BOSTON — BU has been inconsistent this season. Plain and simple.
After losing three consecutive games, all to top-tier Hockey East opponents, it felt like BU was reeling. Since the turn of the new year, any strides forward in the NPI were quickly counteracted with costly losses, sending the Terriers out of NCAA tournament bid contention and the USCHO poll — for the first time in the Pandolfo era.
“I feel for the guys in the room, I really do,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said after Friday’s loss to Boston College. “I think they’re discouraged.”
To be frank, coming out of the BC loss, the mood was deflating. As the postgame press conference continued on and on, Pandolfo appeared to get more frustrated, and who could blame him?
But he harped on one thing repeatedly.
“They got to stay positive and stick together,” Pandolfo said. “That’s the biggest thing; this group needs to stick together.”
It may not have been perfect, but clearly, the Terriers took what Pandolfo said to heart, stringing together a competitive three periods — and overtime — to punch their ticket to the Beanpot championship on Monday with a 3-2 shootout victory over Northeastern.
Offensively, BU maintained possession that, as of late, it just had not had.
Ahead of the BC game and Beanpot semifinal, Pandolfo cited the need for the Terriers to capitalize on more second and third chances. That would be the offensive catalyst.
Though BU only tallied two goals in regulation at TD Garden, its possession time and attempts were a step closer to what Pandolfo wanted.
For starters, the chances BU generated were of higher danger than in the last three matchups.
The Terriers’ third line, responsible for the two regulation goals, had a plethora of opportunities. Multiple times throughout the game, freshman forward Ryder Ritchie broke out of the zone and spearheaded odd-man rush efforts. Ritchie’s linemates, Nick Roukounakis and Jonathan Morello, frequently attempted to bury rebound opportunities and connect for quality looks on net.
For sophomore forward Cole Eiserman, who recently has had extreme difficulty finding the back of the net, his looks were noticeably stronger, despite him again not scoring. Goaltender Lawton Zacher made two remarkable sprawling stops on a pair of Eiserman’s Grade A looks.
“I don’t know if he could have done much else,” Pandolfo said of Eiserman’s shot attempts.
Pandolfo explained that Eiserman handled his lack of scoring “really well.”
“He loves scoring goals, right? I think we all know that,” Pandolfo said. “He feels, if he doesn’t score, he lets the team down, and that’s not the case.”
It’s a testament to the kind of offense BU generated — the kind Pandolfo is satisfied with, even if the Terriers couldn’t close it out in regulation.
But from the back end to the front, BU pieced together a team effort.
Mikhail Yegorov stood strong between the pipes. While he didn’t face a high volume of dangerous chances, he steadied the back end and came up with key stops — including in the shootout.
Defensively, an area that’s been steady in recent weeks, BU again executed at a high level.
“It was a good feeling to see everyone going,” Pandolfo said. “I don’t know if we have had a lot of that, and tonight, we did.”
The game as a whole was an indicator of BU’s ability to bounce back, because candidly, the Terriers couldn’t have afforded another loss — and they knew it.
“It’s disappointing where we are at right now,” Pandolfo said, “but I’ve said it before, we can’t change where we are at. We got to keep pressing forward.”
BU sits at 24th in the NPI, and with so little hockey left in the regular season, that’s miles away from at-large territory. But maybe this Beanpot semifinal win can be a spark for what’s ahead. After all, last year’s Beanpot title over Boston College ignited the Terriers’ late-season surge.
Granted, last year’s team was in a far better position than this year’s group, but the result is still meaningful.
The Beanpot is single-elimination hockey. The same pressure you see in the postseason. For BU, that kind of environment mirrors its only realistic path to an NCAA tournament berth: winning the Hockey East tournament.
“I know it’s a tie on the record, but right now, anything positive for our group is really important,” Pandolfo said.
And for the moment, it’s something BU can tuck away. With only seven regular-season games left, the Terriers will need every bit of confidence they can muster if they want to turn this into a real postseason push.