BOSTON — At last season’s Beanpot appearance, the Terriers entered the bright lights of TD Garden with all the momentum, and on a seven-game win streak, but were humbled by a fourth-place finish.
This season’s BU team entered with a 1-3-0 record in its last four games and had everything to prove, and albeit, on the biggest stage. After the then-No.1 BU was swept by its rival Eagles in its own barn just 10 days ago, the Terriers needed a statement game.
On Monday night, the No. 3 Boston University men’s hockey team (18-7-1, 13-4-1 Hockey East) delivered, defeating the No.1 Boston College Eagles (19-5-1, 12-4-1 HE), 4-3, in the Dunkin’ Beanpot semifinal and proving it can hang with the big dogs.
“Getting swept by BC two weeks ago was tough, and then to respond the way we did…credit to our guys for sticking with it the whole way through,” BU head coach Jay Pandolfo said postgame.
BU looked as if it succumbed to its old ways early on, and it seemed it was going to be “one of those” opening periods. Sophomore forward Devin Kaplan — playing in his first game back since suffering a lower-body injury against the Eagles on Jan. 26 — took a textbook slashing penalty 32 seconds after puck drop.
Taking penalties early on in any game is a less-than-ideal way to set the tone, but doing it against a power play as stacked as BC’s is a recipe for disaster.
However, after a weekend series of pucks bouncing everywhere but into the back of BC’s net, everything seemed to click for BU over the next 15 minutes of the first period.
“I thought we did a good job of playing behind them, pressuring their D,” Pandolfo said of the first. “We were getting pucks to the net, we were reloading very well so they couldn’t get their transition game going.”
Of his nine games played since coming back from World Juniors, Macklin Celebrini only had one game where he could not light the lamp — his first battle against the Eagles. Over that weekend series, the Hobey Baker nominee fired 12 shots on net, but only one beat freshman goaltender Jaco Fowler.
Monday was a different story.
Freshman defenseman Gavin McCarthy’s strong back check lifted the puck out of BU end’s, and M. Celebrini walked into the offensive zone and ripped the rubber past Fowler at 4:00 of the first.
“You’re not going to score every shot,” Celebrini said postgame. “We’ve been working a lot in practice — just seeing different looks and just talking it over — and when it goes in, it’s really nice.”
A BU team that played catch up in the first two rounds of the Battle of Comm. Ave got on the board early, and most importantly, first.
Pandolfo was not satisfied with his team’s power play against UNH on Friday, but the man advantage got a chance at redemption a little over a minute later.
And like clockwork: a no-look pass from sophomore defenseman Lane Hutson at the blue line to Macklin Celebrini at the right circle, and the Terriers had the 2-0 lead 6:10 into the game.
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By the end of the first 20 minutes, the Terriers led in shots on net 19-13, blocks 8-5 and the game 2-0.
The Terriers managed to walk all over the top-ranked Eagles in the first, but BC was not going to sit back after an uncharacteristic showing. The Eagles flat-out dominated possession, and lucky bounces and a locked-in Caron were the only things keeping BC off the board early on.
“Second period, they started pushing a little bit. We got away from our game I thought,” Pandolfo said. “They have some talented players over there. We knew they were gonna push.”
On the Eagles’ seventh shot of the middle frame — to the Terriers’ one — BC finally capitalized at 6:06 of the middle frame on the man advantage to cut BU’s lead to 2-1. First-years Gabe Perrault and Will Smith connected to get their team on the board at the 6:06 mark.
But in a game of bounces, the score does not always reflect the play of the better team. The Terriers learned that in their second game against the Eagles, and at 11:49 of the second period, the puck bounced off of BC defender Drew Fortescue along the boards and onto the tape of senior forward Luke Tuch. The assistant captain caught Fowler by surprise and beat him on BU’s third shot of the period.
“I was just trying to get on the forecheck,” Tuch said. “I was out there a little bit longer, so I was just trying to buy some time for our guys changing, and I got lucky.”
The Terriers managed to escape the period with a 3-1 lead heading into the final 20 minutes, and BU led in blocked shots 12-3 and 20-8 overall.
Sophomore forward Ryan Greene has made great strides during his sophomore-year campaign, becoming a stalwart on the first power-play and penalty-kill unit, but his answer came at even strength at 4:47 of the third. In what became the eventual game-winner, No. 9 one-timed the puck past Fowler on a feed from Tuch for his ninth of the season.
“His maturity has definitely grown from last year to this year on the ice,” Tuch said postgame on Greene. “He’s so smooth out there, we call him ‘butter.’”
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But with the Eagles answering with a goal of their own at 8:07 by senior forward Gentry Shamburger to make it a 4-2 game, the Terriers had to prove they could play with the lead.
Closing out games has been an issue all season long, even against far inferior teams, and BC turned up the heat in the final minutes. Giving its student section some extra life, Perault added his second goal of the game to cut it to a one-goal contest with 8:32 remaining in regulation.
Over the final stretch, the Dog Pound held its breath, but the Terriers came away with the 4-3 regulation win by the final horn.
Caron finished his first Beanpot appearance, against the top-ranked team nonetheless, with a solid 34-save night, and the team collectively had 30 blocked shots.
Next up, the Terriers will face off against Northeastern in the Beanpot final, and just as they did against the Eagles, they will be hungry for some revenge.
“We’ve had a hard time with Northeastern since I’ve been here, and they play us very tough,” Pandolfo said. “We certainly have to be ready…we’re trying to just enjoy this right now.”
But before then, BU will take on the Merrimack College Warriors for the third time this season. Friday’s puck drop at Agganis Arena is set for 7 p.m., and the Boston Hockey Blog will have full, on-the-ground coverage so be sure to follow along on Twitter (X) @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.