleven minutes into the period, a dust-up sent four players to the penalty box—2 from each team. A minute later another scrum sent five to the sin bin, including three Warriors, providing BU with another man-advantage.

Celebrini’s pass went through the slot to Quinn Hutson at the right point. He passed to his brother, who danced a bit at center point to find a lane and fired. It’s appeared at first to mimic his Hockey East Championship-winning goal lastMarch, but it proved to be Lachance’s second goal of the game on a slick deflection. 3-0.

Late in the period, another major penalty to the home team--for contact to the head, a successful challenge by Pandolfo--gave BU another five-minute power play that was quickly diminished by a minor penalty call on on Quinn Hutson. 

While the officials reviewed the Merrimack penalty, someone pulled a fire alarm.  Once the fire marshals gave the all-clear and the ice was cleaned, the final 1:49 of the second period was played, followed by a brief break.

The power-play continued into the third period with BU getting numerous grade A chances, but sending most of them wide of the net. Merrimack got on the board just before the five-minute mark when Ethan Bono cleaned up the rebound of a shot initially saved by Caron. 

Terriers clamped down at that point and denied the Warriors any serious scoring opportunities. A third five-minute major gave BU yet another power play opportunity and the Terriers used nearly all of it to produce a fourth goal.

Lane Hutson came off the left boards into the high slot and found Celebrini in the right circle for a change of pace shot that beat Ollas with Greene in front of him. Gavin McCarthy had the secondary assist.

BU had a strong night at the face off dot winning 36 of 57 draws, led by Greene's 10 of 13 and Lachance's six of seven.

It was Lachance's second two-goal game. He'd previously connected for a pair in the 8-2 win over Notre Dame. Commenting on the 6'5" forward, Pandolfo pointed out, “I think he is a really smart player. I think he knows who he is as a player and that’s really important. I think he knows he’s a big body, he’s gonna get to the net, he’s very responsible defensively…I think he plays to his identity.”

► At the end of the day's games, BU finds itself #2 in the PairWise rankings, behind only North Dakota and followed by Maine, Quinnipiac, BC and Providence.

►Celebrini remains atop the Hockey East scoring chart with 23 points, while Lane Hutson with 19 is the conferences' top-scoring defenseman.

►Since Pandolfo became BU's head coach, the team has now won 30 of 32 games when carrying a lead into the final period.

Saturday's home game with the Warriors is a 6 p.m. start. Game Day links are in the GoTerriers.com recap.

● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Post-game comments: Pandolfo

● Boston Hockey Blog Terriers outmuscle Merrimack in chippy road win, 4-1

● Boston Hockey Blog Photo Gallery 1, Photo Gallery 2.

 

Looking ahead

2024 recruit Kamil Bednarik scored a pair of goals and fellow recruit Cole Hutson added a power play tally as the NTDP U18s thumped Omaha, 6-2. Cole Eiserman had the primary assist on Bednarik’s second goal. Bednarik has 13 goals and 25 points in 20 games. With his goal, Hutson has a 6-14-20 line.

2024 recruit Michael Chambre turned aside 25 of 27 shots to lead Sioux Falls past Waterloo, 4-2.  He improved his record to 5-2-1-1.

2025 recruit Cal Hughes scored his eighth goal in West Kelowna's 5-4 overtime win against Merritt. 2024 recruit Jack Pridham had the primary assist on the OT game-winner.

The NHL.com Draft Notebook turned its spotlight on Cole Hutson, the top-scoring defenseman on the U18s. After setting a new single-season points mark for an NTDP blueliner last season (68), Cole is putting added emphasis on his play in the defensive end. 

Looking back

Writing for The Hockey News, Belle Fraser spoke with Kevin Shattenkirk about how he's ramping up his game to keep himself in the Bruins lineup.

Women’s Team

Terriers dropped a heartbreaker to Northeastern, 2-1 in overtime at Walter Brown Arena. BU held a 1-0 lead late in the third period on a Clara Yuhn goal, but the Huskies connected on a 2-on-1 to send the game to overtime. Skylar Irving won it for NU with 48 seconds left in the extra session. Alexa Matses stopped 21 shots for BU.

● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Post-game comments Coach Tara Watchorn

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