{"id":39708,"date":"2023-12-01T14:27:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T19:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=39708"},"modified":"2023-12-01T14:27:47","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T19:27:47","slug":"mens-hockey-terriers-resume-conference-play-with-home-and-home-vs-merrimack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/12\/01\/mens-hockey-terriers-resume-conference-play-with-home-and-home-vs-merrimack\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Hockey: Terriers resume conference play with home-and-home vs. Merrimack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured image: Jessica Lam<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

By Alexa Podalsky<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

After traveling to New York to play against Cornell University at Madison Square Garden, Boston University men\u2019s hockey (9-4-1, 5-1-1 HEA) will return to Massachusetts to play the Merrimack College Warriors (6-6-1, 2-4-1 HEA).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But their first loss since Nov. 4 doesn\u2019t mark the end of BU’s impressive gameplay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since their overtime loss against the University of North Dakota, the Terriers swept the University of Maine and UMass Lowell on their path to a No. 4 ranking in the latest USCHO poll.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite BU outplaying Cornell in shots and blocks, they still fell behind after recording six penalties. Boston\u2019s penalty kill was 80%, but Cornell\u2019s second-to-last penalty put them on the scoreboard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t find a way to score. I think that clearly hurt us,\u201d coach Jay Pandolfo said during his weekly media call.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers will have to work on minimizing their trips to the penalty box. They have recorded 145 penalty minutes this season from 67 penalties while Merrimack recorded slightly less at 130 minutes for 47 penalties. Pandolfo mentioned that as the winter intersession approaches, the team is working on staying consistent in their game and execution.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Junior goalkeeper Mathieu Caron has assisted Boston in preventing 55 power play goals this season, but the high number of penalties has kept the Terriers ranked No. 46 for their penalty kill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lane Hutson was also awarded Hockey East Defender of the Month for his performance throughout November. He scored six goals and had five assists to bring his total to eight goals and assists for the season. Pandolfo said his competitiveness and love for the game contributes to his successes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The loss against Cornell was different from their performance at the beginning of November. After their early losses, the team has seemed to figure out their struggles and come together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four of Merrimack\u2019s losses came during conference play which could give BU the advantage. Merrimack is tied for seventh in the Hockey East with UConn and lost their last HEA matchup against UMass Lowell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But, their luck might turn around if they can replicate their successes from last weekend. They recorded a 7-3 win against Army and a 4-3 win against Bentley.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MC has a few talented players on their roster that could deliver a competitive game. Zach Bookman is ranked sixth in the NCAA in assists per game with 1.08.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior forward Alex Jefferies also leads the team with 7 goals scored and a 21.2 shooting percentage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe played Merrimack last year in the Hockey East final and they gave us everything we can handle. We were lucky to get out of that with an overtime win,\u201d Pandolfo said. BU and Merrimack\u2019s history has shown more losses than wins for the Terriers, so they are relying on being ready from the first puck drop to pull ahead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Merrimack will hope to extend their win streak to three while Boston hopes to repeat their success on Friday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in North Andover before traveling to Boston on Saturday to close the weekend. Both games will be available to stream on ESPN+.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured image: Jessica Lam By Alexa Podalsky After traveling to New York to play against Cornell University at Madison Square Garden, Boston University men\u2019s hockey (9-4-1, 5-1-1 HEA) will return to Massachusetts to play the Merrimack College Warriors (6-6-1, 2-4-1 HEA).\u00a0 But their first loss since Nov. 4 doesn\u2019t mark the end of BU’s impressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21300,"featured_media":39684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1028,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39709,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39708\/revisions\/39709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}