Men’s Hockey: Terriers Miss Sweep In 2-0 Loss To UMass

By Jenny Chen

Looking for their second weekend sweep of the season, Boston University men’s hockey (10-9-1, 7-6-0 HEA) dropped a 2-0 decision to the Massachusetts Minutemen (10-10-0, 3-7-0 HEA) Saturday at Agganis Arena.

“We just couldn’t generate enough offensively… and when we did, their goalie was excellent,” BU Head Coach Jay Pandolfo said.

In a continuation of Friday night’s physical opener, the teams skated into another chippy, low-scoring battle defined early by board battles and transition rushes. BU worked to establish its offense as the first period wore on, with freshman forward Jonathan Morello creating the Terriers’ first high-danger look in the eighth minute when he slipped past a defender in the left circle and forced a backhand chance in tight.

The Terriers earned the night’s first power play around the halfway mark of the frame and generated several looks, but the sequence swung the game in UMass’ favor. As the advantage expired, freshman forward Václav Nestrašil stripped sophomore goaltender Mikhail Yegorov behind the net and wrapped the puck into the vacated cage for a 1-0 Minutemen lead.

Any BU momentum built to that point evaporated. Over the rest of the period, the Terriers’ puck management slipped, passes grew sloppier and UMass spent more time pushing BU back into its own zone, even as the Terriers held a 12-3 shot advantage after 20 minutes.

The Terriers opened the second period with another power play, carried over from a late tripping call on UMass, but again came up empty. The Minutemen responded with a strong push at four-on-four after matching roughing minors to Morello and freshman forward Justin Kerr, briefly doubling their lead before BU successfully challenged the goal for goaltender interference to keep it 1-0.

Two minutes later, BU went to the penalty kill for the first time when junior forward Jack Harvey was called for tripping. The Terriers’ PK unit answered, eating clock by pushing the puck up ice and even springing sophomore defenseman Sascha Boumedienne for a shorthanded rush. Yegorov did his part as the period wound down, making several key stops to keep BU within one.

Early in the third, another UMass bench minor for too many players gave the Terriers a power play that stretched across the intermission, but the man advantage again failed to break through.

“We’ve just got to be more direct on the power play — get more shots to the net, recover pucks and play off that a little bit more,” Pandolfo said.

Chasing the tying goal and a chance to complete the Raising Cane’s Challenge with a third-period tally, BU pushed in the final 20 minutes, but the execution never fully matched the urgency. The frame became a back-and-forth track meet without much sustained offensive-zone time for either side, and the Terriers’ attempts either missed the net, sailed high into the glass or were swallowed by UMass junior goaltender Michael Hrabal.

With under two minutes left, Yegorov headed to the bench for an extra attacker. BU, however, struggled to gain clean possession, and junior forward Jack Musa flipped the puck out of his own zone, watching it bounce into the empty net to make it 2-0 and effectively seal the split. The Terriers pulled Yegorov again on the next offensive-zone entry and avoided further damage, but still could not solve Hrabal.

“It’s tough to win two hockey games when you only score one goal,” Pandolfo said.

BU now turns quickly to a nonconference test, hosting the Harvard Crimson on Monday, Jan. 12, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be available on ESPN+ and NESN.