Sunday, March 16, 2025

UPDATED Eiserman's OT blast sends BU to the Garden

    

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Scroll down for defkit's Terrier Takeaway

Freshman sniper Cole Eiserman’s 21st goal three minutes into overtime powered #9/7 Terriers past #14 UMass in the Hockey East quarterfinals at Agganis Arena and into next Thursday’s conference semifinal at TD Garden. The high-intensity game was played before a crowd of 5,563.
 
Because top seed BC was upset by ninth seed Northeastern, BU will next face UConn, a 3-1 winner over Providence in their quarter-final. Northeastern will play the other semifinal against Maine, who trounced Lowell, 7-1.
 
Terriers will be making their 28th appearance in the semifinals, which is a Hockey East record.
 
Eiserman, who has rung up five goals in the last three games, has scored 18 times at Agganis Arena in his freshman season and leads all D1 rookies in goals.
 
“He must enjoy playing here,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said pos-tgame. “I wish maybe we were playing here next game if that’s the case.”

Cole Eiserman celebrates his OT goal against UMass in the 2025 Hockey East Quarterfinals

             Photo credit Matt Woolverton
 
Terriers took one goal leads in the first and second period—only goals by Shane Lachance and Sascha Boumedienne—only to have the surging Minutemen tie the score twice to force overtime. What would have been a third BU goal in the last minute of the middle period was disallowed after a review for an offsides call.
 
Mikhail Yegorov authored another stellar effort, stopping 36 shots including 18 of 19 in the third period. In 13 starts, he has allowed two or fewer goals 11 times.
 
“I’m very happy with the end result,” Pandolfo said. “First period was pretty even. We got a power play goal. Second period, I thought we played well. We had our chances, then they got a break when we lost coverage in the D-zone and they tied it [before] we ended up taking the lead.
 
“Not going up 3-1 with the offsides call, I don’t know if that deflated us a little bit. They pushed hard in the third and we played on our heels too much. They were getting to our net. We found a way in the overtime after they were pushing hard.”

BU took advantage of an early power play to get on the board first. Midway through the man-advantage, Cole Hutson and Ryan Greene set up Eiserman for a one-timer from the left circle that Michael Hrabel defended. Lachance swatted the rebound off the goalie's pad and the puck came back to him just behind the goal line. On a second try, the co-captain banked a shot in off Hrabel for his 11th tally of the season.

Greene's assist on the play gave the junior co-captain 100 career points (34G,66A), a mark that Quinn Hutson had reached earlier in the season. 

The Minutemen tied the scored at 3:32 of the second period when the conference's leading scorer, Cole O'Hara, circled the offensive zone and drove to the net. His shot attempt went off a UMass skate to the slot where Jack Musa fired it past Yegorov's stick side. 

After Jack Harvey had a pair of chances at the seven-minute mark that Hrabel turned aside, Boumedienne broke up a dangerous two-on-one-rush with a stick check. Tom Willander quickly sent the puck ahead to Jack Hughes and joined the three-on-two rush. Skating into the offensive zone, Hughes made a perfect cross-ice pass to Boumedienne whose one-timer flew past Hrabel on the glove side. It was the freshman's third goal, all coming in the last seven games.

In the final minute of the period, BU appeared to score again on the rush as Quinn Hutson rifled home a shot from the right circle. UMass immediately challenged for offside on the play and a review showed Harvey was in the zone a step ahead of the puck. BU outshot the Minutemen, 13-8, in the period.  

UMass pressed for an equalizer from the get-go in the third period. With the teams skating four-on-four, O’Hara skated into the BU zone and, from the right circle, fired a hard wrister that tweezed through Yegorov’s pads but was cleared away from the crease by Gavin McCarthy.

Two minutes later Ryan Lautenbach won a puck battle in the corner and centered a pass that went off Devin Kaplan’s skate to Suniev in the slot. His shot through a maze of players went over Yegorov’s shoulder to tie the game once again.
Two and a half minutes into overtime, a 40-footer by Larry Keenan eluded a screened Yegorov but rang off the post on the goalie’s stick side. Moments later, he defended a shot by Joey Musa. Boumedienne fired the rebound into the corner and up the boards where Eiserman grabbed it in full stride creating a two-on-two rush with Hughes. From the top of the left circle he quickly got off a rocket—likely sooner that Hrabel expected—that was in and then back out of the net in a split second for the game-winner. 

Eiserman's game-winner was his fourth of the season, tying him with Cole Hutson.

After the game, he explained, “Sascha rimmed it out and they had a lot of guys collapse. I had a lot of time and space and just took it wide. I had a shot, tried to go five hole, and was lucky enough for it to go in.”     

BU has advanced to the conference tournament semifinals for the 28th time and all three seasons since Pandolfo became head coach.

defkit's Terrier Takeaway

- I thought BU was off their game for much of the night, especially when compared to the last two games of the regular season. They seemed out of synch at times, most notably with some poorly executed line changes leading to great opportunities for UMass.

- They had better stretches at times in the first and second periods, but went into too much of a defensive focus in the third period, giving up 19 shots in the period.
- With all that said, this team has found a way to win big games, and they did so again in this case. Having a top goalie has given this team the extra advantage that it needed, with Yegorov making a number of strong saves including one just seconds before the GWG. And of course, having a true sniper like Cole Eiserman is another fantastic advantage.
- I thought the Bednarik/Kaplan/Lachance line was particularly effective. Kaplan has really turned his season around by staying disciplined. And while not flashy, Bednarik has clearly earned the coaches trust to be on the ice in critical moments. While he will likely never be a top point producer, I expect that we will see a significant jump in Kamil's production next season - all of this ice time is going to pay big dividends for the next couple of years. It's easy to forget how young the NTDP guys are compared to most of the competition.
- Speaking of young players, the team's most improved award could very well be going to Sascha Boumedienne. His overall play and his confidence have really improved dramatically as the season has gone on. Gone are the weak clearing passes leading to great scoring opportunities for the opposition. His defensive stick and his skating are even better than Willander's were last year at this time. I expect his draft stock will jump into the top 20 on most boards between now and July. He is really showing his potential now.
- Cole Hutson did not have a great game. A couple early turnovers and UMass targeting him for hits seemed to fluster him. But he has earned the luxury of having an off-night, given his overall strong play in the second half.
- For the past three seasons, Coach Pandolfo has been able to get his team to win some big games in tournament play. There have been very few disappointing losses when a trophy is on the line in his short tenure. There are two trophies remaining, and both will be very difficult to grab. This team lost a lot of skill and leadership from last season. But as a Terrier fan, I am thrilled that we have a shot at titles on a consistent basis again.
 
● GoTerriers.com recap and box score
● Highlights
● College Hockey News Hockey East tournament recap

Looking ahead
 
2026 recruit Tynan Lawrence scored his 22nd goal and added his 24th assist as Muskegon thumped Fargo, 6-2. The left-shot center has 46 points in 48 games for the Lumberjacks and is third among USHL rookies.
 
2025 recruit Jonathan Morello’s eighth goal was the game winner as Dubuque edged Waterloo, 2-1. The 6’1” center has 27 points in 51 games for the Fighting Saints.

2025 recruit Callum Hughes scored his 11th goal in Erie's 5-2 loss to Niagara.

2025 recruit Jack Pridham assisted on the game-winner for Kitchener, who edged Owen Sound, 3-2.

Looking back

Jack Eichel scored his 21st goal to give Vegas a lead late in the third period, but Buffalo rallied to tie and won in a shootout, 4-3. 

Macklin Celebrini's 21st goal was all the scoring for San Jose in a 5-1 loss to the Capitals.  

Lane Hutson recorded his 48th assist as Montreal blanked Florida, 3-0. He remains atop the rookie scoring chart with 52 points, two ahead of Celebrini.

 

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