The Boston University men’s hockey team’s record doesn’t quite reflect the way it’s been playing.
The Terriers remain undefeated (3-0-0) because they keep finding ways to scrape together wins to absolve the team of its slow starts and the mistakes of its inexperienced defensive core. But they’ve only played unranked teams in front of a home crowd.
BU is hitting the road to take on the No. 7-ranked University of North Dakota (2-1) at the famous Ralph Engelstad Arena, a challenging environment for any team coming in, let alone one so young.
“If you want to have success and go a long way in the college season, you have to play in these environments and play against these teams, and it’s nice to do it early,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said.
The Terriers will play two games at the Ralph on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively. This series will be a good indicator as to how far they can go in tournament play.
The defense’s first real test
Pandolfo has been preaching simplicity.
The D-core is young and still settling into the pace of a college season, so this wasn’t unexpected. It’s still the source of a lot of frustration around the team as the barely-initiated defensemen make mistakes and continue to get away with making them.
This is the first real challenge the blue liners will face this season, and if they can’t simplify against this opponent, it could start to actually cost them, especially if senior goaltender Mathieu Caron can’t keep bailing them out.
“Going out there, you learn a lot about your team, how they handle pressure, how they handle playing against really good competition. That’s the benefit of playing these types of games early on,” Pandolfo said.
The Ralph will be a seventh player on the ice
The Ralph is essentially a 33rd NHL arena. Along with some of the best facilities in college hockey, the arena has both a lower and upper bowl to seat over 11,500 hostile North Dakota fans.
Providence College was pumping in crowd noise during practice in order to prepare for the atmosphere in that arena. The Friars proceeded to be shellacked by the Fighting Hawks in Grand Forks.
The lights will be bright, and they’ll feel even brighter on the ice. The Terriers will face rabid college fans chanting insults in addition to a tough team on the ice.
Scouting the Fighting Hawks
Last season, BU split their series at Agganis, which included a heartbreaker in the second game with a late BU goal that sent the game into overtime, only for Fighting Hawk Jackson Blake to end it 20 seconds later.
North Dakota plays hard on both ends of the ice. BU will have to be winning battles in front of the net and along the boards against a tough team that also features a lot of skill.
Blake, who had 60 points last season, has moved on to Carolina in the NHL, but Owen McLaughlin and Cameron Berg collected 39 and 37 points respectively last season and remain on the team. Berg is off to a hot start with four points in the first three games, leading the team with freshman Sacha Boisvert, the 18th-overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.
The team is coming off a split series with Minnesota State, the second game of which the Fighting Hawks were shut out 3-0. They’ve been facing similar issues of slow starts like BU, so both teams will be looking to come out hot off the opening face-off.
North Dakota has only faced ranked opponents so far this season, and they’ve fared pretty well. They’re primed against strong opponents, so this heavyweight matchup is not as unfamiliar to them as it is for the Terriers.
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