Men’s Hockey: Uninspired effort from the No. 9 Terriers resulted in a 6-3 loss to No. 7 Providence
Featured image by Holly Gustavsen
By Claire Smieszny
Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey (16-11-1, 10-7-1 HE) fell to the Providence College Friars (17-7-5, 7-6-5 HE) 6-3 in the first game of a home-and-home weekend series Friday night.
“It seemed like we just got away from playing a direct game, which you have to play in this building,” Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said after the game. “We just didn’t have enough guys willing to play that style of hockey tonight.”
Both teams came into the game with a bit of difficulty getting the puck under their sticks, but once the Terriers got a handle on the game they began to control the puck and spent most of their time in the Friars’ end of the ice.
Despite their hot start, BU would go down in the count at 7:09 into the first period. Freshman forward Trevor Connelly entered the o-zone by himself with the puck after Tanner Adams redirected a stretch pass onto his stick. Flying into the zone, Connelly caught Brehdan Engum flat-footed and breezed past him to send the puck past Mikhail Yegorov’s blocker.
The teams went back and forth after that, but the Friars were spurred on by the early goal and pressured the Terriers heavily. They were rewarded with another goal just over four minutes later.
Ryan Greene, with possession of the puck, curled behind the net to buy some time and set up to clear the zone, but Chase Yoder positioned himself at his right shoulder and picked his pocket when he looked to turn. Behind the net, Yoder took the puck around to the other side and slipped it past an unsuspecting Yegorov.
The Friars continued to pick up the play the rest of the period, putting the Terriers back on their heels and struggling to get out of their end. Heading into the intermission, Providence clearly had the upper hand.
Instead of the second period providing a clean slate for BU to make a comeback, they were challenged almost immediately as Greene went to the box at 2:32 for a holding minor. The Terriers managed to hold them off, and soon after were given an opportunity on the man advantage of their own as Nick Poisson high sticked Cole Hutson.
Greene redeemed himself on the power play with a goal, a shot ripped from the right dot off passes from Quinn Hutson and Tom Willander to put BU on the board.
The Friars responded quickly as, twenty seconds later, Providence’s Hudson Malinoski crashed the net off a shot from Adams, stuffing the puck past Yegorov.
Providence wasn’t done yet, as they’d notch another goal three minutes before the period’s end. Alexander Bales from outside the right circle deflected the puck off of Yegorov’s back skate and into the goal. That would be the end of the night for Yegorov, as Pandolfo subbed in Mathieu Caron shortly after.
“I didn’t think Yegorov was on his game tonight, and that happens,” Pandolfo said on the decision to pull Yegorov. “I thought it was a good time to get him out and get Caron in there.”
The third period would slog on for the majority of its runtime until just under 13 minutes in when Poisson entered the zone and flipped it back to John Mustard, who turned Cole Hutson inside out and fired it past Caron from the high slot.
BU got another break and made good on it shortly after, as Taige Harding went to the box for roughing. Just seconds in, Quinn Hutson flew down the ice to the left side of the net and passed it to a waiting net-front Devin Kaplan, who deflected it in with his stick. It was 5-2 Providence with six minutes to play.
Kaplan used his momentum to get on the board again, this time shorthanded. Gavin McCarthy found him as he was striding across the blue line, and with the puck, he deked out Friar defenseman Andrew Centrella and sent it top shelf past Providence’s goaltender. With four minutes left, the Terriers cut the deficit to two.
“I thought [Kaplan] played really well,” Pandolfo said. “I thought he was one of the guys who was trying to play the right way tonight…he was pushing, he was trying to get on the forecheck, he was good.”
BU pulled Caron with two minutes remaining as a last resort to tie it up, but Providence was quick to make use of the empty net as Harding netted one with 1:17 left to make it 6-3 Friars.
BU will now look to split the series tomorrow night at home at Agganis Arena in a rematch. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. with streaming available on ESPN+.