Men’s Hockey: Three takeaways from BU’s split with Merrimack

By Patrick Donnelly

The No. 10/11 Boston University Terriers (10-3) split their weekend series with the Merrimack College Warriors (5-11-2) this past weekend.

Merrimack ran BU out of the building in Friday’s game, winning 5-2 after getting out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period. The Terriers responded with a gritty, hard-fought 4-2 win on the road on Saturday.

Here are my three takeaways from the weekend – all opinions are my own:

Terriers can’t afford to have any repeats of Friday

Friday brought back some bad memories from last season, like when BU got blown out by Merrimack at home two days before losing the Beanpot. Disappointing performances and losses happened far too often with last year’s team, and even though BU has been rolling for the most part this season, there has always been the fear that the team will manage disappoint in some way again.

Friday was a trap game. A hot Terriers team was not ready to play against a hard-nosed Warriors squad. Plain and simple.

Whether it’s trying to solidify second place in the HEPI, or bolster your chances at the national tournament, BU can not afford to be dominated by inferior opponents. I said last week on the BU Hockey Show that, barring disaster, the Terriers should be fine for the national conversation. I think they’re still alright. Friday brought near disaster, and had BU been swept, they could have kissed the tournament goodbye, in my opinion.

The Terriers have another seemingly inferior opponent this weekend with one game against UMass Lowell (7-8). BU can’t afford another slip up.

Saturday marked a more representative effort

Contrary to Friday’s poor result, Saturday’s win went almost as well as BU could have hoped for in response. The Terriers played a physical game, were hard on pucks, especially on the forecheck, blocked a number of shots, capitalized on their opportunities and got some key saves.

That has pretty much been the blueprint for how BU has won games this year, even when they’ve been outplayed. That effort was perhaps best exemplified by Logan Cockerill’s third period tally, after Nick Zabaneh and Robert Mastrosimone put on a forechecking clinic.

The Terriers brought a much more opportunistic and selfless style of play on Saturday, and they’ll need to keep it up in order to continue their success moving forward.

Commesso stakes his claim to the crease

Vinny Duplessis got shelled against Merrimack on Friday, making six saves before giving up three goals on three-straight shots. To be fair, BU had lackluster gaffes in front of Duplessis before the goals, and he did not really have much of a chance on any of them.

Regardless, it marked the end of the night for Duplessis, and Drew Commesso entered in relief after over a month-long absence.

Commesso looked impressive, considering he had not seen game action in some time. He made 27 saves on 28 shots on Friday, and stopped 25 of 27 shots on Saturday. The frosh made a number of huge stops between breakaways and desperation saves in both games, and certainly looked good enough to take back the starting job.

BU will return to action on Saturday against UMass Lowell at the Tsongas Center at 3 p.m.

Featured Image: Freshman goaltender Drew Commesso tracks a slap shot from the point in a game against Merrimack at Walter Brown Arena on Feb. 26, 2021. Photo by Patrick Donnelly.