Men’s Hockey: Terriers open up Hockey East conference play against the Huskies in a dominant 4-2 win
Featured image by Matthew Allen
By Claire Smieszny
Hockey East’s top dog is back.
Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey (3-0-0, 1-0-0 HEA) took down the UConn Huskies (3-2-0, 0-1-0 HEA) in a 4-2 win on Friday night.
“We’re lucky that we have good players that can make plays, and you know, we took advantage of some chances that we had,” Coach Jay Pandolfo said post-game. “Overall, happy with 3-and-0, obviously.”
The Terrier’s first foray into conference play this season started off with a bouncing puck. BU settled it down just after a minute and rang off the game’s first two shots in quick succession.
The Huskies took control of the puck and started to dominate the game early, keeping the Terriers out of their end and firing shots at goaltender Mathieu Caron. BU looked messy on both ends of the ice, having trouble stringing plays together and maintaining offensive possession.
The Terriers started showing frustration as the clock ticked down while they remained scoreless. Failed attempts for setups in front of the net piled up while they still struggled to sustain time in the O-zone.
BU’s defensive incoordination could only be backstopped for so long, as at 16:44 into the first, captain Hudson Schandor broke away with the puck and tapped it past Caron’s left pad into the net for a 1-0 lead.
BU came back with a couple of close chances to answer, but none of them made it past freshmen goalie Thomas Heaney, who got his first collegiate nod in net.
The Terriers came back into the second period swinging and were quick to tie the score, with Cole Eiserman flicking one up and over Heaney’s pad in a diving play just over a minute into the period. It marks the freshman’s third goal in three games.
Eiserman’s goal opened up the floodgates for BU’s offense, as they pummeled Heaney with shots on net. Brandon Svoboda would put the Terriers on top with an odd-angle shot at close range with his first collegiate goal. It was 2-1 Terriers with 3:35 remaining in the period.
“I couldn’t have done it without my linemates [Alex Zetterberg] and [Tristan Amonte],” Svoboda said. “It was just the best feeling ever, I kind of blacked out when it happened.”
The third period started off scrappy and physical and came to a halt just under halfway through after a boarding play from UConn.
What was originally a minor penalty was upgraded to a major and game misconduct after review by the referees. The Terriers wasted no time, with Ryan Greene passing the puck up to Eiserman from the goal line for him to tap it in after just nine seconds on the power play for his second of the night.
“I’m always looking for the next one,” Eiserman said. “You know you get one, you always want two, if you get two, you always want three. So it’s one of those things where you’re trying to score as many goals as you can to win hockey games.”
The Huskies answered in quick succession, as Jake Percival stripped the puck off of BU’s defense and pulled a move on Caron shorthanded to tuck it back door. It was 3-2 BU with 10 minutes to play.
The nail in the coffin for UConn’s game came in the form of a Tom Willander slapshot, which connected with the back of the net and upped it to 4-2 BU with just over two minutes left. The game finished with Willander’s first of the season.
“The group in the room has to hold themselves accountable,” Pandolfo said. “That’s what has to happen. And we have to get there quickly, because I know we have an exhibition game tomorrow night…but we’ve got to come out and have a really good performance because next weekend we’re going out to a pretty hostile environment, which is going to be new for a lot of these guys.”
BU faces the Harvard Crimson in an exhibition game Saturday, Oct. 19th before shipping off to North Dakota for a weekend series against the Fighting Hawks. The exhibition game will be available to stream on ESPN+.