Saturday, December 02, 2023

UPDATED: Terriers rally past Merrimack; defkit's Terrier Takeaway; Women tie Providence

 

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Down a goal entering the third period, #4/5 Terriers scored four times for a 5-2 win and a sweep of Merrimack. The game-winner came on a short-handed tally by Nick Zabaneh. An Agganis Arena crowd of 5,747 saw BU also received goals from Quinn Hutson, Jeremy Wilmer, Tom Willander and Sam Stevens.

The victory gives the Terriers an 11-4-1 mark at the semester break and increased their lead over second place BC to seven points and third place Providence to eight points although both schools have a game in hand. BU has swept its last three Hockey East two-game series and previous defeated and tied UMass.

Commenting on his squad's comeback win, Coach Jay Pandolfo pointed out, “I think they just believe in themselves. I think they believe that at any point, if they need to score a goal, they can. There’s belief in that room and I think we’ve seen it this year when we’ve been down.” 

►Scroll down for defkit's Terrier Takeaway 

BU scored on its very first possession of the game. Lane Hutson sent Luke Tuch and Macklin Celebrini away on the rush. Tuch’s shot sailed wide and came off the end boards to the right goalpost where Quinn Hutson was station and he popped it past Zachary Borgiel for his eighth tally of the season.

That lead lasted seven minutes. Moments after BU killed a penalty—with a sprawling leg save by Caron near the end—Ethan Bono redirected a Christian Felton shot home.

Penalties to Aiden Celebrini (13:39) and Stevens (14:05) gave the Warriors a two-man advantage and they cashed in on an Alex Jeffries goal from the left circle. Despite a shot and faceoff win edge, BU trailed after one, 2-1.

Looking for an equalizer in the second period, the Terriers poured 14 shots on goal--six coming during three power plays to no avail. During the first power play Lane Hutson rang one off the crossbar.

"Being down 2-1 going into the third period – I think we dominated the second period, we just couldn’t score – but I just had a feeling we were going to find a way to come back,” Pandolfo said. 

 BU got its tying goal three minutes in the to third period. Wilmer poked checked the puck away from a Warrior just inside the BU blueline and raced in on a breakaway. Going to his backhand, BU’s assist machine scored his second goal of the season, unassisted.

Five minutes later with Merrimack on a power play, Zabaneh forced a turnover inside the BU blueline and was off to the race. The speedy forward dashed up the right boards, then eluded a defender by cutting across the slot. Shoot back against the grain, he whipped the puck past Borgiel’s glove for his first tally of the season.

Merrimack had another two=man advantage when too-many-men was called with  Tuch already in the penalty box…….

Terriers extended the lead at 16:30 on clever play by Willander. He brought the puck up ice slowly through the neutral zone. The Warriors backed off expecting a dump in, but once at the red line, the freshman d-man accelerated and passed to Zabaneh whose shot was defended. But Willander, who had continued to the net, scooped up the rebound and backhanded it past Borgiel on the blocker side.

Merrimack Coach Scott Borek pulled his goalie for an extra attacker with three minutes remaining, but the Terriers succeed in keep the visitors’ shot opportunities to the outside. After Stevens hit iron on once attempt at the empty net, he succeeded on the next opportunity after Macklin Celebrini separated the puck from a defense. Case McCarthy also picked up an assist.

“Really happy for Nick Zabaneh getting the shorthanded goal. Kid works everyday, he’s had a ton of chances this year just hasn’t gone in for him yet,” Pandolfo remarked post game. "I’d argue he’s one of the fastest guys in college hockey – I won’t argue it, he definitely is.” 

 

►Celebrini leads Hockey East and is third in the nation with 25 points (10g, 15a) after recording his ninth multi-point game of the season on Saturday.

►Terriers had another strong night on draws, winning 39 of 58.

►Conference blocked shot leaders, Cade Webber and Case McCarthy had five and three blocks respectively. Webber is the national co-leader with 42 blocks.

►BU enters the break as top dog in College Hockey News' Power Rankings. Terriers are second to North Dakota in the PairWise ranking. 

defkit's Terrier Takeaway

- Overall, I thought the game was emblematic of our first semester as a whole - not a great start, but finished strong. Pandolfo's comments about consistency in the presser were spot on - even our best players are still making some plays that are giving the opponent really good scoring opportunities. It's nice to have a healthy Webber and McCarthy on the back line to help negate many of those chances. They will be key to this team's success down the stretch.

- Caron was excellent in net. He made a tremendous save on a puck that came out from behind the net that was never replayed because Merrimack scored their first goal seconds later. (Note: you can see that save on the Video Highlights linked below)

- It was good to see Zabaneh finally break through, and for this skilled team to get their first SHG of the season. Hopefully he'll get hot in the second half, as he did last season.

- I thought the team was trying to be too fancy at times. There was one shift where Lane was making some great moves in the offensive zone and he seemed to have a great chance for a shot, but opted for one more move and nothing came of it. The third period goals all came from net drives.

- The penalty kill was once again huge - the only goal was on a 2-man advantage. The PK is definitely one of this team’s biggest assets.

 

● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Video Highlights and Post-game comments Pandolfo

● Boston Hockey Blog Terriers close out first semester with sweep of Merrimack

 

Looking ahead

2025 recruit John McNelis scored a pair of goals (video) and assisted on another to lead Sioux Falls past Cedar Rapids, 7-1.  McNelis has a 6-6-12 scoring line. His offense was back by another strong effort by 2024 recruit Michael Chambre who stopped 18 shots to pick up his second win of the weekend.

Looking back

Kevin Shattenkirk scored his first goal as Bruins in Boston's 4-3 win against Toronto,

Jack Eichel scored his 10th goal on a breakaway (video) and assisted on two goals to lead Vegas past Washington,  4-1.

 

Women's Team 

Terriers carried a  3-1 lead into the third period but gave up a pair of goals to Providence. Neither team scored in the overtime so it goes into the books as a tie between BU and the Friars.

BU got goals from three defenders - graduate student Nadia Mattivi, senior Tamara Giaquinto and sophomore Brooke Disher - and graduate student Alexa Matses made 23 saves.

● GoTerriers.com recap  and box score

● Post-game comments Tara Watchorn

 

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1 comment:

Skolzman said...

Nice way to finish heading into the semester break.

9:54 AM

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