BOSTON — Jay Pandolfo was going back and forth. He already knew who’d take BU’s first two shots — Jack Harvey is too good in shootouts and Cole Eiserman is too good a goal scorer to look at anyone else. That third shot, though? Pandolfo didn’t have a plan for it.
He consulted assistant coach Kim Brandvold. The place they landed is hardly surprising.
“You want this?” Pandolfo recalled asking Cole Hutson.
BU’s Hobey Baker nominee nodded his head. Harvey went five hole to score his opener, but Eiserman was denied by the blocker, leaving Hutson a chance to win the Beanpot semifinal. Watching from the bench, he thought he’d seen an opening at the low glove. But when he arrived in front of Northeastern goalie Lawton Zacher, it wasn’t there.
“So I just made up a random move,” the sophomore defenseman said.
But those usually work pretty well when you’re Cole Hutson, the Capitals’ second-rounder shooting up prospect rankings because of his dazzling ability with the puck at his stick. He improvised a deke and slid the puck past Zacher just before the netminder could snuff the shot, the puck trickling ever-so-slowly across the goal line. Teammates on BU’s bench, some of whom were locking arms as they watched Hutson’s attempt, exploded off the bench to celebrate with their superstar.
The Terriers, unranked for the first time in Pandolfo’s four seasons with their NCAA tournament hopes in critical condition, are off to a third consecutive Beanpot final, their thrilling 3-2 shootout victory over the Huskies a potential spark they so desperately needed. BU will defend its 2024-25 Beanpot title against Boston College in the 300th Battle of Comm. Ave on Monday.
“I know it’s a tie on the record,” Pandolfo said. “But right now, anything positive for our group is really important.”
No kidding. BU entered on a three-game skid, a pair of losses to Providence and a loss to BC — Hockey East’s top two teams — sending Pandolfo’s group from the NCAA tournament bubble to nearly out of the conversation entirely. The Terriers are 24th in the NPI, and though Pandolfo said after losing to the Eagles that “there’s a lot of hockey left to play,” there really isn’t — BU now only has six regular-season games left.
But Pandolfo added “there’s a lot of meaningful hockey left to play,” and he was correct about that. The Beanpot certainly qualifies, and though the coach admitted he thought his players were discouraged after that 4-1 defeat to BC, BU didn’t look like it was ready to roll over on Monday night. The Terriers overcame one-goal deficits twice in the second period. In overtime, BU erupted in celebration after Ryder Ritchie appeared to score the game-winner, only for captain Gavin McCarthy’s interference penalty to render it meaningless.
But BU picked itself up right away, defending 33 seconds of a 4-on-3 power play to force the shootout.
“Gav was in the box, and he’s had our back all year. So it was good to get the chance to defend the mistake he made,” Hutson said. “We had no doubt we were killing that penalty.”
It was the kind of consistency and resilience these Terriers have so often lacked. Pandolfo has bemoaned his group’s inability to stick to its game for 60 minutes more times than not, but BU didn’t wander into the wilderness at any point over 65 at TD Garden. The Terriers, of course, need to start doing that more often, and they needed to start doing it sooner, but better late than never. BU’s raucous student section, starved of things to celebrate all season, certainly won’t be complaining at the timing, especially if the Terriers defeat their bitter rival next week.
“We got to keep pressing forward,” Pandolfo said. “We have a young group. We’ve been through a lot as a team, and a lot of guys have been through a lot as individuals. A lot of them probably thought they’d have more success than they’re having. So it’s been a struggle.”
Pandolfo’s words there apply to nearly the entire roster.
But they don’t to Nick Roukounakis, who tied the game at 2-2 midway through the second, rifling a wrister past Zacher. He had Ritchie on the 2-on-1 if he wanted him — and Northeastern defender Dylan Finlay clearly thought he did. And so, with the Huskies’ assistant captain selling out to defend a potential pass across to Ritchie, BU’s grizzly, hard-working sophomore did it by himself, scoring just his fifth collegiate goal with the calmness of a man scoring his 100th.
When BU needed a play early on Monday night, it was the star-studded Terriers’ lesser-known names who showed up, as they so often have this season. The sight of Roukounakis, a 22-year-old undrafted winger, going alone on a 2-on-1 with Ritchie was a quite perfect encapsulation of BU’s season. As the Terriers’ high-end talents have largely failed to live up to the hype, bottom-six regulars like Roukounakis have consistently performed.
“Originally, I was looking low glove,” Roukounakis said. “But the second time I looked up, I saw [Zacher] was off his angle, and the blocker side had more room than I thought.”
Before Roukounakis’ goal, linemate Jonathan Morello worked himself into position at the net front to tap in a pass and tie it at 1-1. The freshman, a fifth-round pick of the Bruins two years ago, has also spent most of the year in the bottom six and given Jay Pandolfo everything the coach could ask of him and more. His tally was his sixth of the year.
“JMo, he’s just a workhorse,” said Roukounakis, who has excelled with Morello and Ritchie whenever the trio has played together during the second semester. “He never stops.”
But though Roukounakis, Morello and Ritchie were again BU’s most productive line, they were hardly the only players producing. The Terriers’ top line, cursed for most of the season regardless of who’s playing on it, drove play through freshman Tynan Lawrence all night. Freshman defenseman Charlie Trethewey provided the excellent feed for Morello’s goal and made crucial plays at the other end. Sophomores Cole Eiserman and Kamil Bednarik and freshman Ben Merrill generated numerous chances on BU’s second line.
Pandolfo hasn’t gotten ubiquitous production like that at all this season. The Terriers were rewarded for it, finishing with a 38-26 advantage in shots on goal and a significant ice tilt (BU had 87 total shot attempts to NU’s 49). BU still only scored two goals, a continuation of a mystifying offensive drought, but this time, at least, the Terriers can fully blame it on missed chances. They produced the looks, and Pandolfo said postgame BU deserved to win.
“It was everyone. It really was,” he added. “All four lines were going straight from the start, the D played very well, [Mikhail Yegorov, 36 saves] played well. It was a good feeling to see everyone going — I don’t know if we’ve had a lot of that.”
They haven’t. What they have had, though, is plenty of magic from Cole Hutson. And even with all 20 players rolling, it was Hutson again with the final say.
“He wanted to win this game tonight,” Pandolfo said. “You could see it right from the start.”
