Taking the ice for the 100th season, the Boston University men’s hockey team will start the year with a match up against the Holy Cross Crusaders. The non-conference exhibition game will take place at Walter Brown Arena on October 2 and should leave the Terriers with some offensive experience heading into the official start of the regular season next week.
The Crusaders went 4-12-0 last season with wins against Atlantic Hockey Association rivals Long Island, Bentley, and Sacred Heart before moving into a 10-game losing streak. While the 2020-21 season has to be taken with a grain of salt, the Terriers should be in a pretty solid position moving into the regular season.
Holy Cross has lost two of their highest scoring players in Jake Pappalardo and Logan Ferguson, but junior forward Alex Peterson will return to the ice. Peterson led the crusaders in points with nine from four goals and five assists.
Junior Erik Gordon and sophomore Matt Radomsky will return to the crease. In 11 games, Gordon posted a 2.62 goals against average and a .906 save percentage to secure his spot as the starter this coming weekend.
The Terriers are breaking into the season following the “red and white scrimmage,” where the red team took down white in a 2-1 victory, with goals scored by freshman forward Brian Carrabes, sophomore forward Dylan Peterson, and junior forward Matt Brown. The scrimmage was the Terrier’s first game in front of fans at Agganis since March of 2020.
“Some of those freshmen that we had last year never played at Agganis. The red and white scrimmage last week was exciting for guys to get to play there and exciting for our veterans and our older guys to have that opportunity again,” head coach Albie O’Connell told the media at the Hockey East Preview Day.
As one of the youngest teams in the country last year, the Terriers will look to advance further in the tournament with help from a veteran leadership group. Senior Logan Cockerill will lead the squad as captain alongside Ty Amonte and Max Kaufman and new assistant captain and junior defenseman Alex Vlasic.
“Starting with Logan Cockerill, our captain, he was rock solid,” O’Connell said. “Max Kaufman, you know he was a transfer from Vermont, [and] we made him a captain through last year, he really established himself as one of the leaders on the team, especially with Ty Amonte getting hurt last year and kind of being around but not really on the ice. I can’t say enough about our leadership group that we have.”
While only an exhibition game, Saturday’s match will be the inaugural game in the 100th season of BU men’s hockey, and the players, coaches, and fans are excited to celebrate everything this historic program has to offer.
“It’s going to mean everything to our guys. Being in the 100th season of the program and some of the events and some of the people that will come back and the celebration of just some of the great people that we’ve had within the program, and to do it together, to do it at Agganis, it’s just really exciting.
Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. at Walter Brown Arena with coverage on Twitter @BOSHockeyBlog.