Friday, November 22, 2024

Game Day: Terriers host Merrimack; Trethewey on The Pipeline Show; Sacco's first win



                    Photo credit Matt Woolverton

#13/16 Terriers are back on home ice for the first of two games against conference rival Merrimack. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. for the game that will live stream on ESPN+. The second meeting will take place a week later in Belfast at the Friendship Four tournament.

BU (5-5-1) is coming off a loss and tie/shootout win at Maine. The Warriors (3-6-1) last played on November 12, losing in overtime to Stonehill, 4-3. The previous weekend, they swept UConn. Both teams are tied for sixth place, along with BC, in the Hockey East standings.

Coach Jay Pandolfo told the media on Thursday that Alexander Zetterberg would return to the lineup and Brandon Svoboda was extremely likely to be back as well, but Quinn Hutson remains out with an upper-body injury. He also confirmed that Mathieu Caron will be in goal for what would be his 100th NCAA game and 50th as a Terrier.

The third-year head coach indicated he wasn’t concerned about a letdown after playing ranked teams the past four weekends:

"Excited to be back at Agganis. The last three outings here have not been good. We’re trying build off a big comeback—not a full win, but a shootout win—up in Maine. I do like the fact that Saturday night we showed that we can play against a very good team in a very tough building to play in."

On the lack of offensive zone time on Saturday, with Maine holding a nearly 2-to-1 edge:

“A big part of the problem on Saturday with the zone time was our face off percentage was like 23%. It’s pretty hard to have a lot of puck possession when you’re not winning your face offs. That hasn’t been an issue for us this year. I think we’re over 50% [in fact, 50.4].

“But we weathered the storm and didn’t give up a lot of quality chances and that was really important.

“Do we have to get better offensively? Absolutely and we need to possess the puck more in the offensive zone. We haven't been as good as we have been in the past with that, so that's something we focused on this week, trying to create some more offense, to be able to possess the puck more, trying to get our D involved more in the offensive zone."

On supporting the puck in the offensive zone:

“If we want our D involved, our F3 has to be much better and our F3 has not been great this year. If our Ds realize our third forward is in good position, they can keep plays alive on the walls. They can be more comfortable getting more involved in the offensive zone. Our D have been a big part of our offense the last couple years. We need to get back to that.

"Our forwards haven’t done a good enough job of hanging onto pucks down low either. That’s the other part that we’ve focused on this week. We have to be able to win puck battles down low, to possess and [get] more shots to the net. That’s been an issue for us, too. We’re waiting for the pretty play to open up rather than getting pucks to the net and recovering pucks. That’s typically when your pretty plays happen. We’ve not worn the other teams down enough this year.”

Asked about senior Matt Copponi, who will be facing his former team and who has been emerging as a team leader, he said:

"Matt’s really come along, especially the last two or three weeks..He’s been really good for us. He’s very competitive. He’s a guy that drags other players into the fight. He’s been doing that and certainly did against Maine… He’s really starting to take off offensively, too. He can drive play on the rush. He can make a lot of plays. He can beat guys one-on-one." 

Offense has been a challenge for the Warriors who have scored just 19 goals in 10 games. Veteran defenseman Zach Bookman is the points leader with five (G,4A) while freshman Caelan Fitzpatrick, sophomore Ethan Bono and grad student Antonio Venuto each have scored three goals.

A pair of sons of former Terrier standouts are on the Merrimack roster: Scott Young's son, Tyler Young (2-2-4), and David Sacco's son, David Sacco (2-0-2).

Both Warrior netminders are from Sweden. 6'5" freshman Max Lundgren has a 2.92 GAA and an .898 save percentage, while junior Nils Wallstrom's GAA is 3.69 and his save percentage is .868. 

CHECK BACK FOR TONIGHT'S TERRIER LINEUP

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

● Live Stream ESPN+

● Pandolfo Media Call

● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape

● Boston Hockey Blog PREVIEW

● Hockey East Game Day links

► BU Hockey Stats' preview of the BU-MC contest includes his trademark advanced analytics. If you read to the end, you’ll find a Terrier Hockey Fan Blog contribution about John Curry, BU’s American goalie back in 2005-06 and 2006-07.

 

►The Athletic’s hockey writers have taken a crack at projecting rosters for the upcoming World Junior Championships in Ottawa.  They have Cole Eiserman and Cole Hutson rostered on Team USA and Tom Willander returning to Team Sweden.

● The Athletic 2025 World Juniors roster projections  (subscription)

 

Looking ahead

►2025 recruit Jack Murtagh scored his eighth goal in the NTDP U18s 6-2 loss to #2 Michigan State. The 6'1" left-shot forward from Potomac, Maryland, also assisted on Team USA's other goal and earned the game's second star. He has 15 points in 14 games and is tied with fellow recruit Conrad Fondrk for second in U18 scoring despite missing nine games due to an injury. Murtagh also is tied for the team goal-scoring lead.

 

►2025 recruit and second-round Devils' draft choice Mikhail Yegorov spoke with NHL.com's Catherine Bogart about leaving Russia to play junior hockey in Omaha, adapting to the North American game and returning home to watch the draft with his family.

● NHL.com Yegorov finds a home in Omaha 

►2025 recruit Charlie Trethewey, an A-rated defenseman on NHL Central Scouting's Player to Watch, was interviewed on The Pipeline Show. The 6'1.5" right-shot describes himself as "a hard, physical defenseman with offensive upside."  

● The Pipeline Show

 

Looking back

►Jack Eichel scored his sixth goal in Vegas' 3-2 win against Ottawa. The 2015 Hobey Baker Award winner has 29 points in 20 games.

►The Bruins' 1-0 win against Utah gave interim head coach Joe Sacco his first win in the first game since he took the reins.

 

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