AMHERST, Mass. — Ahead of Friday’s 7 p.m. puck drop at the Mullins Center, the Boston University men’s hockey team needed to navigate pregame warmups smoothly.
For the second consecutive season, the Terriers added a player to their roster ahead of the spring semester. Last year, it was Mikhail Yegorov; this year, it’s Tynan Lawrence.
Before a player’s first game, they typically take a “rookie lap,” where they skate several solo laps around the ice by themselves to “take in the moment.” Last season against Boston College, Yegorov took the ice for his rookie lap before he was allowed to. It resulted in a bench minor penalty that the Eagles scored on and a lot of controversy.
On Friday, as Lawrence geared up for his NCAA debut, all eyes were on him — and the countdown clock on the Mullins Center scoreboards — as he took the ice for his rookie lap. Luckily for the Terriers, Lawrence, it went smoothly, as no one allegedly let him onto the ice before he was supposed to, and BU defeated the Minutemen 1-0.
“The security here is pretty damn good,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said postgame. “They let you know what time you’re allowed to go out there; it was a little different at a different building.”
Pandolfo quickly moved on from the topic to avoid further drama, shifting the focus back to the Terriers’ strong performance to open the second half of the season.
“I think it was a really good, solid road game,” he said. “A really good effort.”
After an underwhelming first half of the season to BU’s standards on multiple fronts, the Terriers needed a quality performance to open the second half, and they delivered, with a tight-checking shutout — their first of the season — in which they only allowed 18 shots on goal.
Despite what Pandolfo called a sloppy start, BU improved as the game progressed, keeping the pressure on UMass. The Terriers were aggressive without the puck, forechecked hard, and forced turnovers that led to offensive opportunities.
“UMass is a team that usually funnels a lot of pucks to the net, and I think we did a good job getting in shot lanes, good job of winning pucks in our end,” Pandolfo said.
Although BU was only able to beat Minutemen netminder Michael Hrabal once on 30 shots, the Terriers had their chances, several of which were created by their newest addition in Lawrence, who centered BU’s second line and trotted out on its top power play unit.
He made two excellent passes to sophomore forward Cole Eiserman in the first period: a stretch pass that sent Eiserman in alone on goal and a slick backhanded feed to him in the slot.
“I thought his effort was good, that he made some nice plays, but he’s just going to get better and better,” Pandolfo said. “You can see the type of player he is.”
The Terriers also found themselves fully healthy for one of the first times this season against UMass and came out unscathed (forward Nick Roukounakis took a spill in the third period that required medical attention, but he returned to the game). The addition of Lawrence only bolsters BU’s already stacked forward group.
Forward Jack Harvey scored the only goal of the night at 7:49 of the second period. Forward Sacha Boisvert picked up a loose puck in the offensive zone and flung a cross-ice pass to blueliner Aiden Celebrini, whose shot from the slot created a rebound in front, which Harvey tapped in.
The Terriers, currently ranked 20th in NPI, still have ground to make up if they hope to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and they know they must string together performances like these.
“These are the kind of games that we’re going to be in,” Harvey said postgame. “A good stepping stone for this group to pull out a win on the road in a tight-checking game.”
Despite a late push from the Minutemen that generated several quality looks on Yegorov, UMass was unable to find the back of the net. Yegorov earned his first shutout of the season.
“I think that’s going to give him confidence,” Pandolfo said. “Overall, as a team, we give up 18 shots. That’s pretty good on the road.”