
Saturday’s rivalry clash between the Boston University men’s hockey team and Boston College began in bizarre fashion.
BU freshman netminder Mikhail Yegorov — preparing for his first collegiate start — emerged from the Conte Forum locker room for pregame warmups more than a minute too early, resulting in a two-minute bench minor on the Terriers to start the game. BC scored 24 seconds into the man advantage, which was the winning goal in the Eagles’ 2-0 triumph.
In an interview with the Boston Hockey Blog, Hockey East Supervisor of Men’s Officials Brian Murphy and Associate Commissioner Brian Smith offered context on the penalty, which invoked Rule 82.2 in the NCAA’s college hockey rulebook.
“The BU goalkeeper came on the ice before the officials came on the ice and certainly before Boston College came on the ice. And as you’ll see in the timeline, the visiting team comes on last,” said Murphy, who was an NHL referee for 32 years before joining Hockey East in 2020.
Yegorov took the ice, alone, with around 39:30 on the game clock. According to the rulebook, officials must take the ice at 39:00, followed by the home team at 38:00 and the visiting team at 37:50.
Although he took accountability for the penalty, BU head coach Jay Pandolfo voiced frustrations in his postgame press conference, noting Yegorov had been able to skate out early because a Conte Forum staffer opened the door to the ice.
“I have a really hard time with that call,” Pandolfo said. “With the fact that whoever runs the door opened it. The kid’s excited to play his first hockey game, for warmups, and they open the door and then they close it on him and leave him out there.”
Coaches are briefed on the pregame protocol during a preseason meeting with the league, and locker rooms are equipped with game clocks to manage warmup timing, according to Murphy. Smith added that before each game, facility representatives verbally confirm a five-minute warning ahead of warmups.
“Everybody in the locker room knows what the timing is and everything like that,” Murphy said. “It’s up to the operations people and it’s up to the coaches to obviously manage that, or obviously the leadership of the players to manage when they’re going out.”
According to Murphy, the rule exists to “control pregame timing” and avoid “mass chaos” where players are able to decide when to skate out for warmups.
Murphy said he has no reference point for the specific situation that unfolded on Saturday, since he had never seen it before.
“The NHL has a tradition of this rookie lap, which has become like an accepted practice there, but that’s not what goes on in college,” Murphy said. “That’s not an accepted practice in college.”
As for how much discretion referees have to enforce the rule, Murphy added: “It’s a rule that’s in the rulebook that does get enforced occasionally. We’re not the only conference that’s enforced this at certain points in time and over the past few seasons.”
“The coaches are aware of what the rules are and where the guidelines are. They know what to expect and what our standards are.”
Still, Pandolfo said he was frustrated about the officials’ decision to enforce the rule given the circumstances.
“It’s a joke that that’s how the game starts,” Pandolfo said. “That’s not how these games should start. Like, come on. Like, really, this is how we’re going to start a BC-BU game? Here’s a power play?”
Murphy declined to comment when asked about the frustrations over the call being made in a game of such magnitude.