Before heading across the pond for the Friendship Four in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the Boston University men’s hockey team will host Merrimack College for a standalone contest Friday night.
The No. 13 Terriers (5-5-1, 2-2-1 Hockey East) are fresh off an exhilarating 2-2 tie and shootout win over the University of Maine last Saturday, while the Warriors (3-6-1, 2-3-1 HE) haven’t played since a 4-3 defeat to Stonehill College on Nov. 12.
Senior forward Matt Copponi (two goals, five assists), who spent his first three collegiate seasons at Merrimack and led the Warriors in points last season, will play against his former team for the first time.
The game against Merrimack ends a stretch of playing eight consecutive games against ranked opponents. BU went 2-5-1 in those matchups.
More notably, the Terriers have lost three consecutive games at home.
“We haven’t got off to the greatest start this season,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said in his weekly media call on Thursday. “We’ve had a good week of practice, and we’ve had that before. It needs to carry over into our game tomorrow night. That’s the message to our group.
Freshman forward Alex Zetterberg missed both games against Maine last weekend but is set to return against Merrimack. Fellow freshman forward Brandon Svoboda, who also didn’t play last weekend, is on track to play, according to Pandolfo. Junior forward Quinn Hutson, who left Saturday’s game against Maine early with an upper body injury, won’t play on Friday.
Puck drops at 7 p.m. at Agganis Arena. Here’s what you need to know.
Offensive struggles a major focus
Creating offense was a glaring issue for BU in last Saturday’s game against Maine. According to BUHockeyStats, the Terriers only registered 9:24 in offensive zone possession, compared to Maine’s 18:04.
A big part of that discrepancy was the Terrier’s inability to win draws. BU only on 29 percent of face offs on Saturday. Its season average is 50 percent.
“Do we have to get better offensively? Absolutely,” Panfoldo said. “We haven’t been as good as we have been in the past with that.”
The Terriers have honed in on trying to create more offense in practice this week. There’s been an emphasis on getting the defensemen more involved in the offensive zone, according to Pandolfo.
In order to improve offensively by getting the blueliners involved, the third forward into the offensive zone has to be better, an area that Pandolfo said “has not been great.”
“If our D realizes our third forward is in a good position, they can keep plays alive on the walls. They can be more comfortable getting more involved in the offensive zone, which has been part of our offense the last couple years,” he said.
Mathieu Caron is BU’s first choice in goal
There’s been plenty of chatter over the last several weeks as to who the Terrier’s No. 1 goalie is, and if it was, the spot was up for grabs. Pandolfo put that conversation to bed.
“[Mathieu Caron’s] our starter,” he said.
After starting the first eight games of the season, Caron was benched for sophomore Max Lacroix in the next two contests. Pandolfo said he felt Caron “needed a reset” after he struggled against the University of Michigan and UMass Lowell.
Pandolfo added that the team is “very comfortable” with Lacroix in goal as well, who was solid in his first two collegiate starts.
Caron followed up his benching with a stellar 30 save performance in last Saturday’s outing against Maine, in which his head coach said he was “excellent.”
Scouting the Warriors
Merrimack has struggled to find the back of the net through its first 10 games of the season, scoring only 1.9 goals per game, which is good for the worst mark in Hockey East and tied for 57th in the nation.
Junior defenseman Zach Bookman leads the Warriors with five points (goal, four assists). Forwards sophomore Ethan Bono, freshman Caelan Fitzpatrick and graduate Antonio Venuto each have scored three times this season, tied for the team lead.
Sophomore Max Lundgren has started five games in net, posting a .898 save percentage, and is allowing 2.92 goals per game between the pipes.
The Warriors have struggled mightily on the penalty kill, killing opponents power plays at only 66.7 percent, good for the second worst mark in the country. They’ve given up 11 power play goals in 10 games.
Is there any update on when Quinn Hutson will be back in the lineup?
Hey Dan,
We asked Pandolfo during his media call on Thursday, and he said Quinn was “100% out” for the Merrimack game on Friday, with no further update on his status moving forward. We’ll ask during our next availability with Pandolfo, which will either be mid-next week or after the first game of the Friendship Four next Friday. Thanks for reading!