The game plan might have been to shut down projected No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini, but the North Dakota men’s hockey team had no answer for sophomore defenseman Lane Hutson, who single-handedly dragged the No. 9/8 Boston University men’s hockey to overtime.
BU (4-3-1, 1-1-1 Hockey East) put everything on the line — coming back three different times — but fell in heartbreaking fashion, 5-4, to the No. 3/4 University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks (5-2-1, 0-0-0 NCHC) in overtime Saturday night at Agganis Arena.
“North Dakota is a very good hockey team. They’re going to beat a lot of teams,” BU head coach Jay Pandolfo said. “So this is a big weekend for us…going to help us down the line.”
From the starting whistle, the tension between these two teams increased two-fold overnight. The Fighting Hawks came out eager for revenge after dropping the weekend’s first game in regulation.
North Dakota head coach Brad Berry said he was not happy with his team’s discipline Friday night, and the Fighting Hawks did not show improvement early on in Saturday’s rematch.
UND made an effort to make contact with Macklin Celebrini every chance it could get this weekend, and junior forward Jake Schmaltz continued the sentiment by laying a hit up high on the first-year phenom at the 3:20 mark of the first period.
“It’s gonna happen. The other team is going to be hard on your best players,” Pandolfo said. “Obviously don’t like seeing head shots, but our guys kept their emotions in check.”
Schmaltz was assessed a five-minute elbowing major, and the Terriers’ hot power play as of late got an extended look. Midway through the man advantage, the top unit settled in.
After breaking his stick on a one-time attempt, Macklin Celebrini regrouped and went flying down the left wing with sophomore forward Ryan Greene on the right. Greene dished the puck cross-ice to Macklin for the tap in, but the goal was successfully challenged by North Dakota for offsides.
BU had some additional good looks — leading in shots on net 12-0 by the end of major — but the Fighting Hawks killed off the remainder of the power play.
UND did not record its first shot on net until the 9:19 mark, so the Terriers finding themselves down 1-0 at 15:36 of the first period was not for a lack of effort.
Senior forward Riese Gaber was fed a pass from sophomore forward Owen McLaughlin in transition, and Gaber beat junior goaltender Mathieu Caron glove side.
However, the Terriers were dominating up to this point and tied up the game at 1-1 with 1:26 remaining in the first frame. Per usual, Lane Hutson patiently walked the line — deking a North Dakota player to create a pathway — and unleashed his lethal shot past senior goaltender Ludvig Persson.
Sophomore defenseman Ty Gallagher entered the weekend series with zero points, but his primary assist brought his season total to two. At the end of the first, BU led in shots on net 15-6.
North Dakota found their game in the middle frame and took an early 2-1 lead. At the 1:01 mark, sophomore forward Jackson Blake spun the puck to a crashing McLaughlin for his second goal of the season.
The Fighting Hawks added a third goal at 8:27 on the man advantage. Schmaltz and freshman forward Jayden Perron took it end-to-end before Perron sniped it past Caron. A less-than-100% senior forward Dylan Peterson trailed behind the entire play.
Peterson remained a game-time decision after Friday’s blocked shot to his left foot, but the veteran player perservered through the pain Saturday.
“He was in pain, and he wanted to play. I give him a lot of credit,” Pandolfo said. “Could tell he was feeling it a little bit, but overall, he’s a gutsy kid, a tough kid, and he played excellent for obviously being sore.”
But then, Lane Hutson took over.
With 2:40 remaining, the sophomore carried the puck to Macklin Celebrini above the right circle before driving the net, tapping home the freshman’s pass past Persson.
“I had a couple of lucky bounces, and pucks were finding me,” Lane Hutson said post game. “I felt like stuff was going in, so I was just going to throw it at the net.”
Making it a one-goal game late in the second, Lane was not done just yet.
Just over a minute later, he tied the game 3-3 at the 19:28 mark. Peterson worked down low along the boards while freshman forward Shane Lachance collected the rubber. Lachance knew to dish it to No. 20, who found the back of the net through several bodies for his first collegiate hat trick.
“He was feeling it tonight. There was no question about it,” Pandolfo said. “He was exceptional … that was fun to watch, and you could see he had a will to do anything to help us try to get back in that game.”
Agganis erupted, the hats came raining down and the Terriers entered the final frame on a clean slate.
After making a crucial rebound save with time expiring on a BU holding penalty, Caron let North Dakota regain the lead 5:35 into the third period. Off a clean faceoff win by the Fighting Hawks, sophomore forward Ben Striden whipped the puck past Caron’s right shoulder to give his team the 4-3 lead.
A late power play with six minutes remaining ignited the home team as the top unit peppered Persson with shots, but it was sophomore forward Devin Kaplan’s tip off of senior defenseman Cade Webber’s blast from the blue line at 17:43 that kept the Terriers in the game.
Webber does not get on the score sheet often, but the assistant captain stepped up offensively when his team needed him — adding six blocked shots on the night.
“I thought [Webber] had a terrific weekend,” Pandolfo said. “He’s hard to play against, he’s great on the penalty kill, he’s playing against the other team’s top players … he’s feeling healthy clearly, so that was the biggest difference for him.”
At the end of regulation, BU led in shots on net 33-25. It might only be the first week of November, but the electric atmosphere in Agganis was playoff-esque.
“Fans came out and gave us lots of support. [North Dakota] had good support, too,” Lane Hutson said. “Really fun.”
Unfortunately for the home team, it only took North Dakota 20 seconds to seal the deal in overtime. The Fighting Hawks took possession off of the opening faceoff, and Blake pulled off a highlight-reel finish, beating senior forward Luke Tuch and Caron.
“Blake did a great job of scoring a goal, but winning the draw was huge,” Berry said.
This loss stung for a Terrier group that absolutely battled against a top-three team in the nation. Leaving the series sweep on the table hurts, but BU proved they can hang around the big dogs this weekend — something this team over its first couple of weekends would have struggled to do.
“We’re understanding you have to play a certain way to be successful,” Pandolfo said. “It’s gonna take a little bit of time, but I think we’re moving in the right direction … that’s a really good hockey team over there, so overall like I said, I’m happy with it.”
Come spring time, BU’s young group will have a plethora of lessons learned early on to lean on in big games.
“When you get into these games that are tight, you have to understand that you have to play a simple game — and when we did that — we had a lot of success,” Pandolfo. “I think that’s the biggest lesson.”
BU will return to conference play next weekend in a home-and-home against the UMass Lowell Riverhawks. The Terriers will play on the road Friday Nov. 10 at 7:15 p.m. at Tsongas Center, followed by a 7 p.m. home matchup on Saturday, Nov. 11 at Agganis Arena. The Boston Hockey Blog will have full, on-the-ground coverage. Follow along on Twitter (X) @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.
A very entertaining game last night at Agannis Arena with a very loud and enthusiatic crowd there to cheer on both teams. It seems to me that after watching the Terriers for the first time this year three things appear evident, ND is a very good team, Lane Hudson is a bonafide college hockey superstar, and the Terriers are nowhere near their #1 team in the Nation billing preseason.` BU started the game very well, received the advantage of a 5 minute power play, and looked like they were ready to blow ND out . of Agannis Arena with terrific skating and puck movement creating a lot of good shot opportunities. They had a beautifully played goal disallowed for offside and after that , and a 13-0 shot advantage the first ten minutes the game completely changed. ND outskated, outhustled, and won almost every puck battle vs the Terriers for the remainder of the game. THey are a very opportunistic and dogged team and forced the Terriers to chase the game the rest of the night. Fortunately for BU they have a superstar player in L. Hudson who has the ability to dominate and change a game at any moment ( and i know he doesn’t do this every night) but his three goals ( 2 in 3 minutes ), seemed to change the feeling of the game and gave BU an excellent opportunity to win the game in the third period.
What was disappointing was that it seemed to have the opposite effect. ND came out guns blazing and again with sheer hustle and careless puck handling by the Terriers got a PP which changed the momentum and led to a goal right off the faceoff ( those end zone face offs!) to give them the lead after BU killed off the penalty. ND simply it seemed wanted the game more than the Terriers, not wanting to continue their 30 plus year winless streak in Boston vs the Terriers.
So its evident that BU has been overrated as a team at this point in the season. They seem to be a team that relies on the individual talents of their stars to score goals and do not play a consistent 60 minute game. They seem to take some shifts off, give the puck away with carelessness all over the ice. When you have two talents like Hudson and Celebrini ( who by the way did not impress me much last night, some give aways, bad decisions in shot selection in front of goal), BU has the potential of a devastating PP which they must execute better. Granted this weekend they were playing against one of the top 3 or 4 teams in the nation, but their performance to date illustrates i think some of my observations. They were probably fortunate to even win one of these games vs ND and risked being routed last night but for the brilliant positioning and finishing by L. Hudson. There are also some question marks with the goaltending. Not to blame him for the loss, but Caron does seem to run a bit hot and cold. Maybe its time to give the other goaltenders a chance to play. Anyways the good news is that it is still very early in the season with not that bad a record for the Terriers and time to improve, hopefully starting next week with some important league games coming up.
The film of that OT goal paints a damning picture of some players lack of commitment to executing fundamental defensive tasks. Blake is a good player but 11 made him way better at the worst possible time. They should practice without sticks until they learn to move their feet to achieve basic body positioning between puck carrier and goalie. This is instructional league stuff boys. It just takes effort. Can these boys be bothered to do the work it takes to prevent the other team from scoring?
Welcome back Vito, Mark, and Big Roy (Friday’s comment). I am always impressed with your observations and insights. As I said in an earlier comment “where is everybody”?
Vito, your précis of last night’s game was akin to conversations that I had. Friday’s result was, as Mitch Fink headlined it, “A Complete Effort”. Last night’s performance was a bit less than complete. While you noted, “ ND outskated, outhustled, and won almost every puck battle.” I would disagree with you to some extent, as I did see spurts of fire wherein BU carried the play. However, against a team like ND anything less than another “complete effort” is not likely to yield a positive result. Losing face offs and puck battles in our D zone were problematic, and as you said “the Terriers were forced to chase the game most of the night;” and to their credit they were able to do just that, and claw back into the game with less than a complete effort.
We have a plethora of talent, but the absence of sixty minutes of “fire in their bellies” determination, will only yield sporadic results. When we play an entire game with dogged determination, line-after-line, we are the elite team that we were projected to be. Lapses of that not-to-be denied intensity, by every player, on every shift, were visible last night. Nevertheless, the trend line is climbing, it is still early in the season, and we have all the factors of the equation necessary to be extremely successful. PSD
to this point, the goalie is mediocre at best. he makes some big saves, but is inconsistent. juggles the puck too much and leaves rebounds
Meanwhile, some goalie for Quinnipeac just shut out Harvard. Why can’t we get guys like that? We can have ten #71’s and it won’t make a hill of beans if the goalie is a leaker. and the book is starting to be out on #62. top shelf, far side = red light
There is no way #11 should be on the first line and no way should he start a 3 on 3 OT
just can not keep relying on #20 and # 71
unless something changes soon, BC will annihilate BU
What happened to Jack Harvey? He was great last year in the USHL.
Correction: University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks (4-2-1, 0-0-0 NCHC) UND hasn’t played a league game yet.
Jack Harvey. Yes Mark he was very good last year. I think on most nights he was 71 left wing. We do have 5 regulars at forward with 0 goals. So that is a great question
We all knew after that loss on Friday night that North Dakota would come out with a lot of intensity in fire and for the most part we matched it in the first period second period they took the plate to us and we fell behind by two goals but we never gave up and we kept pushing and we made it to overtime we got one point so overall it was a good weekend yes was there breakdowns loose coverage absolutely go tendon I can’t blame him cuz those were absolutely Snipes and for the overtime goal yes we covered by tuck and by Hudson but if that Park doesn’t hit off the Hudson it’s a new overtime that was a bad bounce with all that said it was still a productive weekend against a top three team and I could be wrong but come the end of the season I guarantee you North Dakota will be up towards the top and since our first game I have noticed a lot of good stuff we still have the breakdowns but that I believe is fixable in Mr Vinny if you think duplesus is the answer..yea head looking really good .. Not!! For a Quinnipiac team that only lost one game last season they’re off to a horrible start and I’ve watched some of their games and Mr Vinny is not sharp at all so let’s not blame caron for the losses.. the problem is we were so used to our last two goal is being so sound with angels and little movement caron def plays a wild goalie but makes the saves he needs to.. and yes you’ll say that the first game on Friday night that first goal was a softy it was stuff happens no one is perfect but if you look at the UMass series he won you that series but you don’t mention that so this team will figure it out I believe in this coaching staff and on to Lowell for a big weekend..
hope you are right about Caron, Mr. Big Roy
Read the tea leaves. Uml 4 BU 2
What tea leaves are you reading, Ozzie?
Vinnie you are right ……I think they got rolled and smoked