Friday, January 16, 2026

Game Day: Terriers host River Hawks; Brady's milestone

 

Kamil Bednarik Playing Hockey     

                        Photo credit Eliza Nuestro    

After playing their final non-conference game before the Beanpot Tournament, #20 Terriers return to conference play with a home-and-home against Lowell. Tonight's game at Agganis Arena is a 7 p.m. start with a live stream provided by ESPN+.

The series split with UMass leaves BU tied for third in the Hockey East standings with Providence, although the Friars, who BU will play next weekend, have three games in hand. 

BU and Lowell split two games last season, while the Terriers have won four of the past five meetings.

At his weekly media call, Coach Jay Pandolfo was asked about the renewed performance of Mikhail Yegorov who has allowed just 10 goals with a .938 save percentage in the past seven games. He explained:

"He has his confidence back, and you can just see it when he's in the net. He just seems like he has that presence again. He's calm, he's feeling good about himself."

Pandolfo also addressed the improvement in team defense, which has allowed an average of just 23 shots per game over those seven games. 

"It starts with being more committed as a group, he said. [There are] a lot of new players on our team getting used to the system. It's a little different. It's not a man-on-man system, so there are a lot of reads you have to make and I think guys are just getting comfortable...with how we're supposed to play in the defensive zone. We've been so much better. We gave up 18 shots in [each of the] two UMass games. Pretty good for playing three in four nights. A lot of outside stuff against Harvard. I don't know if they had a grade A chance. We've got to continue that."

Pandolfo pointed out that Tynan Lawrence "has adapted well, especially having had just one-half practice before three games in four days" and he likes what he's seen so far: "Smart, competitive, made a lot of plays. With Tynan, we felt he was ready to play at this level... and he could really help us become a better hockey team, especially down the middle of the ice."

"You don’t want to take a guy away from a team," he added. "That’s the hardest thing. You feel bad about him leaving Muskegon. They had done a great job with him and we have a really good relationship with them." 

Regarding Carter Amico going to Muskegon for the rest of the season: "He wasn’t getting a lot of ice time for us. He missed a lot of hockey the last two years…At his age, you need to play. For him, the best decision was to go play games, get reps, play a lot of minutes. Know you're going to be out there shift after shift and that wasn't necessarily going to be the case the second half here.” 

Pandolfo indicated that the plan is to get Amico "back here" next season.

The River Hawks are 8-13-0 overall and 4-7-0 in Hockey East. Last weekend, they split with Connecticut, winning (5-3) on the road and losing (5-1) at home. Lowell is 2-5-0 in the last seven, which includes an overtime loss to Maine and being swept by BC. All seven games were against ranked 

Senior Dillan Bentley is the goals and points leader with a 10-7-17 scoring line. He's followed by freshman Dalyn Wakely and grad student Jay Ahearn with 13 points each, while junior Jak Vaarwerk has 11. 

Senior TJ Schweighardt and freshman Luke Shipley head the defense with 10 points each.  

Freshman Austin Elliott has handled 14 starts and has a 2.79 GAA with an .896 save percentage.  

  

CHECK BACK FOR TONIGHT'S BU LINE-UP 

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

● Live stream ESPN+

● College Hockey News Tale of the Tape

● BU Hockey Stats Week 14 Preview  

 

Episode 13 of Inside BU Hockey features Bernie Corbett’s interviews with Pandolfo and junior defenseman Aiden Celebrini. Kat Cornetta speaks with women's team assistant coach Megan Quinn and Caitlin Beal chats with Tuesday’s Beanpot opener hero, senior defenseman Maeve Carey.

Looking ahead: Prospect All-Star Games

Two 2026 recruits, Caleb Malhotra and Braidy Wassilyn, had strong showings in Wednesday’s OHL Top Prospects Game. Wassilyn had an assist for the winning West team (4-3), while Malhotra assisted on two goals for East. Both were called out in the Daily Faceoff’s Top Standouts game report.

#27 Caleb Malhotra, C: Malhotra continues to prove why he’s the smartest forward out of the OHL. His ability to wait out opponents before making a last-second pass into a scoring lane is unmatched. He’s a great skater who plays a strong two-way game and loves getting involved physically, as well. Malhotra made an excellent pass to make it 2-1 in the second, which wasn’t even one of his more impressive plays on the night. Malhotra has a legit chance at becoming the first center taken in June because of how well he moves all over the ice while making smart, calculated passes.

#66 Braidy Wassilyn, LW: From a pure skill perspective, the London Knights forward was one of the West’s better players. He made a tremendous pass that resulted in the 2-2 goal late in the second period. Wassilyn shows great flashes of puck-handling skill quite often, but his play away from the puck still needs work. Tonight, though, it felt like the puck was in the offensive zone more often than not when he was on the ice.

Peter Barachinni of TheHockeyWriters.com also named Malhotra as a top performer.

There’s a reason why I ranked Caleb Malhotra fifth in my latest rankings and this showcase shows that he continues to elevate his game. His strong hockey IQ, puck sense and positioning was evident throughout the game. He had instant chemistry with Novotny and it showed at the start as he capitalized on a turnover early in the game and set him up for a dangerous scoring chance. Had a secondary assist on the rush play that led to Novotny’s first goal and set him up again later on in the game on the power play. 

His reaction and timing with and without the puck are impressive as he’s always one of the first ones on it to quickly catch defenders off guard. He created time and space effectively that opens things up for his line mates and it showed in this game and did a great job to avoid pressure from defenders with his quick speed and movement.

2027 recruit Jamie Glance scored the go-ahead goal for Team Blue in a 5-4 win over Team White in the 2026 Chipotle All-American Prospect Game. 2026 recruit Luke Schairer was solid on defense for Team White, drawing praise from the NHL Network announcers for his mobility and physical play.

The Hockey News named Glance one of the game's standouts. 

Although he isn't eligible for the NHL draft until next year, Jamie Glance was impressive all night long. He was one of Team Blue's most dangerous offensive players every time he stepped on the ice, accounting for most of their offensive generation through the first period and a half of the game. The Boston University commit has the shiftiness in tight areas and the speed in open ice to be a very impactful player. 

Looking back 

Macklin Celebrini's highlight reel assist set up the game-winner in the Sharks' 3-2 win against the Capitals. 71 points for #71.

Lane Hutson recorded his 38th and 39th assists in Montreal's 5-3 loss to Buffalo. 

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Brady Tkachuk scored his 200th career goal and assisted on three other tallies as the Senators doubled up the Rangers, 8-4.

Jack Eichel assisted on all three Vegas goals including the OT game-winner in a 3-2 win over the Kings. Olympics-bound Eichel has 51 points (16G,35A) in 38 games this season.  

Charlie Coyle scored his 10th goal in the Blue Jackets' 4-1 win against Vancouver. 

Quinn Hutson and Domenick Fensore have earned roster spots for the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic set for Feb. 10 & 11 in Rockford, Ill. 

Fensore ranks fourth in the AHL among defensemen with 23 points (6G,17A). Hutson with a 23-15-38 scoring line is third in scoring and second in goals, despite two call-ups to Edmonton. He recently signed a two-year extension with the Oilers.

● theAHL.com Rosters announced for 2026 AHL All-Star Classic 

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