Men’s Hockey: BU freshmen show out in 8-2 home opener against Bentley

Freshman forward Ryan Greene celebrates scoring one of his team-leading two goals. JOE EACHUS/ WTBU SPORTS

By Sasha Abrams

The No. 12/14 Boston University Terriers (1-0-0) opened their 101st season taking down the Bentley University Falcons (0-1-0) in an 8-2 blowout at Agganis Arena Saturday night. Seven Terriers scored a goal, with freshman forward Ryan Greene taking home two goals in his college debut. 

“I can’t say enough how the freshmen showed up tonight,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said. “They’ve been like that since day one when practice started, so it’s fun to see.”

Greene wasn’t the only freshman to put up multiple points. Forward Jeremy Wilmer, forward Quinn Hutson, defenseman Lane Hutson, and forward Devin Kaplan joined Greene as freshmen to appear on the scoresheet more than once.

“It’s really important for those guys to have confidence right off the hop,” Pandolfo said. “We have three guys playing together on a freshman line, and then the power play unit has four freshmen on it.”

The Terriers came out firing in the first period. Quinn Hutson put BU on the board at 2:34, finding the back of the net from in tight with assists from fellow freshman Jeremy Wilmer and sophomore Ty Gallagher. 

 

“The players were ready to play,” Pandolfo said. “That was one of our focuses this year, is to start on time. That’s important for us and I think we did that.”

Next to score was senior forward Matt Brown on an odd man rush with a wrister hitting the top shelf to make it 2-0 at 3:58 in the first. Junior forward Dylan Peterson and senior defenseman Case McCarthy were the assists on Brown’s goal. 

Greene increased the Terrier’s lead by two, first with a power play goal assisted by freshmen Devin Kaplan and Lane Hutson at 6:55 and then with a backhand shot to the top shelf assisted by freshmen Quinn Hutson and Jeremy Wilmer making it 4-0 at 14:08.

“We’ve been playing together basically the whole time leading up to this, so I think practice obviously helps, you develop some chemistry there,” Greene said after the game. “Obviously playing with those two guys there such smart hockey player, they make it super easy.”

Bentley’s junior defenseman Nick Bochen opened the scoring for the Falcons with just under a minute left in the first period, notching his first goal as a Falcon. The assist came from freshman forward Ryan Upson and sophomore forward Harrison Scott to make it 4-1.

BU saw their third freshman score to re-acquire their four-goal lead, as forward Jeremy Wilmer scored his first career goal, giving BU a 5-1 lead at 4:54 of the middle frame. While on the power play, Greene passed it to Wilmer, who was wide open for the top-shelf wrist shot. Lane Hutson also notched an assist. 

“They’ve been practicing together as a unit for a couple of weeks now,” Pandolfo said. “They’re scoring goals in practice on a regular basis so we weren’t gonna mess around with that.”

Bentley responded with a goal of its own at 16:47 in the second period. Sophomore Harrison Scott found the back of the net to take it back to a three-goal deficit with the assist from junior Nick Bochen and junior forward Cole Kodsi.

BU answered about a minute later, with junior forward Luke Tuch completed a nice passing play at 4v4. Ready at the right circle, Tuch was assisted by Lane Hutson and senior forward Jay O’Brien.

“Tuch came off the bench and OB kind of drifted and dropped it off to me,” Lane Hutson noted after the game. “Then I saw the play developing a little bit and then Tuch slid to the right spot, so I snapped it off straight to him.”

The third period opened with yet another freshman finding the back of the net. Senior captain Domenick Fensore found Kaplan at the front of the net to put BU up 7-2 with Luke Tuch claiming the other assist point.

Senior forward Sam Stevens finalized the score at 8-2 just 3:52 into the third period. Stevens, in front of the goal line, was assisted on the outside by junior forward Nick Zabaneh and junior defenseman Cade Webber.

BU outshot Bentley 32-24, with junior goaltender Drew Commesso making 22 saves to start off his season with a .917 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average.

The Terriers will play an exhibition game vs the University of Waterloo Warriors at Agganis Arena next Saturday, with puck drop at 7 p.m.

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