DURHAM, N.H. — Jay Pandolfo didn’t hide his frustration after Monday’s 6-2 Beanpot Championship loss. And frankly, it was hard to blame him. The Terriers unraveled on special teams alone, finishing 1-for-5 on the power play and 1-for-4 on the penalty kill.
“It’s really disheartening,” Pandolfo said then.
And if Monday felt like a low point for Pandolfo, Friday offered no relief.
Against New Hampshire, the script didn’t change. Following BU’s 4-1 loss to the Wildcats, Pandolfo could only muster up the same takeaway.
“Disappointing and deflating,” he said.
Every line looked different at the Whittemore Center. Sacha Boisvert, Cole Eiserman and Ryder Ritchie, a trio that spent much of the first half together on the top line, were reunited. The original fourth line of Ben Merrill, Jonathan Morello and Nick Roukounakis was brought back as well.
Even the defensive pairs shuffled, a rarity for the season. Sascha Boumedienne started alongside Gavin McCarthy, Cole Hutson skated with Charlie Trethewey and Aiden Celebrini was paired with Malte Vass.
“Obviously we have been struggling, so you have to mix it up once in a while,” Pandolfo said.
But just two minutes into the first period, BU (13-15-2, 9-11-0 HE) proved that changing lines doesn’t do much for a team that’s fundamentally flawed.
The Terriers — in the same fashion as against BC in the Beanpot — dug themselves into an early hole caused by faults in special teams and an inability to score goals in open play.
Twenty-eight seconds in, freshman defender Conner de Haro passed through the neutral zone to senior forward Morgan Winters. McCarthy attempted to cut off his breakaway, but Winters got a wrist shot past Mikhail Yegorov’s glove side to give the Wildcats an early lead.
“We didn’t defend the rush well,” Pandolfo said.
Nearly all of UNH’s quality chances came from clean exits through the neutral zone rather than sustained pressure. In fact, the Wildcats rarely generated extended offensive zone time at all.
Instead of responding, the Terriers took a costly penalty. Cole Eiserman was called for tripping, which sent BU to its first penalty kill.
The Wildcats (12-14-1, 6-10-1 HE) once again used their speed to transition quickly after BU’s clear. Winters raced down the ice and threaded a pass across the slot to Nick Ring, who buried it on Yegorov’s exposed glove side to give UNH a 2-0 lead 1:23 into the first.
BU went on the power play two minutes later but couldn’t generate. Subsequently, the typical defensive pairs rejoined one another.
“We had to make the decision in game to see what was going on,” Pandolfo said.
Following the change, BU finally generated a stretch of sustained zone time and Ritchie made it count. Owen McLaughlin, listed as the extra forward, jumped onto a line with Boisvert and Ritchie. McLaughlin corralled a rebound, circled the puck behind the net and slipped a pass to Ritchie at the goal line, where he buried it to put BU on the board at 12:55.
The second period brought no scoring from either side. BU controlled the tempo for stretches, but still couldn’t generate meaningful offense — a problem that’s become all too familiar.
“It’s obviously tough for us to buy a goal right now,” Pandolfo said.
BU’s best chances came midway through the frame. The second and third lines stacked together a series of strong shifts, holding the zone for nearly five minutes. During that stretch, Kamil Bednarik and Sascha Boumedienne each rang the crossbar on back‑to‑back Grade A looks.
“You have to just get pucks to the net and try to find ways to create rebounds and second chances,” Pandolfo said. “They are just not willing to.”
Despite taking two penalties, BU’s kill looked far sharper in the second period than it did in Monday’s loss to BC.
When Trethewey was called for holding, the penalty kill delivered its best stretch of the game. The Terriers put their bodies in front of pucks, cleared it repeatedly and even generated short-handed chances. It was a stark contrast to the unit that struggled so heavily in the Beanpot, playing a major role in BU’s downfall.
But BU’s penalty kill couldn’t be sustained in the third. Discipline plagued the opening minutes, as Brandon Svoboda and Jonathan Morello were called for tripping, sending BU to 1:30 of 3-on-5 play.
“We did a pretty good job, and listen, they made a play,” Pandolfo said.
Felix Gagnon slid a pass across the slot to Winters at the goal line, and he buried it past Yegorov to extend UNH’s lead to three.
That’s BU’s core problem: the team still hasn’t shown an ability to play cohesively in all areas of the ice. The tripping calls were a perfect example. Yes, the kill held up for much of regulation, but the sheer number of infractions erased any benefit.
You simply can’t expect 3-on-5 hockey to be sustainable, and when a late-stage penalty puts you in that position, the lack of discipline has to take some of the blame.
As a last-ditch effort, BU pulled Yegorov with under three minutes left, but as he left the net, the Wildcats cleared the neutral zone and secured the win with an empty-netter.
“We were all looking for a different response than we had tonight,” Pandolfo said.