by Scott Weighart, GoTerriers.com

BOSTON – The NCAA ice hockey postseason can be an exciting and stressful time for  players and fans, but it's calming to have a coach who has experienced the highest levels of postseason success possible as both a collegiate player and as a pro.

Second-year head coach Jay Pandolfo won it all as a member of Boston University's 1995 national championship team. In the National Hockey League, he played a total of 131 playoff games and hoisted the Stanley Cup twice with the New Jersey Devils in 2000 and 2003. 

In 2000, he notched an assist on a shorthanded goal to lead off the scoring in the decisive double-overtime win over the Dallas Stars. Three years later, he added six goals and six assists in New Jersey's 24 postseason games, as the Devils ultimately defeated the Anaheim Mighty Ducks for another championship.

With that kind of resume, it's no surprise that Pandolfo doesn't seem to get too high or too low over the course of a season and that the team has a very professional mentality when it comes to focusing almost entirely on the game at hand. That even-keeled mentality was on display on Saturday as the team began the playoffs by beating Northeastern 4-2 in the Hockey East quarterfinals. 

Although the Huskies had managed to eke out overtime wins in their previous two games against the Terriers, BU looked poised despite Saturday's game staying knotted at 0-0 for almost the first 30 minutes. The Terriers scored three straight goals over the next 10 minutes and weathered a Northeastern rally in the third to advance to TD Garden.

"I like the way we played," Pandolfo said. "I thought we were very good. I thought we did a very good job of protecting in front of our net. I thought we executed our game plan pretty well against them. We know it's hard to get inside against them and I thought we did a good job of getting pucks to the crease. We found a way to score four goals, which is huge."

The win sets up a Hockey East semifinal showdown against Maine. Both teams have already clinched a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Black Bears were a fixture on the national postseason stage through many years in the 1990s and for an impressive seven years in a row in the 2000s, but this will be their first time in the NCAA Tournament since 2012. Meanwhile, BU is ranked second in the nation, and the fan base is hoping to enjoy not only a repeat visit to the Frozen Four but the real possibility of a sixth national championship.

Naturally, though, that is not a topic of discussion this week in the Terrier locker room.

"That's the last thing we'll talk about right now," Pandolfo said. "We'll enjoy this and then just get ready for practice on Monday. The guys have the day off Sunday, so it's just get focused for practice Monday and be ready for Friday."

Asked about the team's mindset right now, graduate student Sam Stevens echoed his coach. 

"The mindset is 'everything matters' and 'one shift at a time,'" Stevens said. "Try not to look forward. We're focused on Friday, focused on the first period, and then we'll go from there."

It's hard to believe that former Terrier Trevor Zegras is now in his fourth year in the NHL, yet he played with Stevens and Terrier captain Case McCarthy at BU when all three were freshmen. Due to the pandemic year, Stevens and McCarthy are now the only players in Terrier history who have played in five different seasons for the Scarlet and White.

Stevens admitted that he reflected on his last game at Agganis Arena on Saturday, just not during the action. 

"We get out for warm-ups, and you take it in a little bit, realizing it's your last time twirling for warm-ups," Stevens said.  "During the game, you kind of lock in so you don't really think about that. And then when the final buzzer sounds, you look back at it. A lot of memories over five years, a lot of games. I'm just extremely grateful to be able to play here for five years and glad we could get the win tonight."

It was extra sweet to see senior Luke Tuch enjoy his last game at Agganis with a power-play goal, as he one-timed the puck past Northeastern goalie Cameron Whitehead off a gorgeous feed courtesy of sophomore Jeremy Wilmer. Better still, McCarthy picked the perfect time for his third goal of the season. Tuch teed him up for a right-point slapshot that went straight into the net for what proved to the game-winning goal.

"That's awesome for them," said first-year forward Shane Lachance of his upperclassmen teammates. "Case was talking to me about that exact same play this morning in morning skate: It just came to him, and he put it in. I'm just so happy for those guys. I think it's great for them to go out on a win at Agganis." 

Pandolfo was delighted with the play of all of his seniors and grad students on Friday. 

"Every one of those guys was really good for us tonight so it's great to see," Pandolfo said. "I know those guys are motivated to do well and have some success here at the end. This is their last crack at it, so great to see."

It was not so great to see graduate student  Cade Webber go down hard early in the third period before hobbling off the ice with the assistance of athletic trainer Larry Venis. It has been an eventful few weeks for the 6-foot-7 defenseman. Just before the NHL trade deadline on March 7, his NHL rights were traded from the Carolina Hurricanes to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Last week, he was named Hockey East Best Defensive Defenseman due to his penalty-killing prowess and because he is leading the nation with 120 blocked shots. On Saturday, it was an injury that looked like it could be bad.

For several anxious minutes, BU fans had to worry if his collegiate career might end with a thud along the Agganis boards. Fortunately, he not only returned to the bench minutes later, but he ended up back on the ice to close the game out.          

"It's scary," Stevens said.  "He plays such a big role on the team. I'm happy to see he gets recognized for now as the defensive defenseman of the year. There's no doubt that he's the best at what he does in the country. Hopefully a couple days off, and he'll be good to go."

Freshman standout Macklin Celebrini was held off of the score sheet for much of Saturday's game, but after Justin Hryckowian's second goal of the game made it 3-2 with 4:51 remaining in regulation, Celebrini ensured that BU regained its two-goal cushion just 26 seconds later. Classmate Jack Harvey dropped the puck to the 17-year-old centerman, who maneuvered toward the net between the two face-off circles before burying a shot high, glove side.  

"Hard to contain the kid; kudos to him," Stevens said. "He doesn't get rattled. Whether he gets on the score sheet or not, he keeps playing a full 200-foot game. He's hard to play against in the defensive zone and in the offensive zone. I'm not surprised he was the one who iced the game there at the end, to be honest."

After a good deal of juggling of forward lines over the course of the season, BU now features an all-freshman top line of Celebrini, Harvey, and Lachance in the games that count the most.  Lachance started the year as a fourth-line fixture, though he has also enjoyed ample power-play minutes all season. Now he's the top-line left wing playing alongside the guy who is the presumptive first pick in June's NHL Draft.

"It's been a great year for me," Lachance said. "I like to think that I'm a guy who can play anywhere, and Coach Pandolfo trusts me to play anywhere. We have a great team. The fourth line on this team is a top-two line on any other team in the country, I think. Just being in the lineup every night to start was a privilege for me, and then just growing my confidence from there helped me out a lot."

Although it's Lachance's first year as a Terrier player, it's not as if the BU postseason is new to him. Given that he is the son of former BU star Scott Lachance and the grandson of legendary head coach Jack Parker, Shane was on the ice as a five-year-old in Washington, D.C., after BU beat Miami for the 2009 national title.  Like his coach, he is unfazed about what's to come.

"I think it's just approaching it the same as we've been approaching these past couple weeks," Lachance said. "Our game's really picking up and no better time to get hot than going into the playoffs. Obviously, you can't treat it like any other game because if you lose, you're done, but I think we're just going to treat this week the same; work hard and be ready to go."

When your coach has played 899 regular-season games and 131 more postseason games as a professional in the NHL, it makes sense that the team has adopted a business-as-usual approach to the postseason.

Now we'll see if they can take care of business in the Hockey East tournament and the NCAA tournament. Like the best workers in any organization, you can bet they'll take it one shift at a time.