Sophomore defenseman Tom Willander has described the Beanpot experience in simple terms to the newcomers of the Boston University men’s hockey team.
“It’s pressure,” Willander told them. “But it’s a lot of fun.”
To Willander, the legendary midseason tournament boils down to those two elements. For BU, the challenge is channeling that pressure and excitement into a disciplined and sustained effort.
The Terriers will get the opportunity to do so in Monday’s semifinal against Harvard at TD Garden, which begins at 5 p.m.
BU head coach Jay Pandolfo is confident in the team’s ability to handle the elevated stage, since the Terriers have played in several high-pressure situations — at the Friendship Four in Belfast, the series at North Dakota in October and the home-and-home with Boston College two weekends ago.
“We’ve got enough experience now where we should be comfortable in that environment,” Pandolfo said.
If the Terriers win, they’ll face the winner of BC and Northeastern at 8:30 p.m. next Monday. If they lose, they’ll play the loser in the consolation game at 4:30.
“The energy in the building, I think it’s a lot of fun,” Willander said. “So I hope they’re ready.”
Coming in on a high note
Friday’s 7-2 win over New Hampshire was one of BU’s most complete performances of the season. Pandolfo is hoping the Terriers can parlay it into a similar effort on Monday.
“We’ve just got to make sure we come out tomorrow and play similar to the way we did on Friday against UNH,” Pandolfo said. “Pretty good outing for 60 minutes and we got to make sure we’re ready to have that same type of effort.”
The main storyline of Friday’s win was the re-emergence of BU’s even-strength scoring — the Terriers scored five goals at 5-on-5 after going three games without an even-strength tally.
But there were other areas of excellence, too. BU’s defensive structure limited the Wildcats to only a few Grade-A chances, freshman goalie Mikhail Yegorov was steady in his Agganis Arena debut. The power play found the net, too, courtesy of a Cole Eiserman wrister.
If the Terriers can replicate that effort against Harvard, they’ll be playing in the late game on Feb. 10.
Yegorov will start in net for the third straight game
After bursting onto the scene with a stellar debut in a 2-0 loss to Boston College on Jan. 25, the freshman netminder captured his first win as a Terrier with a 19-save effort in the rout of UNH on Feb. 1.
Those performances were enough to earn Yegorov a start in the Beanpot semifinals, although Pandolfo would not commit to naming him the starter moving forward.
The St. Petersburg, Russia native will still have to make do with his orange Omaha Lancers pads, though, unless his new Scarlet and White gear becomes ready between Sunday’s practice and Monday’s game.
Scouting the Crimson
BU is acquainted with Harvard, since the teams faced off in an entertaining exhibition game on Oct. 19 at Agganis Arena, which resulted in a 2-2 tie. Both squads also traveled across the pond for the Friendship Four, although they did not play each other.
The Crimson (7-11-2) are having a down year and rank 43rd in the PairWise, but they played BC close in a 3-1 loss on Jan. 14 and have a quality win with a 3-0 takedown of Quinnipiac on Nov. 9.
Harvard is led by junior forward Joe Miller (4-11-15), freshman forward Mick Thompson (6-8-14) and junior forward Casey Severo (8-5-13). The team has split the net between freshman Ben Charette (2.48, .920) and junior Aku Koskenvuo (2.80, .903).
The last time the teams faced off in the Beanpot, in the 2022 semifinals, BU emerged with a 4-3 win en route to the title.
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