Men’s Hockey: No. 1 Terriers blow out UVM on the road

By Joe Eachus

BURLINGTON, Vt. – “They’ve got a couple of good players, huh?”

One UVM fan put it best as he headed out the doors of Gutterson Fieldhouse with ten minutes left in the third period, looking to beat the traffic (along with a handful of others amidst the sellout crowd) as the Catamounts were nearing the end of a blowout at the hands of No. 1 Boston University.

The Terriers (15-4-1, 10-1-1 HEA) were powered, per usual, by the duo of Lane Hutson and Macklin Celebrini. Hutson tallied four assists and Celebrini scored twice in a 5-1 decision, with the Catamounts (10-10-1, 4-6-1 HEA) unable to find an answer defensively for the dynamic duo. Mathieu Caron turned in a stellar performance in net, stopping 26 of 27 shots to earn the win.

“Big win on the road here… a strange game overall with [fourteen total] penalties, but at the end of the day we got the win,” coach Jay Pandolfo said.

Luke Tuch got the scoring started for BU at the 11:37 mark of the first frame, tipping Tom Willander’s point shot past UVM goaltender Gabe Carriere in the waning minutes of the first power play opportunity of the night.

Macklin Celebrini scored his first of the night seven minutes later off the rush, with Lane Hutson threading the needle through three defenders to get the puck on Celebrini’s stick in the slot, who’d fire it over the right shoulder of Carriere to double the Terrier lead.

“Just approaching every game like it’s the same… any time you play at a high level, you’re going to have to adapt. I have the right people around me to make those changes. [Lane’s] a special player… he’s extraordinary,” Celebrini said.

UVM finally got on the board at 6:15 of the second frame. Following Jens Richards’ shot high and wide, Joel Määttä scooped up the loose puck and sent it cross-crease to an open Thomas Sinclair for a one-timer past Caron.

The full-capacity Gutterson crowd erupted as they regained hope of an upset of the top-ranked team in the nation, though the hundreds of Montreal Canadiens fans who had made the trip across the border to see two of their top prospects (L. Hutson and Tuch) were less than pleased.

“[The Canadiens] have great fans, they support [their guys] well,” said Celebrini. 

But Macklin Celebrini had an answer. On a five-on-three advantage, slick passing between Hutson, Ryan Greene, and Celebrini back-and-forth eventually found Celebrini open in the slot once again, scoring his second of the night.

The Terriers regained their two-goal lead and entered the third period with their eye on shutting down the sneaky-good Catamounts.

“He plays a direct game, he attacks… he’s a pretty complete player for a seventeen-year-old,” Pandolfo said of the youngest player in college hockey.

Two goals in 1:10 shut the door on any Catamount comeback and sent the fans to the exits early.

First, Dylan Peterson got on the scoresheet with a shot that dribbled through Carriere five-hole off a slick feed from Jeremy Wilmer.

Then a minute later, Quinn Hutson scored to bring the Terrier power-play to three goals on the evening off a feed from his brother. As Lane crashed into the slot, he backhanded the puck over to a waiting Quinn in Ovechkin’s office.

“Lane just loves playing hockey… he loves being out there and competing. He’s a lot of fun to watch,” said Pandolfo.

So, yes, the No. 1 Terriers do have a couple of good players. They’ll be back in action tomorrow night for the second game in Burlington at 7 p.m., with the game available for streaming on ESPN+.