Turning a page from a string of slow--or worse--starts on Fridays, #13 Terriers scored three times in the opening period en route to a 6-2 win over Merrimack in the opening game of the 2024 Friendship Four tournament at SSE Arena in Belfast.
The victory, played in front of a loud crowd of 9,000, earned BU a spot in Saturday's championship game against Notre Dame, a 5-2 winner over Harvard in the other opening-round game, as well as three points in the Hockey East standings as this was a conference contest.
Terriers and the Fighting Irish will face off Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. NESN will broadcast the game with ESPN+ and TSN+ providing live streams.
The win improves BU's record to 7-5-2 overall and 4-2-1 in the conference, good for fourth place. It also boosts BU to #11 in Pairwise.
Tristan Amonte scored a pair of goals while BU got single scores from Aiden Celebrini, Gavin McCarthy, Quinn Hutson and Shane Lachance. For both Celebrini and McCarthy, it was their first of the season.
The Terriers' best Friday night performance of the season was backstopped by another strong netminding effort from Mathieu Caron who stopped 31 of 33 shots.
Despite the victory and the better start, Head Coach Jay Pandolfo lamented his team's inconsistency. “There’s
times when we’re really good,” he said referring to the first
period. “And there’s times where we get away from it,” he added,
describing the second. "It's something we have to figure out."
"I really liked our start, liked our first period," Pandolfo explained. "We played real well, kept it simple. And then, for whatever reason, we got away from it in the second period. We ended up in the penalty box too often. We have just not found a way to play a full 60 minutes."
"Tristan Amonte has been excellent. He's a guy who has been consistent from day one," Pandolfo pointed out. "He knows what his identity is as a player and he goes out and does the same thing every time he's on the ice."
BU was fast out of the gate with crisp breakouts from their own end and some early opportunities. Seven minutes in, Ryan Greene dished the puck down the right boards to Devin Kaplan facing the corner. The junior wing's no-look backhand pass found Celebrini in the right circle for a one-timer past goalie Nils Wallstrom.
It took the Terriers just over a minute to double the lead. Cole Hutson made an end-to-end dash up the left side. At Merrimack goal line, he feathered a pass to Amonte in the high slot for a wrist shot that beat Wallstrom to the glove side for his second tally of the season. Sascha Boumedienne had the secondary assist.
Late in the period with BU on the penalty kill for a second time, Matt Copponi collected a loose puck and sent Kamil Bednarik up the left side with McCarthy to his right, speeding past a defender. Inside the Warriors' zone, Bednarik saucered a pass over a stick to McCarthy who closed and fired a low shot to the short side for a 3-0 BU lead.
With two minutes left in the period, Caron turned aside Caden Cranston's breakaway bid. Just before the period ended, a turnover led to a Copponi point blank shot that Wallstrom stopped. Shots for the period were BU 7, Merrimack 6. Terriers had a 17-5 face off advantage, significantly helping with puck possession time and breakouts.
While possession was relatively even in the second period, Merrimack had more grade A scoring opportunities. However they didn't get on the board until their fourth power play 15 minutes into the period. Caron defended Cranston's redirection of a shot from the point, but the rebound went to Anthony Venuto, alone to the goalie's left for an easy put back.
BU had several scoring chances in the final minutes of the period, but was unable to finish as Max Lundgren who had replaced Wallstrom stopped all 10 BU middle period attempts.
Merrimack made it a one-goal game just 21 seconds into the third period, scoring on the rush. David Sacco carried the puck into the BU zone, cut toward the middle and fired a shot that went in off the post on Caron's glove side. It appeared that a Warrior had interfered with Cole Hutson, preventing him from attempting a block, but there was no call.
Having a precarious 3-2 lead turned the switch back on for the Terriers, who carried the play throughout much of the rest of the period.
“We’re a resilient team, our guys care
and they take pride in the things that we need to do,” Pandolfo said.
“Just sometimes, we need to get woken up.”
BU restored the two-goal lead at 8:15 when Celebrini lifted a shot from the point that Quinn Hutson redirected into Lundgren's pads. In a scramble for the loose puck Bednarik outfought a defender to push it back to Hutson who swept the puck into the net. The play was reviewed for a possible stick above the shoulder but the goal, Hutson's fourth of the season, was confirmed. 4-2 BU.
A face off violation by Bednarik at 14:25 gave the Warriors their fifth man-advantage, which the Terriers killed giving them four successful kills out of five. It was Merrimack's last gasp.
With Lundgren pulled for an extra skater, Amonte backhanded the puck from along the circle in the BU zone into the empty net for his second score of the game and a 5-2 lead.
A kneeing penalty to Colby Enns in the final minute gave BU one more
chance to work on its power play and, moving the puck smartly, the unit
connected. Cole Hutson, circling inside the blueline, put a wrist shot on
goal and Lachance poked home the rebound for his sixth goal of the
campaign. Greene, who had assisted on the game's opening goal, also had a
helper on this one.
Final shots were Merrimack 33, BU 29. Terriers limited the Warriors to two shots and the one goal on their first four power plays. Merrimack had four shots on its final
man-advantage late in the third period.
But the number of penalties incurred continues to trouble Pandolfo. “We talk about it,” Pandolfo said. “The message just isn’t getting through yet.”
Face offs were a positive for BU, winning 42 of 70. Greene had the best numbers with 15 out of 22.
Along with Greene, Bednarik and Cole Hutson each recorded two assists.
Tristan Amonte's two goals match the pair scored by his brother Ty Amonte in the 2018 Friendship Four.
All five Terrier scorers have a family member who also skated for BU: Amonte (dad Tony Amonte and brother Ty), Celebrini (Macklin), McCarthy (Case), Quinn Hutson (Lane & Cole) and Lachance (father Scott, grandfather Jack Parker).
And one of Merrimack's scorers, Sacco, who was their player of the game, is the son of Terrier All-American David Sacco and the nephew of Bruins coach and former Terrier Joe Sacco.
BU Hockey Stats points out that with the win, BU extends its winning streak vs Merrimack to six games and has scored 6+ goals vs Merrimack in each of their last three match-ups.
The BU Band was in attendance, performing throughout the game, and a trio of Boston Hockey Blog writers made the trip as well.
● GoTerriers.com recap and box score
● Pandolfo Post-game comments
● Photo gallery
● Boston Hockey Blog BU men’s hockey takes a step forward with 6-2 Friendship Four win over Merrimack
Looking ahead
Trethewey got a first-hand account this summer, training with McAvoy
at Boston University. In his second season with USA Hockey's National
Team Development Program, he wants to incorporate McAvoy's lessons ahead
of the 2025 NHL Draft in June.
"He's a great person. I definitely think his play is a lot like
mine," Trethewey said. "He's definitely a guy that I look up to. ... It
was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I definitely look back on it and
just really appreciate the conversations, him taking his time to work
out with me and talk through some things with me. It was a great memory,
for sure."
2025 recruit John McNelis scored the winning goal in the shootout as Sioux Falls edged Sioux City, 3-2. The left-shot forward has 10 goals and six assists in 19 games.
Looking back
Macklin Celebrini scored his eighth goal and added his fifth assist as San Jose outscored Seattle, 8-5.
AJ Greer's third goal of the season was the game-winner as Florida doubled up Carolina, 6-3. Evan Rodrigues recorded his seventh assist for the Panthers.
Charlie Coyle scored his fifth goal in the Bruins' 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh.
