Men’s Hockey: Terriers Return to Hockey East Play Against UNH

By Stevie Potter

No. 9/7 Boston University Men’s Hockey (8-4-0, 5-3-0 HE) will take on the University of New Hampshire (3-11-1, 0-9-1 HE) in a home-and-home series this weekend, starting Friday at UNH and wrapping up Saturday at Agganis Arena. 

BU had a light schedule during the Thanksgiving break, defeating then-No. 19 Notre Dame 5-2 on Nov. 23 and falling 6-5 in OT in an exhibition game against the United States National Team Development Program. Junior goaltender Vinny Duplessis made 33 saves in the loss to the U-18s, so it is more than likely that junior goalie Drew Commesso, who sports a .915 save percentage on the season, will be in net to start the weekend series against UNH. 

Historically, BU holds a 21-9-3 record against UNH, and the Terriers have not lost to the Wildcats since an overtime tie on Feb. 17, 2017. Since then, BU has gone 10-0-0 against UNH. 

The last time these two clubs went head-to-head was on Dec. 4, 2021, a 2-1 OT win for BU. Senior defensemen Domenick Fensore and Case McCarthy scored both Terriers’ goals in that matchup. 

Going into this weekend, UNH will have to look out for BU’s powerhouse freshman defenseman Lane Hutson, who was named Hockey East Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 28, his first of the season. Hutson scored two goals in the game against Notre Dame, including the game-winning goal, which became his second consecutive game-winner. So far this season, Hutson has 14 points (6g, 8a) and sports a plus-4 rating.

While it’s not expected for BU to have much trouble against UNH, it will still be important for the Terriers to keep an eye on the Wildcats’ star freshman forward Cy LeClerc. LeClerc leads his team in goals (5).

The first game of the weekend will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday at UNH’s Whittemore Center. The final game of the weekend will occur on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Agganis Arena. Both games will be streamed live on ESPN+, as well as NESN+ on Friday.