BOSTON — The crowd was happy after the Boston University men’s hockey team had a 3-0 lead as the first-period buzzer sounded, but head coach Jay Pandolfo wasn’t.
“That’s unacceptable from our group,” Pandolfo said of his team’s effort through the first 20 minutes of play.
The No. 3 Terriers (2-0-0) were outshot 17-13 in the first period in their 4-1 win over Union College on Saturday night at Agganis Arena. They didn’t record a shot on goal for the first 4:45 of regulation.
Through the game’s first eight minutes, the Garnet Chargers (2-1-0) controlled the pace. They got behind the Terrier defense and forced senior goaltender Mathieu Caron to make several point-blank saves early.
“He was the only one ready to play for us, that’s for sure,” Pandolfo said of his goalie.
Like in the season opener a week ago, the senior netminder looked comfortable and more importantly, confident between the pipes. He stopped 36 of the 37 shots he faced on Saturday.
“If Chewy wasn’t on his game in the first period, we could be looking at a different outcome,” sophomore captain Shane Lachance said postgame.
BU finally broke through the Union defense at the 8:36 mark of the first, when junior forward Quinn Hutson fed Lanchane with a slick pass into the slot. Lachance fired it home into the top right corner for his first goal of the season to give the Terriers a 1-0 lead.
“I surprised myself a little bit, to be honest,” Lachance joked of his first-period tally. “A little outside of my range, but Quinn made a nice play.”
The Terriers earned a man advantage at 9:04 when junior forward Parker Lindauer was called for a trip. Halfway through the two-minute minor, sophomore forward Jack Harvey maneuvered around the top of the slot and found freshman forward Alex Zetterberg at the top of the left circle. The 5-foot-8 forward one-timed the puck off the crossbar and in for his second goal in as many games to extend BU’s lead to two at 10:29.
Zetterberg continues to impress through his first two collegiate outings, earning his way onto the second power-play unit.
“Tonight he was excellent,” Pandolfo said of the Swedish forward. “I thought he was arguably our best forward tonight.”
BU continued its strong second half of the first period from there.
Freshman defenseman Cole Huston danced through mid-ice traffic, dishing to fellow freshman and Cole, forward Cole Eiserman, just inside the blue line. Eiserman fired one through Union junior netminder Kyle Chauvette’s five-hole to give the home team a 3-0 lead with under 90 seconds to play in the first.
It was a high-octane first 20 minutes. There were 30 shots on goal between the two teams with the visitors holding a 17-13 advantage.
“We’re really skilled offensively. We’ve got some great talent,” Lachance said of the group. “[But] we’ve had a couple of mistakes that can definitely be fixed.”
The early stages of the second period were much like the first — the Terriers struggled to get pucks on net and committed several turnovers that, at some point, will cost the team.
“We definitely have to tighten up,” Pandolfo said. “We’re giving them chances that they should not get if you’re playing the right way.”
Union got on the board at the 12:49 mark of the second, as senior forward Josh Nixon found Lindauer below the goal line. The junior forward ricocheted the puck off Caron’s back to cut the BU lead to 3-1.
The Terriers responded to the Garnet Charger’s goal with several minutes of sustained possession time in the offensive zone, and the team was rewarded with a goal.
Harvey swatted home a rebound off freshman forward Kamil Bednarik’s shot to give BU a 4-1 lead at 16:22 of the second. The Harvey-Bednarik-Jack Hughes line produced the team’s best shift in the win.
“They seem to have some pretty good chemistry,” Pandolfo said of the line. “When they’re playing behind the other team, that’s when they have the most success, when they’re getting to the net. The goal Harvey scored, that’s what happened.”
Graduate defenseman Brehdan Engum recorded his first point in the Scarlet and White on the team’s fourth goal, as he saw significant ice time for the first time this season on Saturday.
“We wanted to get Engum involved,” Pandolfo said. “I thought he played well. He’s a good penalty killer. He did a really good job.”
The final 20 minutes of play looked a lot like the early stages of both the first and second periods: sloppy.
“Those are kinks you gotta iron out the first couple of weeks,” Lachance said of the uncharacteristic mistakes the Terriers made.
Even so, the crowd left happy after 60 minutes of play, but much like heading into the first intermission, Pandolfo wasn’t so.
“We certainly have to be better defensively, making sure we’re killing plays and not spending as much time on our own end,” he said. “You got to take something from each game, good or bad.”
DREW, TARA, and JAY
Although this season is still in its inception, the history of the past two years has provided more than ample evidence that both the Men’s and Women’s programs are under stellar management. Drew made two exceptional choices in Watchorn and Pandolfo and they, in turn, have also made excellent choices for their Assistants and Associates.
Nothing aides recruiting and attendance like coaches of renown, excellence while winning, and the instillation of styles of play that produce results on the ice, and excitement in the stands.
Admittedly, I attend more Men’s games than Women’s, but with the doubleheaders this season that gap will narrow. Nevertheless, given my constant attendance at the Men’s games, I would like to comment on my observations. Obviously, Jay deserves the bulk of the credit for the transformation of the program in general, and for the enhanced speed, successful outlets, center ice movements, and O zone entry schemes. Kim Brandvold is deserving of kudos for a Power Play that far surpasses those of years past. The movement patterns are no longer predictable (corner, blue line, across blue line, other corner, etc.), but are free flowing with everybody moving “away from the ball” to get open for receptions, shots, and passes. Likewise, the PK under Joe Pereira is much improved, with a newfound aggression that forces opponents to make faster (and therefore sometimes errant) passes. Taking away time and space is working very well, as it is tempered by our defenders knowing when the risk is worth the reward. The successes of Joe’s recruiting go without speaking and are an added bonus of his presence.
Finally, the wealth of our on-ice talent is a blessing, but Caron’s goaltending has kept us in games that could have gone awry; so as for right now he is my choice for MVP, and Brian Daccord deserves note for his guidance of Mathieu. PSD
great observation PSD. There is no question that the men’s program with 2 consecutive Frozen Four appearances has re established itself as one of the top 3 or 4 programs in the nation, and has not been achieved by BU hockey since the late 1990s. I don’t follow the women’s program that much and i wasn’t even aware of the doubleheaders until i bumped into a fan with a Northeastern jersey on before the men’s game Saturday night and asked him who won NU? and he answered no BU won and we both shared a laugh as he saw i was surprised and he also quickly pointed out to me that NU has beaten our women 12 straight times.
There also seems to be a much greater interest among the students for the men’s team this year as well. Opening night was a sellout vs Holy Cross! hardly a top Division 1 program and vs Union on Saturday almost the same. Walking to my car, after the game, which i always park near Beacon Street in Brookline , and near where many BU students live, wearing my Terrier hockey jersey i passed several times some students on the street who quickly asked “did they win” , and after saying yes , they burst into loud cheering and chants of GO BU!.
As far as the play on the ice goes, although the results have been good, two solid wins, I am a bit concerned with a bit of inconsistency in their play ( which also could be due to early season rustiness as the team gets to know one another) For example against HC they didn’t seem to get their legs going until the second period and also vs Union a slow start saw them outshot badly in the first period and only some terrific saves by Caron and opportunistic terrier goals an upset could have been in the making. As you point out PS Caron has been terrific and let’s face it , the goaltender is the most important position in hockey. We’ve seen it so many time over the yearsat all levels when goalies win tourney MVPs and Conn Smythe trophies in the NHL ( Thank goodness the B’s signed Swayman). Caron is now established as one of the best especially after his brilliant play during the NCAA tourney last year. A good start has us at #1 in the pairwise ranking but its early and the upcoming games vs UCONN and the two in ND will give us a better idea of how good this Terrier outfit can be this year.