Saturday, March 23, 2024

UPDATED: Greene, Caron lead Terriers into HEA title game with 4-1 defeat of Maine

 


                             Photo credit Matt Woolverton

Behind two goals from sophomore Ryan Greene and a five-bell performance by goalie Mathieu Caron, #2 Terriers pushed past #7 Maine for a 4-1 win in the Hockey East tournament semifinal. BU also received goals from Lane Hutson and Sam Stevens, while Macklin Celebrini assisted on three of the tallies and Quinn Hutson recorded two helpers.

With the win, BU is back in tonight's conference championship game where they’ll face top-ranked BC, who routed UMass, 8-1, in the other semifinal.

“It’s an awesome big win for us. We get to go to the finals and have an opportunity to defend our Hockey East Championship,“ said head coach Jay Pandolfo. “I don’t know if we were at our best tonight. Give Maine credit. They did a heckuva job. They get on top of you in the neutral zone. Their D pinch all the time. We didn’t have enough sustained offensive zone pressure, but at the end of the day, our power play was very good and our goaltender was excellent.”

Caron, who has held opponents to two or fewer goals in each of the seven games in BU's current winning streak, stopped 32 shots, including numerous Grade A chances to gain his 26th win. He lowered his GAA to 2.26.

Commenting on the netminder's strong effort, Lane Hutson said, "Knowing he’s back there, he makes it really easy for all of our D. He always has our backs, and we’d love to have his back, too.”

►More comments from Pandolfo, Greene and Hutson during the post-game presser are here.

Both teams started fast, but it was the Terriers who broke the ice at the nine-minute mark on the rush

Case McCarthy's pass in the neutral zone eluded brother Gavin McCarthy and Maine sent the puck off the end boards, looking to begin its own rush. But Quinn Hutson collected the carom in the right circle and zipped a pass to Greene in the slot for a one-timer past goalie Albin Boija‘s blocker for his 10th goal of the season.

Despite near-constant up and down action, the teams put only 11 shots combined on goal: six for Maine and five for BU, although the Black Bears blocked 10 Terrier attempts. The period ended with Maine on a power play that largely carried over to the second period.

With BU reverting to its recent second-period woes, the Black Bears dominated the middle period, outshooting BU 14-5, with five shots coming on two power plays. Caron came up big on two grade-A chances from Donavan Villeneuve-Houle early in the period, but it was the Terriers who produced the period’s only goal. 

Luke Tuch’s power move from the corner to the net drew a hooking penalty and it took just 25 seconds for BU to convert. Taking a return pass from Macklin Celebrini, Lane Hutson skated from the blue line to the top of the left circle, toe-dragged around a defender, moved to the middle and whipped a shot past Boija’s glove side with Shane Lachance’s screen effectively taking away his eye. It was Lane’s 13th goal and his first since the February 17 win over Providence. Quinn Hutson had the second assist.

Early in the third period, BU appeared to score another power-play goal, this time on the rush culminating in Lachance rapping home a goalmouth feed from Greene. Maine challenged the tally for offside and the review showed that Greene preceded the puck into the offensive zone by about four inches. The goal, which would’ve given BU a 3-0 lead, was waived off.

Instead, Maine went on a power play two minutes later following a high-sticking call on Cade Webber. Lynden Breen skated out of the right corner and from the bottom of the circle fired a shot past Caron’s blocker, cutting the lead in half.

At the eight-minute mark, Caron came up big once again on a flurry of Black Bear shots to maintain the Terriers’ 2-1 lead. [More Caron saves in the video highlights]

Midway through the period BU was back on the power play and this time produced a goal that counted.  In the offensive zone, Quinn Hutson pushed the puck down the wall and Lachance outworked a defender to control and send the puck cross-ice to Macklin Celebrini in the right circle. He quickly fed Greene in the slot for a quick wrister into the net, again on Boija’s blocker side. The sophomore center’s 11th goal extended the lead back to two goals at 3-1.

With just under four minutes left in the period, Maine pulled its goalie for an extra attacker. They controlled the puck in the BU zone for most of the final minutes but Caron turned aside the Black Bears’ final five shots with Lane Hutson and Greene making key blocks on other attempts.

In the final half minute, Stevens hit the empty net from the BU side of the red line with Tuch and Macklin Celebrini picking up assists. Stevens' seventh goal produced the 4-1 final score.  

BU connected on two of three power plays while killing two of Maine's three man-advantages. 

Terriers blocked 23 shots, while the Black Bears blocked 16 BU attempts. 

● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Video Highlights

● Post-game comments: Pandolfo/Greene/Lane Hutson

● Boston Hockey Blog Terriers advance to Hockey East Championship

● USCHO.com recap 

● College Hockey News recap

● Boston Herald Boston University skates past Maine, 4-1


►While the Terriers will be focused on Saturday night’s fourth match-up of the year with their Commonwealth Avenue rivals, the NCAA Regional picture became a little clearer with the results of Friday’s games. The Minutemen’s loss coupled with Quinnipiac’s upset defeat at the hands of St. Lawrence and Cornell’s win against Dartmouth has almost certainly ended any chance of UMass advancing to the tournament. UMass is now #15 in the Pairwise rankings and since the ECAC will have a champion that is not #9 Quinnipiac, the field of 16 will include the top 13 plus the CCHA, Atlantic and ECAC champions.

What that means for Terriers is that they’ll almost certainly be a top seed in an Eastern regional, most likely Springfield. 

UPDATE: Not so fast.  According to USCHO Bracketology, both Colorado College and UMass have possibilities for gaining the final at-large bid. There are 32 possible outcome scenario combinations for tonight's championship games. 20 (63%) would give CC the bid; 12 (37%) would give it to UMass. College Hockey News has a slightly different take on those teams' chances.

Looking ahead

2024 recruit Jack Pridham scored his 22nd goal, assisted by 2025 recruit Callum Hughes as West Kelowna defeated Trail, 3-1. Pridham has a 22-22-44 scoring line and is second among BCHL rookies.

2025 recruit Mikhail Yegorov stopped 33 of 36 shots in Omaha's 3-2 loss to Lincoln.

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1 comment:

Skolzman said...

Good win. We’ll take it. Now, let’s keep it rolling against BC.

7:46 AM

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