Men’s Hockey: Milestones Abound as No. 9 Terriers Take Down No. 7 Friars, 3-0

Featured image by Holly Gustavsen

By Lydia Murray

After a tough outing in Providence to kick off the weekend series, the No. 9 Boston University Terriers (17-11-1, 11-7-1 HE) got revenge over the No. 7 Providence College Friars (17-8-5, 7-7-5 HE) with a 3-0 win filled with milestones on Saturday. 

After getting pulled near the end of the second period last night, goaltender Mikhail Yegorov was stellar en route to picking up his first NCAA shutout.

“I liked it. I liked the performance after last night,” Coach Jay Pandolfo said postgame. “We clearly weren’t at our best last night, and I thought tonight we responded from our goaltender on out. Good for him…[it] says a lot about him, and he even took responsibility last night, which goes a long way with his teammates, with our staff.”

There was a lot of back-and-forth play in the first period. Both teams got a handful of chances, but neither goaltender was truly tested often. The Terriers’ discipline issues cropped up again in the middle of the frame with two penalties in three minutes, but they managed to outshoot the Friars 10-9 and out-attempt them 23-16 by the time the first buzzer sounded.

BU started the second period with about a minute left on their first power play, but they did not convert. However, they controlled the game through to the first media timeout over six minutes in, outshooting Providence 4-0 in that span.

The Terriers finally broke the ice when Jack Harvey batted a deflected Brandon Svoboda pass out of the air and past Providence netminder Philip Svedebäck at 13:15. Cole Hutson helped start the play from behind the center ice line and got credit for the secondary assist.

Not even two minutes later, Sascha Boumedienne joined in on the fun as he whistled a shot past Svedebäck for his first career goal.

After the game, Pandolfo praised his young defenseman’s growth this season and said he was happy to see it pay off for him tonight.

“[Boumedienne] continues to grow as a player pretty much every game now,” Pandolfo said. “I thought one of his best games was probably the Beanpot game versus BC…and then I think he got confidence off that… I thought he played well last night too, and then tonight, he was excellent, gets his first goal. I know he’s been wanting to score. He’s had his chances, had his looks, and you can see the excitement from him when he scored that goal…so, good for him. He’s been playing excellent for us.”

Matt Copponi got the primary assist after making a smart pass to find Boumedienne trailing the play, but it was overshadowed by Yegorov picking up an elusive non-empty net goalie point with the secondary assist, his first career NCAA point.

BU continued to get the better chances for the rest of the period and carried a 2-0 lead and a 21-14 shot advantage into the final frame.

The Friars carried the play offensively through the first half of the third period, outshooting the Terriers 6-1. Meanwhile, an already chippy game continued to get nastier, with players taking the extra whack whenever possible.

While Providence was the better team for most of the third, that does not always mean much in hockey. Instead, the milestones continued to pile up for BU. Just over 12 minutes into the period, Quinn Hutson made a great individual effort to break into the zone with possession before sending his 50th career goal and 100th career point past Svedebäck to make it 3-0 Terriers. It was just BU’s second shot of the period. Both Harvey and Boumedienne tallied their second points of the night with the assists.

The Friars pulled Svedebäck for the extra attacker with about three minutes remaining. Despite some good looks, Yegorov continued his stellar bounce-back outing to earn his first career shutout and seal the 3-0 win for the Terriers. The final shots were 30-23 in favor of Providence.

Overall, Pandolfo was pleased with his team’s effort tonight, saying they stuck to the things that make them successful.

“We played more direct,” Pandolfo said. “We played faster. We moved the puck up quicker. When we didn’t have anything, we put it behind them, got on the forecheck much better tonight than last night. And that’s how our team has success, when we play that way. When we get away from it, it’s not good for us…The consistency with that is still a work in progress now in February, but our guys are capable of doing it. We just got to continue to do it, and when we do, the results are usually pretty good.” 

The Terriers will be back in action on Friday, February 21, in a cross-town rivalry game against the Northeastern University Huskies. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET at Agganis Arena, and you can find the game on ESPN+.