Men’s Hockey: A four-point night for captain Greene surged Terriers forward for 6-1 win over UVM

Featured image by Holly Gustavsen

By Claire Smieszny

The dogs showed out against the cats yet again.

Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey (10-7-1, 6-3-1 HE) trounced the Vermont Catamounts (8-9-3, 3-5-2 HE) 6-1 on Friday night in the first game of the new year. 

“I thought it was a good overall effort from our group,” coach Jay Pandolfo said post-game. “We haven’t played for a while, so I thought we had good energy.”

The game started off chippy on both sides, as neither team was able to get a handle on the puck for the first few minutes. 

Play was quiet until just over seven minutes into the first, when captain Ryan Greene flicked the puck from behind the net at an impossible angle, bouncing off UVM goaltender Alex Mangbo and in for the first goal of the game. 

A penalty taken by the Catamounts’ Will Zapernick only gave BU more opportunities to build momentum and dominate the game.

Although there wasn’t a goal on the man advantage, the Terriers used it to set up their offensive pressure and eventually double their lead. With the puck on his stick, Greene faked Mangbo and sent it over to a net front Quinn Hutson who toe-dragged and wristed the puck into a wide-open net. 

“The puck was kind of sitting between the defenders legs in front of the net, so I got my stick on it, and then turned to look for the next play,” Greene said. “Good play by him [Quinn Hutson] to hold on to it there for a second and put it in an empty net.”

Another power play towards the end of the period gave the Terriers definitive momentum as they dominated the play. It became only a matter of time before BU built on their lead, and it finally came in the form of a Quinn Hutson power play goal. 

A feed from defenseman Tom Willander found Hutson at the top of the right circle with room to deke and fire the puck past Mangbo to up the lead in the final minute of the period, putting the Terriers up 3-0 at the end of the opening frame. 

Opening the second period, BU wasted no time getting on the board again. With their first drive up the ice, Greene entered the zone with the puck and slid it over to sophomore forward Jack Harvey. Harvey, facing away from the net, fired the puck off his backhand to go post and in on Mongba’s glove side. 

While already a whopping success of a game for BU’s offense, goaltender Mathieu Caron played an integral part in keeping UVM off the scoreboard and the Terriers in the lead. Through the first 48 minutes, Caron turned away all of the Catamount’s chances on net, including a breakaway attempt at the start of the second period by Colin Kessler.

“We made some mistakes, and when we did, I thought Caron was excellent,” Pandolfo said. “[He] saved a couple breakaways, some saves he made on our penalty kill. So he was great.”

As the second period wound down, the Terriers continued their onslaught of Vermont’s net. 

Devin Kaplan notched another goal for BU immediately off the draw, sending the puck home past Mongba’s right shoulder from outside the right circle. The score remained 5-0 Terriers heading into the third period. 

The score didn’t remain unchanged for very long. A minute into the third period, BU went on the power play again and capitalized on a pass from Cole Hutson to a waiting Jack Hughes at the goal line with his stick poised to tap it backdoor. 

Vermont made it on the board with 12 minutes left to play as Jax Wismer got a pass at the top of the left circle and ripped it past Caron. That would end the scoring for the game, and the final marks remained 6-1 BU. 

“I thought we saw a lot of good things tonight, and then we get to do that same thing tomorrow night,” Pandolfo said. “We can’t have any sort of let down tomorrow night. You’ve got to be ready to play again right from the start.”

BU will face off against the Vermont Catamounts again Saturday night at Agganis Arena with puck drop set for 5 p.m. Streaming will be available on ESPN+.