Men’s Hockey: Terriers ring the bell in Belfast with 4-3 comeback win over Notre Dame

Featured image courtesy of Andrew Paton/Press Eye, BU Athletics

By Abigail Stocker

Ring that bell, boys.

Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey (8-5-1, 5-2-1 HE) took home the Belpot Trophy, coming back from a two-goal deficit to win 4-3 over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-10-0, 1-7-0 B1G) in the Friendship Four Championship game at The SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Co-captains Shane Lachance and Ryan Greene scored the game-tying and game-winning goals within 20 seconds of each other, providing heroics and the first trophy of the year for the Terriers.

“They really care, and you saw it in the third period,” coach Jay Pandolfo said. “They were going to find a way to win that hockey game.”

BU began the first period at a fast tempo, creating an intense atmosphere from the face-off. BU was focused on keeping the offensive pressure high. 

Kamil Bednarik’s first collegiate goal opened the scoring, as he took the puck unassisted coast to coast, with a toe-drag around a defender and the Irish goaltender giving BU a short-handed goal to go up 1-0. 

“[Bednarik’s] been getting better and better every game. He’s been contributing offensively, and I think that will really help him have a bit more confidence going forward,” Pandolfo said.

Notre Dame’s Hunter Strand took advantage of BU’s offensive focus early, taking a breakaway of his own towards the goal and finding twine.

The Fighting Irish did not let up with Justin Janicke batting a Danny Nelson saucer out of mid-air past Mathieu Caron to make it 2-1 Irish.

Just like that, a Notre Dame team struggling to get anything going turned a one-goal deficit into a one-goal lead in just 15 seconds of game time, and an excellent start for the Terriers was derailed.

During the top of the second period, Notre Dame Blake Biondi skated through the traffic on the ice, firing an off-balance shot past an unset Caron to make it 3-1.

Disaster nearly struck as Cole Hutson turned the puck over in the neutral zone and sent Notre Dame on a one-on-one, but his efforts on the backcheck kept the game from getting out of hand. Caron stood tall for the Terriers several times in the latter half of the frame.

Devin Kaplan nearly brought the Terriers within one, but put it just wide of a wide-open cage late in the period.

Gavin McCarthy and Matt Copponi snapped the puck back and forth before McCarthy unleased a howitzer one-timer from the point that beat ND’s Owen Say to give the Terriers momentum at the 13-minute mark. 

A huge penalty kill on a Lachance slash gave BU new life, and almost immediately Lachance drew a penalty of his own. The Terriers had extensive zone time, but nothing to show for it. 

Until the captains arrived.

Lachance fired in a pass to the front of the net from the near corner, and Ryan Greene tapped it home, knotting things up with just under five minutes to play.

“It was pretty electric,” Greene said. “I just said ‘Boys, we’re not going to let this go to overtime.’”

Twenty seconds later, Lachance made Greene’s promise true and gave BU their first lead since 12:24 of the first.

Skating with it behind the net, the co-captain used his size to his advantage to work through a double team. The puck dribbled in front of Say’s cage, and Lachance, barely with his eyes on the puck, snuck it through Say to give BU a 4-3 lead with 4:22 to go.

“Honestly, [I didn’t see] much,” Lachance said. “I just kind of turned and shot it, their goalie was a little off the post. Obviously, felt pretty good.”

Say headed for the bench with 1:35 on the clock, and a desperate Fighting Irish squad maintained the zone but could not level things again. 

The Terriers piled onto Caron as the final buzzer sounded, and the co-captains rang the Belpot bell together to send the BU faithful home happy and the Fighting Irish to the airport.

Lachance’s two-goal, two-assist weekend in Belfast earned him most outstanding player honors, and his game-winner was good for player of the game. 

The Terriers will return home to host the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Agganis Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m.

The game will be available to stream on ESPN+. 

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