Men’s Hockey: Terriers fall flat at TD Garden, suffering a 5-2 loss to UConn in the Hockey East Semifinals

Featured image by Holly Gustavsen

By Claire Smieszny

“That was a good old fashioned ass-kicking.”

Those were the words of Coach Jay Pandolfo following the Terriers’ disastrous loss to UConn.

And he summed up the game perfectly.

Boston University Men’s Ice Hockey (21-13-2, 14-8-2) unraveled in the Hockey East Semifinals, falling 5-2 to the University of Connecticut Huskies (22-10-4, 12-8-4 HE) on Thursday afternoon at TD Garden.

UConn showed off some of their offensive prowess early, maintaining steady zone time in BU’s end and testing goaltender Mikhail Yegorov. Although the Terriers held it down, some scrambling and incoordination on their end showed their surprise at the challenge.

BU continued their struggle to get a handle on the puck, allowing the Huskies to walk all over them in their zone. Their chance to turn the momentum around came halfway through the period when Jake Richard went to the box for a hooking minor.

The Terriers wasted no time putting their opportunity to use, as 17 seconds into the power play, Quinn Hutson shot the puck off the toe of freshman goaltender Callum Tung’s left pad to go over and in for the first goal of the game.

The Huskies got their own chance on the man advantage shortly after, as Cole Hutson was sent to the box for interference. BU’s penalty kill and Yegorov kept it scoreless for the two-minute power play period, helping shift the momentum into the Terriers’ favor.

With Sascha Boumedienne headed to the box for cross-checking with only a few minutes left, UConn made their best effort to even the score. Despite several close chances, the game remained 1-0 heading into intermission.

The Huskies completely dominated the game in the second period.

Despite missing out on the power play, UConn got the equalizer under a minute into the middle frame. Tristan Fraser was able to get a stick on his own rebound off of Yegorov and beat him glove side for the goal.

While the Terriers had a brief surge in momentum, they were quickly silenced by another UConn goal. BU lost the puck in their zone and was beaten up the ice by Ryan Tattle on a breakaway. Tattle sent the puck five-hole to give the Huskies their first lead of the game.

UConn continued to pull ahead, notching their third goal in under ten minutes off a scramble in front of the net.

Following a shot in front by Nick Carabin, Yegorov managed to make the initial save and a slide to beat Joey Muldowney on his first attempt off the rebound. Muldowney controlled the puck when it ricocheted right back onto his stick and flipped it backhand over a still-recovering Yegorov for the 3-1 lead.

While BU managed to scrape together an offensive effort to finish out the period, it was not enough to get on the board. The Terriers trailed by two heading into the final frame.

“I see buy-in from all their players,” Pandolfo said of UConn’s play. “All their forward lines play the exact same way their [defense] play, the same way they have structure and everything they do, and they all buy into doing it…All those things combined, that’s a good recipe, if you can get your guys to buy into that.”

The Huskies continued to dominate as they added another goal just over five minutes into the third. BU once again turned the puck over to UConn’s intense forecheck, and a waiting Richard and Muldowney split Yegorov in front, where Richard found Muldowney on the opposite side with a wide-open net.

As the Terriers’ chances on net piled up and saw no reward, they made a last-ditch effort by pulling Yegorov with five and a half minutes still left on the clock.

The final nail in the coffin came in the form of a hat trick empty netter by Muldowney to put them up 5-1 with 3:48 left in the game.

BU got on the board one more time with a tip-in from Kamil Bednarik off of Aiden Celebrini’s shot to make it 5-2 with 10 seconds left and would remain the final score.

“We didn’t want to do what it takes to play winning hockey, and they did,” Pandolfo said. “They deserved everything they got, and we deserved everything we got tonight. We’re lucky it was as close as it was.”

BU now awaits the NCAA Tournament Selection Show at 3 p.m. on Sunday on ESPN+ to find out where they will play their regional matchup.