Monday, December 30, 2024

UPDATED Lack of discipline and defensive woes bite BU again; Willander and Hutson shine at WJCs; Looking ahead

 Image 

#13 Terriers ended 2024 on a sour note dropping a 7-5 road decision to Yale at Ingalls Rink. It was, in the words of one blog contributor, a "disheartening performance" with BU penalties--including yet another five-minute major--leading to three power-play goals for the Elis, who also struck for a short-handed tally.

BU was without five line-up regulars with Cole Eiserman, Cole Hutson, Brandon Svoboda and Tom Willander at the WJCs and Devin Kaplan out with an upper-body injury. However, with virtually the same line-up two weeks earlier, the Terriers defeated a very talented NTDP U18 team. 

Following the game, Coach Jay Pandolfo said, ""Disappointed with our effort, our attention to detail. Everything we talked about that we needed to get better at and learn from the first half, nothing changed.

It certainly did hurt in the Pairwise Ratings, dropping the 9-7-1 Terriers from 10th to 12th.

BU held a 3-2 lead after one period, but it was downhill the rest of the way with Yale scoring five times in the final 40 minutes.

Terriers got on the board just a minute into the contest when Jack Hughes intercepted a pass in center ice and sent the puck ahead to Alex Zetterberg. The freshman wing found Quinn Hutson behind the defense for a quick finish on his sixth goal of the season.

Yale answered four minutes later on a one-timer from the slot by Will Richter--son of NY Rangers great Mike Richter--that beat Mathieu Caron. 

BU regained the lead at the seven-minute mark when Hutson set up Zetterberg just below the left circle for a shot that beat goalie Jack Stark to the stick side. It was Zetterberg's fourth goal. Gavin McCarthy had the second assist.

Then, Yale connected on the power-play with David Chen knotting the score at two apiece. At that point the teams had produced four goals on a combined 11 shots.

Late in the period with BU on the power play, Matt Copponi took a pass from Sascha Boumedienne and raced into the offensive zone, beating an Eli defender. Cutting toward the net, the senior transfer backhanded a pass across the crease to a fast-closing Ryan Greene, who beat Stark to the glove side for his sixth goal of the season.

As the second period began, after BU failed to convert on a carryover power play, Yale's Micah Berger scored to make it 3-3. And when the Terriers were on yet another power play, Kalen Szeto scored on a breakaway for a shorthanded tally to put Yale in front, 4-3. For both Berger and Szeto, it was their first goal of the season. 

At that point, Pandolfo replaced Caron in goal with Max Lacroix.

The back-and-fourth scoring continued on the same BU's power play. Hutson took a pass at the right point from Shane Lachance, closed to the top of the circle and lasered a shot over Stark's right shoulder for his seventh goal, bringing the teams even again at 4-4.

Yale then also switched goalies, bringing in Noah Pak.

The Elis went back in front at 15:03 when Chen's second power-play goal made the score 5-4.

If there was a turning point in the back-and-fourth contest, it came with just under two minutes remaining in the period. Zetterberg fired home a shot from center point that appeared to tie the game, but it was disallowed due to a major penalty to Tristan Amonte for contact to the head. The score remain 5-4 and Amonte was done for the night.  Judge for yourself if the call was warranted.

BU pressed for an equalizer in the third period, pouring 13 shots on Pak, but to no avail.  Yale extended the lead at 13:00 on Ronan O'Donnell's goal, followed by a Will Dineen power-play score, making it 7-4.  

In the final minute, Zetterberg scored an extra-attacker goal--second of the night and fifth of the season--with assists to Boumedienne and Aiden Celebrini. 

“It’s the discipline and the team defense that is continuing to be the biggest problem,” Pandolfo asserted in assessing the disappointing performance.

In addition to their struggles on the penalty kill, BU had a woeful game on faceoffs, winning just 26 of 66 draws. 

If there were bright spots for BU, it was the continuing emergence of Zetterberg, who also scored twice in the U18 game, as a contributor on offense, and Hutson heating up.

● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

● Pandolfo post-game

● Boston Hockey Blog BU men’shockey falters once again, loses to Yale 7-5 in wild one

● BU Hockey Stats Game recap with advanced analytics 

The game was statistically close, with scoring chances even, shots on goal and shot attempts nearly even. Where the Terriers struggled was on the face off dot, DZone: 47%-64%, Yale; NZone 42-58%, Yale; OZone 36%-53%, Yale. At even strength, BU held the xG edge 2.02-1.29. Had the Terriers taken fewer penalties, the final result would most likely be different.

World Junior Championships

Tom Willander scored a pair of power-play goals and added an assist in Sweden's 7-5 preliminary round win over Switzerland in Ottawa. The Terrier sophomore has five points in Sweden's three wins.

 tw-align-center

 

● The Hockey News Tom Willander Embraces Canucks-Sweden Connection at World Juniors

Cole Hutson scored a goal and Brandon Svoboda recorded an assist but Team USA fell to Finland, 5-4 in overtime, in a preliminary-round game. Hutson was named U.S. player of the game. The U.S. record stands at 2-1.  Team USA faces Canada (also 2-1) on New Year's Eve at 8 p.m. ET (NHL Network) in a game to decide the top seed in the A division. 

The Athletic's Scott Wheeler contends that "Capitals second-rounder Cole Hutson and not [Zeev] Buium has been Team USA’s best defenseman" thus far. 

He has been outstanding with the puck on his stick all tournament long, making things happen with his feet and creating the inches of space he needs to execute. After scoring a beautiful bar-down goal surfing across the offensive zone against Finland on Sunday, he now has six points of his own through three games. But it’s his calm, steady play defensively that has most impressed me. He has defended at a high level and the results match the eye test, too: Team USA has outscored the opposition 9-0 at five-on-five through three games with Hutson on the ice. 

Looking ahead

Once again we'll make an exception and report about a "likely" commitment from a player we've heard BU has been pursuing for a while. Seventeen year old Ivar Stenberg, a 5-11 left-shot forward playing for Frolunda HC in Sweden's J20 Nationell, led all skaters in points (11) and goals (7) in five games at the recent World Junior A Championships where his team won silver. In 16 international games in 2024-25, he has 32 points (15G, 17A), including a 4-6-10 line at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup.

Stenberg’s older brother, Otto, a St. Louis draft pick, is playing on Sweden’s WJC team with Willander and had a goal in the win over Switzerland.

● Elite Prospects page.

● Hockeysverige article quoting Stenberg's agent  (Google translation)

 

2026 recruit Haoxi Simon Wang recent signing with OHL Oshawa allows the 6'6" left-shot defenseman to play just 10 OHL games while he continues to skate for his OJHL club, King Rebellion. Here he scores his fourth goal on a strong individual effort. Wang has a 4-16-20 line in 37 games.

 

 

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Site Meter