Men’s Hockey: BU Outlasts Northeastern In Overtime

Featured Image by Jenny Chen

By Jenny Chen

In their 256th all-time meeting, Boston University Men’s Hockey (6-7-1, 4-4-0 HEA) defeated Northeastern University (8-4-0, 4-3-0 HEA) in overtime to split the results of the weekend between the city rivals.

“We’re shorthanded tonight, and for the guys to step up, we thought we played a much more complete game as a team from start to finish,” Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said.

BU headed into the weekend with a banged-up lineup, with sophomore forward Sacha Boisvert and freshman forward Conrad Fondrk already injured. Sophomore forward Kamil Bednarik also drew out with an injury sustained late in the first game of the season.

Once the Terriers settled in after a couple of minutes of back-and-forth skating, they headed to the power play first, as the Huskies were called for too many men.

After 18 unsuccessful chances on the man-advantage, the Terriers converted on their first opportunity of the game. In the fifth minute, sophomore defenseman Sascha Boumedienne slipped the puck cross-ice to junior forward Jack Harvey, who blasted a one-timer from the right circle for the first goal of the night and his fifth of the season.

Up a goal, the Terriers continued their relentless offense, leading the shot count 10-1 at one point in the first period.

The Terriers went on the power play again, when Northeastern senior defender Dylan Finlay tripped Harvey after he made an impressive defensive play to lift the puck out of the BU defensive zone and into the neutral zone.

Freshman defenseman Cole Hutson danced through the offensive zone in the 14th minute. Missing his first shot, Hutson collected the puck behind the net and skated around the cage for a wraparound goal.

As the first period dwindled, junior defenseman Gavin McCarthy was sent to the box for cross-checking in the 19th minute.

Northeastern also capitalized on its first power play opportunity. Freshman forward Jacob Mathieu shot the puck from the extended goal line past sophomore goaltender Mikhail Yegerov with two seconds left on the clock to cut BU’s lead in half.

At the end of the first period, the Terriers outshot the Huskies 20-5.

The Terriers committed their second penalty in a minute when sophomore forward Brandon Svoboda was called for hooking 45 seconds into the middle frame.

Freshman forward Ben Merrill slipped the puck to his classmate and fellow forward, freshman winger Jonathan Morello, in the third minute to combine for a shorthanded effort, making the score 3-1.

In 14 games, this was the Terriers’ sixth shorthanded goal of the season.

“Our mindset on the penalty kill is attacking,” Morello said.

The middle frame kept the Terriers’ penalty kill units busy as they needed to kill two more penalties.

Sophomore forward Cole Eiserman was called for roughing in the eighth minute, and freshman defenseman Charlie Tretheway was assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct in the 15th minute.

Needing to climb a steep mountain at the end of the second consecutive period, the penalty kill stood tall and battered the Huskies’ man-advantage.

Within the kill, BU managed three shots, while Northeastern only had four — all of which came in the final minute of its power play when McCarthy broke his stick.

Yegerov also made a series of excellent saves as the clock wound down to zero, and the Agganis Arena crowd erupted in a standing ovation to cheer on the Terriers at the end of the second period.

Unlike the first two periods, the third period was more even. While the Terriers continued to push for a fourth tally, the Huskies looked to rally from two goals down.

The Huskies outshot BU 11-10 and found most of their momentum in the final parts of the game.

Northeastern junior forward Dylan Hryckowian made it a one-goal game in the 13th minute of the third period, then scored the equalizer with 61 seconds left in regulation as the Huskies pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker.

The game then headed to overtime, with both teams scoring three goals over 60 minutes.

Morello won the opening faceoff of overtime to give the Terriers puck possession, but both teams traded shots in the opening two minutes of the sudden-death period.

In the third minute of overtime, BU headed to the power play, only for the man-advantage to be neutralized in the fourth minute as Morello was called for holding.

The two teams went back to three-on-three play.

Hutson broke free with senior forward Owen McLaughlin on a 2-on-0 breakaway in the final minute of overtime and buried the puck before celebrating in a knee slide toward the Northeastern bench. By scoring his sixth and seventh goals of the season in this game, Hutson now holds the team lead in goals.

“I’m really happy with the effort from the team,” Pandolfo said.

The Terriers return to the ice on Nov. 29 for Red Hot Hockey against the Cornell Big Red at Madison Square Garden in New York City.