In the bowels of Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, head coach Jay Pandolfo and star sophomore forward Cole Eiserman both talked about BU’s Red Hot Hockey win over Cornell as a confidence-builder moving forward.
“This helps a lot, just kind of gives the boys an identity,” said Eiserman, who provided a goal and an assist. “Hopefully in March, when we’re looking back, we can look at this one and know this is kind of our spark we needed.”
“It’s just a big, big, big overall win for our guys,” added Pandolfo.
The first signs of improvement came the week prior against Northeastern. Despite only picking up two of six points, the Terriers had five or more minutes of offensive zone time in both games against the Huskies, per BU hockey stats.
Pandolfo has attributed BU’s latest stretch to the attention to detail in practices, which has been carried over to games since the 6-2 loss at Quinnipiac on Nov. 15.
Junior captain Gavin McCarthy and sophomore defenseman Sascha Boumedienne have noticed a shift in the level of competitiveness.
“We’re coming to the rink with a mindset of, we’re going to work and battle against each other, and that iron sharpens iron,” said McCarthy. “That’s been a big focus for us.”
“We just started competing a lot harder,” added Boumedienne.
The Terriers (7-7-1) showed that they can show up for the bright lights at MSG. Now it’s about taking care of business at home against Vermont (4-8).
“When you play in front of 18,000 fans at MSG, it’s pretty easy to get fired up,” Boumedienne said. “[But] I don’t really feel like it matters where we play. It’s just more playing as a team.”
Important stretch before the break
BU’s two-game home series against Vermont marks its last at Agganis Arena this semester, with one final trip to Matthews Arena awaiting on Dec. 13 in the first-half finale.
The Terriers have dug themselves into a hole — 27th in NPI — due to a lackluster first two months of the season, making these final three games of the semester all the more important.
“We have to go into the break making sure we’re putting a solid effort together in each of these games. And it starts [Friday] night in the first period,” said Pandolfo. “I don’t expect us to be perfect. That’s hard to do. But I do want to see from our group that we’re willing to be playing winning hockey.”
For NPI purposes, taking care of business against the Catamounts (48th in NPI) is crucial before shifting focus to the opportunity against Northeastern — Hockey East’s highest-rated team at eighth in NPI.
Eiserman mentioned NPI after Red Hot last Saturday, referencing Cornell’s rating (3rd before facing BU, now 12th) in emphasizing the importance of that victory.
Pandolfo, however, stated on Thursday that it is not something he talks about with the team at this point in the season.
“Right now, we got to make sure we’re continuing to improve as a team, and start playing the game the way we need to play it, so we can get the results we need,” he said. “And then if you do that, a lot of times, things will take care of themselves.”
Adjusting the power play units
After the second game of the season, against Colgate, with BU’s power play sitting at 50 percent (4 for 8), Eiserman stated that the man-advantage could be even better.
“It could be even be even better, which is crazy. And obviously, you know, time is going to make it better.”
However, the Terriers’ power play did not get better. In fact, BU had a 0-for-19 drought on the man-advantage before Jack Harvey finally scored in Saturday’s Nov. 22 game against Northeastern.
Sophomore defenseman Cole Huston had quarterbacked the unit and was joined by four forwards all season. But Pandolfo made a key switch ahead of Red Hot Hockey, moving McCarthy to the quarterback role, leaving Hutson out there with him, and trotting out three forwards — Eiserman, sophomore Kamil Bednarik, and freshman Ryder Ritchie.
It resulted in a goal just nine seconds into BU’s first power play opportunity, as Eiserman centered a pass to Bednarik in front of the net for a goal. McCarthy picked up the secondary assist.
“It’s obviously pretty awesome,” McCarthy said of playing on the power play. “Cole and Cole, both of them pretty special players. And, you know, being able to share the ice with them out there is a good opportunity.”
Hutson has moved away from the quarterbacking role and now has more freedom to roam around on the left side.
“[Hutson] has played that position before, in the past. Not with us, but in the past. And he’s pretty dangerous coming down that side, on his forehand, with the pace he plays at. You know, he can shoot it, he can hit seams. He can do a lot of things from that position, it just gets him moving a bit,” said Pandolfo. “He’s comfortable doing it, and that’s really the reason we changed it.”
BU’s second power play unit at practice on Thursday consisted of Boumedienne and forwards Sacha Boisvert, Jack Murtagh, Jack Harvey, and Nick Roukounakis.
The Terriers’ power play sat at just 18.6 percent ahead of Red Hot Hockey and improved to 19.4 after a 1-for-3 showing against Cornell.
Injuries in the forward group
Boisvert will rejoin BU’s lineup for the first time since the Nov. 15 loss to Quinnipiac on Friday night. He has nine points in nine games this season.
The Terriers, however, will be down three forwards despite Boisvert’s return.
Senior forward Owen McLaughlin, who sustained an injury in the first period of Saturday’s game against Cornell, will not dress. Freshman forward Ben Merrill, a beacon of consistency on the fourth line this season, was seen wearing a boot at Thursday’s practice.
Additionally, freshman forward Conrak Fondrk, who, like Boisvert, hasn’t played since Nov. 15, will remain out of the lineup. He was a limited practice participant on Thursday.
Scouting the Catamounts
Vermont’s 1.3 goals per game rank dead last in the nation. Sophomore forward Colin Kessler leads the Catamounts in points with seven (no goals, seven assists). No other player has more than four points or two goals.
The Catamounts also rank dead last in shooting percentage, scoring on just 5.3 percent of shots on goal.
Theoretically, the magic number for BU should be three, as Vermont has yet to score more than two goals in a game against a D1 opponent this season.
BU has a clear edge in special teams, as Vermont ranks in the bottom five in both power play (12.1 percent) and penalty kill (71.4 percent) success rate.
Defensively, the Catamounts are allowing 3.6 goals per game, the 9th-worst rate in the country, just ahead of BU, which is 8th-worst at 3.7.
Vermont freshman goaltender Aiden Wright has started all 12 games this season. He has a 3.53 goals against average and a .894 save percentage.