CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — There were empty seats at Agganis Arena Friday, and for obvious reasons. Boston University just hasn’t been that good this year, and as of late, fans have noticed.
The Terriers entered their third and fourth meetings with Boston College in a precarious situation. BU’s first two games against the Eagles were disheartening, and the math is even harsher. BU needs to win Hockey East to have any shot at the NCAA tournament, unlike BC, which has some leverage in the NPI.
Scenes at Conte Forum showed this; on Saturday, the arena was full despite BC students being on spring break.
But as the clock ran out in the third, the only people left in the arena were those donning the scarlet and white, as Cole Eiserman slipped home the cherry on top of BU’s 5-1 victory over BC to close with a series sweep.
“Good teams, whether or not they are at their best, find ways to win,” head coach Pandolfo said.
To be frank, Saturday’s performance wasn’t anywhere close to BU’s best. The Terriers came out slow, struggled in transition and couldn’t sustain offensive zone time until the third period.
But they stopped the Eagles from capitalizing on their mistakes, and that was the difference.
“You need someone to make a plays at the right time, and that’s what happened tonight,” Pandolfo said.
Less than 30 seconds into the game, sophomore forward Brandon Svoboda was whistled for interference, and while BC couldn’t convert on the early power play, it came dangerously close. The Eagles fired seven quality shots at Yegorov during the advantage, but he turned each one aside and kept BU level.
BC enjoyed an ice tilt throughout the first period. When Cole Hutson went off for tripping at 11:04, it felt almost inevitable that the Eagles would break through on the power play — especially given BU’s recent struggles against BC’s top unit, the same group that ultimately swung the Beanpot.
The Terriers, however, flipped the script. Captain Gavin McCarthy cleared the puck out of the zone, where freshman forward Ben Merrill was waiting near the blue line. Merrill beat BC’s Ryan Conmy to the loose puck and burst free on a breakaway, snapping a clear wrist shot past Louka Cloutier.
“He’s been a heck of a player for us this year from day one,” Pandolfo said of Ben Merrill. “Arguably one of our most consistent guys, night in and night out.”
In transition, BU looked nothing like the team that controlled Friday’s matchup, repeatedly giving up odd‑man rushes and struggling to reset defensively.
BC’s equalizer felt unsurprising by the time it came late in the first. Senior forward Oskar Jellvik took a cross-slot feed from Bruins prospect James Hagens and buried a clean shot past Yegorov. It was Jellvik’s first weekend back in BC’s lineup since suffering an injury on Nov. 11.
The Terriers came out strong in the second but trailed off quickly. In the first five minutes, they finally established zone time and took the lead.
Sophomore defenseman Cole Hutson threaded a pass through traffic to McCarthy at the goal line, where McCarthy fired a sharp-angle shot that deflected awkwardly off Cloutier and into the net, putting BU up 2-1 at 2:40 in the second frame.
But following this, momentum quickly evaporated.
With nine minutes left, the Terriers nearly paid for the lapse. Hagens slipped behind the defense for two breakaways on the same shift, and BU was fortunate that Yegorov turned both aside.
Yegorov closed out the night making 28 saves.
“His best weekend of the year, no doubt about that,” Pandolfo said.
The Terriers earned their first power play chance midway through the second period, but the unit offered little conviction — a reminder of why it sits 51st nationally in conversion rate.
To close out the second, McCarthy was called for holding, sending a penalty kill into the third period.
Opening the third period, as the penalty wound down, BU added insurance with its second shorthanded tally of the game. Jack Harvey carried a 3-on-2 rush into the zone alongside Hutson and Kamil Bednarik and then finished the return pass from Hutson with a one-timer to the top shelf.
BC’s power play unit entered Saturday ranked sixth in the country, converting at 27.9 percent, so killing it off, let alone generating on it, is no easy task, but BU’s penalty kill is aggressive. In past matchups against the Eagles this season, it has plagued the Terriers, but for every risk, there’s a reward.
“We just got back to doing the things that have made us successful as a penalty kill — going to our spots, being aggressive at the right time, and reading off each other,” Pandolfo said.
BC head coach Greg Brown said the Eagles’ power-play issues stemmed from BU’s heightened attention on Dean Letourneau, who had scored a man-advantage goal on Friday.
“They were sitting on Letourneau in the middle,” Brown said. “Last night, when we made good plays, we were able to get pucks in there and back off the pressure, but tonight, they were able to cover him better.”
Merrill sealed BU’s win with five minutes left in the game. He snapped a wrist shot from the right circle to beat Cloutier high on his glove side.
“I’m actually a little disappointed in myself. I didn’t get him out there a little sooner to try to get the hat trick,” Pandolfo said of Merrill.
The Eagles pulled Cloutier with around three minutes remaining and generated a few looks with the extra attacker, but when BU gained possession, it was game over with Eiserman tallying an empty-netter.
The Terriers slightly disrupted the Eagles’ spot in the NPI, who moved down to 13, but the more important takeaway is that BU found a way, even when it wasn’t its best. They haven’t done it all season.
Maybe it was a blessing from the bye week, but stringing together momentum is their only chance to make the tournament because they will have to win three or four games if they want to win Hockey East.
“We just got to keep pushing,” Pandolfo said.
