Sunday, October 26, 2025

Terriers rebound for 3-1 road win

Group of male hockey players in red Boston University jerseys numbered 4 87 and 11 wearing helmets and gloves stand clustered together on ice rink surface arms around each other celebrating victory. Background shows arena seating with spectators and UConn Huskies banners. Foreground graphic displays BU logo 3 Terriers win 1 UConn logo with wolf mascot and Boston University Mens Ice Hockey text. 

#4 Terriers defeated #11 UConn, 3-1, at the Toscano Family Ice Forum to gain a split in the weekend series.  Rebounding from Friday night's failure, BU delivered a thorough 60-minute effort, which previously had only been seen in shorter stretches. Goal scorers in the hard-fought road win were Jack Harvey with two and Owen McLaughlin.   

After being pulled early in the third period Friday, Mikhail Yegorov was on his game, stopping 24 of 25 shots including a bevy of testers. The Terrier power play, stymied the night before, connected twice out of three chances. 

"I really liked the effort, from start to finish," Coach Jay Pandolfo said post-game. "Great response from our team. Great response from Big Mike, he was excellent tonight. It was a really good team effort and I thought for the most part, we played the game the right way. We played winning hockey."

"The team has to understand that if you play a certain way as a group, and do it together, it feels good," he explained And I think our guys feel good about the way they responded today... so hopefully this group learned a lot this weekend."

In a shot-heavy first period12 for BU, 10 for UConnthere was no scoring until a late hooking penalty on Jake Richard put BU on the power play. On the rush, Conrad Fondrk skated into the offensive zone and set up Jack Murtagh for a clean shot from the left circle. UConn's Tyler Muszelik got a piece of the puck which trickled behind him in the crease. Harvey eluded a defender to rap home the loose puck for his first score of the season.  

Earlier in the period Cole Eiserman had two good scoring chances defended and twice took heavy hits into the boards. He left the ice after the second one and did not return. (The first one) Eiserman was on crutches behind the BU bench in the third period.

Five minutes into the second period, a roughing call on Mick Frechette put BU down a man. They killed it off with no shots on goal, and nearly scored shorthanded when John McNelis and Ben Merrill had a 2-on-1 break that Muszelik stopped. 

Terriers were back on the power play midway through the period and quickly made it two-for-two, taking just 18 seconds to score.  Cole Huston kept the puck from leaving the UConn zone, passing to Kamil Bednarik. The sophomore center quickly found McLaughlin who charged unmarked through the left circle and fired a wrist shot off the crossbar and in to double BU's lead. It was the senior's third goal of the weekend.        

The Huskies answered just two minutes later when their sniper, Joey Muldowney one-timed a shot from the right circle that beat Big Mike to the stick side.  

UConn pressed for an equalizer but BU's defense kept their attempts to the outside.  

Harvey's second goal, at 15:11 came on the prettiest play of the game. Sacha Boisvert, who returned to the line-up, won an O-zone draw back to McLaughlin who skated behind the UConn goal line and set up Harvey at the bottom of the left circle for a bang-bang finish. 3-1 BU. 

A UConn penalty as the second period ended provided a chance to extend the lead when the third began, but the Huskies killed off the man-advantage. Yegorov had to make several sharp saves to keep UConn from making it a one-goal game. He stopped all seven shots and when the Huskies pulled Muszelik for an extra skater, the Terriers repeatedly forced the puck out of the zone to seal the win.

BU allowed no shots on either of UConn's two power plays.

Terriers had a 26-23 edge at the face off dot, largely due to Bednarik winning 13 of 17 draws.

Pandolfo on Boisvert:

"He was excellent, for not really practicing a ton. He's just a 200-foot center that can get through the middle of the ice, can defend hard, can get to the net. He just does a lot for you."

On Eiserman: 

"We won't know much until tomorrow or Tuesday. No question, it forced him to leave the game, so a little concerned. We'll see where it goes."

Harvey, who admitted that "it felt good to get the monkey off my back" with his first two goals, summed up the win: "We came ready to play, ready to do the little things it took to win. It wasn't pretty but we got the job done." 

● GoTerriers.com recap and box score

 Video Highlights

 Pandolfo/Harvey post-game 

● Boston Hockey Blog  BU Men's Hockey beat UConn, 3-1, on the road   

Freshmen Jonathan Morello, John McNelis, and Ben Merrill — the Terriers’ fourth forward line — provided quality shifts in the first but were unable to crack UConn senior netminder Tyler Muszelik.

“I thought that line was real good,” Pandolfo said.

He praised Merrill’s ability to get pucks deep and win battles. McNelis had a “great weekend,” Pandolfo added, noting that his increased ice time has been a factor and that Morello has been a “consistent player” who’s been steady down the middle.

 

Looking ahead

2026 or 2027 recruit Jamie Glance scored his third goal and added an assist as the NTDP U18s were edged by Cornell, 5-4. 2027 recruit Brady Knowling made 32 saves for Team USA. 

2026 recruit Viktor Norringer scored his fifth goal and added an assist in first-place Muskegon's 5-2 against Waterloo. Fellow recruit Tynan Lawrence assisted on Norringer's tally. 

2027 recruit Sam Pandolfo returned to the NTDP U17 line-up after missing time due to an injury. He assisted on the U17s' lone goal in a 2-1 overtime loss to Des Moines 

Looking back

Trevor Zegras scored a pair of regulation goals, assisted on a third tally and then scored in the shootout to lead the Flyers past the Islanders, 4-3. 

AJ Greer scored his third goal on a wrap-around and added an assist in the Panthers' 3-0 shutout of Vegas. Evan Rodrigues also had a helper for Florida.     

Jake Oettinger stopped 26 of 28 shots in the Stars' 3-2 win against Carolina. 

Rockford's Drew Commesso turned aside all 38 shots he faced to shut out Colorado, 4-0. It was his seventh career shutout, second best for IceHogs netminders.

 

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