The first half did not look as the Boston University men’s hockey team had been expecting when they came into the season ranked third in the country.
The Terriers went 9-6-1 and 5-3-1 in Hockey East play in the first half. They are tangled in a four-way tie for second in the conference and are ranked No. 13 by the USCHO.
The second half of the season opens up Sunday afternoon at Yale at 4 p.m.
Missing Young Firepower
Three BU freshmen were selected by Team USA to play in the World Juniors: forwards Cole Eiserman and Brandon Svoboda and defenseman Cole Hutson. Sophomore Tom Willander is playing for Team Sweden for the second year in a row.
While the Americans are showing out on an international stage, tallying 11 total points between the three, BU will be playing without some of their top offensive players. Eiserman leads the team in goals and is tied for second in points with 15, only two short of captain Shane Lachance. Hutson is right behind with 14 points, including two goals in his last game against the University of Massachusetts. Willander has another nine points, and Svoboda was just starting to put his game together before the break.
Hutson’s offense will be missed in conjunction with the departure of one of their most solid defenders in Willander.
Learning from Mistakes
After a messy loss at Agganis Arena to UMass, BU recovered with a win on the road in Amherst to close out the first half of meaningful hockey.
The Terriers won their most competitive games with their backs against the wall, often following Friday losses with close wins on Saturdays. BU struggled to hold a lead for an entire third period or stay out of the penalty box. They beat themselves more than their opponents did.
The Terriers’ brightest spots were comeback wins on the road against tough teams, where they corrected their mistakes from the night before and clawed their way out to wins. It happened in North Dakota, Maine, Lowell, and Amherst with a few extra days between games.
To more comfortably ensure a spot in the tournament, BU needs to bypass the ugly first games and learn from them without repeating those mistakes over and over again. They will look to start on the right track with this first game before reentering conference play at home.
Scouting the Bulldogs
Yale is ninth in the ECAC standings with a 2-7-1 overall record and 2-3-1 in the conference.
The Bulldogs rank 58th in the NCAA on the power play at under 12%, a welcome sight for BU’s 73% penalty kill rate that ranks 57th. BU also leads college hockey in penalty minutes with 273. Almost a third of those minutes are playing in the World Juniors. Hutson alone has more than the entire Yale team. This matchup will be an opportunity for the Terriers to play a clean game to get themselves going on the right track.
Goals have been difficult to come by for Yale, too. The Bulldogs score an average of 1.6 times per game while opponents score 3.5, in line with the Terriers’ average. Yale has been shut out three times this season, including in their last matchup against Long Island back in November.
No Bulldogs have cracked 10 points, but freshman forwards Ronan O’Donnell and Donovan Frias lead the team in goals and points.
Three different Yale goalies have started the last three games. Sophomore Jack Stark has gotten the bulk of the starts the last two seasons, but he has an .886 save percentage this season and is not a lock to start Sunday. Freshman Noah Pak has a .927 SV% in about four periods in net, and senior Luke Pearson got the latest start for his first of the season against Long Island, giving up three goals on 24 shots on goal.
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