
Cristina Romano
The Boston University men’s hockey team is undoubtedly one of the most offensively stacked teams in the NCAA.
So when Colgate (0-1-1) locked down BU’s (2-0-1) offense into a 2-2 regulation tie on Saturday, it was disappointing overall for head coach Jay Pandolfo.
“I don’t know what our guys expected, they’re just going to roll over because we beat them last night?” said Pandolfo, “They came ready to play. We certainly didn’t.”
As an encore to its 6-2 Friday victory, the approach to tonight’s game wasn’t something that was foreseen. It’s clear what the Terriers can do at their best, but their start in the first period potentially cost them what could’ve been two wins.
“I think our guys wanted an easy night tonight,” said Pandolfo, “and you know that they weren’t going to give us one. It was just the execution in every part of our game. We just didn’t execute.”
Colgate’s forecheck came out all over BU’s defense. Even when the Terriers managed to get on the power play, the Raiders didn’t let up on their game — keeping sticks in passing lanes that prevented BU from getting the puck into the back of the net.
The Terriers entered this game at a 50% conversion rate on the man-advantage, and they scored on two of three chances the night prior. Colgate held them scoreless for all five of BU’s power plays.
“I think it was just miscommunication, guys not getting to the right spots,” said Cole Hutson of his unit, “I think that hurt us in the long run. We had a lot of chances to win the game.”
BU did have its chances. As the game progressed, so did the Terriers’ ability to generate opportunities. Eventually, the seal broke — thanks to Ryder Ritchie’s efforts on a turnover that resulted in a 2-on-0 tap-in goal courtesy of Cole Eiserman.
Colgate defender Antonio Fernandez fired a quick shot from the point that got through Mikhail Yegorov for a 2-1 lead early in the 3rd period.
Things continued to not click for the Terriers, but when BU needed a spark, Jack Murtagh emerged.
The freshman forward stole the puck from Colgate’s Luke Malboeuf in the Raiders’ own zone. That resulted in BU’s second goal from a caused turnover — and the first of Murtagh’s collegiate career.
“I thought he was excellent. It was his best game by far,” said Pandolfo of Murtagh, “I think the first couple games, it’s an adjustment to college hockey, [he was] probably putting a lot of pressure on himself, probably overthinking. Tonight, you can tell he wasn’t thinking. He was just playing. And he showed, he can do some good things.”
That goal highlighted what was an all-around performance from Murtagh. Along with his amazing dekes and ability to be in the right places, he tied his star teammate Cole Eiserman in shots on goal and shared a goal tally — both were important in keeping a regulation loss off of BU’s record.
“I mean, it’s pretty surreal to hear the crowd — to score,” said Murtagh on his first goal, “all the noise. It was pretty surreal.”
The crowd popped again when Sascha Boumedienne found the back of the net with under a minute to play. The goal, which would have given the Terriers a 3-2 lead, was overturned from a Colgate challenge that confirmed BU was offside entering the zone.
BU managed to kill off a 4-on-3 in the extra session after sophomore Kamil Bednarik was whistled for tripping with 3:45 remaining in overtime. The Terriers ended up scoring both goals in the shootout from Cole Eiserman and Jack Harvey— they ended the weekend on a 2-2 tie.
If BU wants to make next weekend a battle against a top-tier program like Michigan State, the focus will be on ensuring they play together as a unit like they were able to on Friday night. Whether they can carry it over into the next game is up to them.
“There’s some really positive signs from our group, and that’s why I think that’s probably the biggest reason I’m disappointed — was the way we came out tonight,” said Pandolfo. “We were playing like individuals. You can’t win like that, if you don’t play together as a group. I’ve never seen it done.”