by Scott Weighart, GoTerriers.com
BOSTON – Halloween is still a few days away, but the Boston University men's ice hockey team is hoping its tricks have turned into treats after an up-and-down start to this season.
In the last two series, Friday has been the night for tricks, while Saturday has had more treats, including a gritty 3-1 win over then-No. 11 UConn last Saturday evening that spelled the end of a three-game losing streak.
Going into a rare two-game home series against then-No. 3/4 Michigan State two weekends ago, BU was ranked No. 1 in the polls. After a 4-2 loss on Friday, the Terriers showed heart and resilience against one of the best teams in the nation on Saturday, tying the game up after trailing 2-0 and 3-1, only to lose in heartbreaking fashion in overtime when a shot from sophomore Cole Eiserman crossed part—but not all—of the Michigan State goal line. The puck immediately went the other way; the Spartans won it seconds later.
Kicking off a home-and-home series against UConn last Friday night at Agganis Arena, BU seemed to have learned its lesson. The Terriers came in ready to play, going up 2-0 in the first eight minutes. But BU had a different lesson to learn, as the Huskies ultimately skated away with an 8-4 win.
Head coach Jay Pandolfo acknowledged that the team had initially responded well to the Michigan State series, but still had some growing to do.
"Just really disappointed because of the way we actually came out," Pandolfo said after Monday's practice. "We were ready to play that game. The first 10 minutes of that game, we controlled the game. We were up 2-0, playing really well. And then about the 7:30 mark of the first period we just stopped playing the way we were playing.
"We were playing slow. We started turning pucks over in our end, at their blue line, and for about a two-minute stretch you could just see it coming. And listen: UConn plays hard. They weren't going to stop. It's not like they were going to quit. I don't know if our guys thought it was going to be easy."
Pandolfo, his coaches and his players had to go back to the drawing board on Saturday—or, more accurately, the video room.
"We watched some video, and the video doesn't lie," Pandolfo said. "It tells the truth. And sometimes these guys need to see it because they're young.
"And sometimes the video can be humbling. I think that was part of it. And getting them to understand that everyone has to be on the same page. You can't win unless you play together."
Pandolfo gave his players a simple, frank message: "You guys have a ton of talent here, but if you don't play together and you're not willing to work, anyone can beat you."
Playing in the team's first road game of the season, the response on Saturday night was encouraging. The Terriers played with much more discipline against the stubborn Huskies. Worrying more about the process than the outcome, BU showed patience by grinding through a game that remained scoreless until junior Jack Harvey scored his first goal of the season with 20 ticks left in the first period. They limited scoring chances, and sophomore goaltender Mikhail Yegorov was sharp in a 24-save effort. They drove home happy with a 3-1 win.
"I think the biggest thing was just everyone was bought in," Harvey said after Monday's practice. "We were playing for each other. We were doing whatever it took to win. Obviously, it wasn't pretty, but it's not always going to be pretty. Sometimes you've just got to do the nitty-gritty things that you need to do to win."
If the game was a stride in the right direction, Pandolfo is justifiably concerned because this movie may feel like a sequel to last fall's production. Like this year's team, last year's squad had tons of talent, and they showed flashes of brilliance as well as some head-scratching lapses. Repeatedly, last year's players indicated that they had learned their lesson about consistency but never solved for that completely until they went on the postseason run that brought them to the brink of a national championship.
As it happens, Pandolfo had brought that up earlier on Monday even while appreciating Saturday's win. "It was great to see the response, but talking even today to our captains, we said, 'How do we not have this roller coaster like we did last year? What can we do?' I need help from them to have an understanding of what they need, whether it's from me, from our staff, or from themselves."
Perhaps forward Owen McLaughlin's perspective here is worth considering. Although new to the Terriers after transferring from North Dakota in the offseason, the senior has the most collegiate games under his belt by a wide margin on a team that is the youngest in Division I men's college hockey.
"It's all about the process for us—being as consistent as possible," McLaughlin said. "That starts in practice, and we harp on it a lot. It'll translate to games for focus, attention to detail and all that stuff."
McLaughlin and fellow North Dakota transfer Sacha Boisvert figure to be important factors in that consistency this season, bringing in a lot of talent as well as big-stage experience.
"I loved my time at North Dakota," McLaughlin said. "I love the coaches; I love the guys, so it was a tough decision, but I felt I needed to change the scenery. There are a few guys on the team last year that I was pretty close with, like Devin Kaplan, and they all had nothing but good things to say about going to school here."
Pulling the two of them was a transfer portal coup for the program, which had recruited Boisvert before he committed to North Dakota. Unfortunately, Boisvert—the NCHC Rookie of the Year last season—has been dogged by injuries that have limited him to only a game or two of playing at full strength.
"He wasn't even close to himself," Pandolfo said of Boisvert, noting that the centerman "gutted through" the first Michigan State game.
The Quebec native finally seems sound now.
"I thought he played very well for us on Saturday," Pandolfo said. "He can really help our team, just a guy that can play a lot of minutes down the middle of the ice, which is really important in our system. And it was great to see him back, and he kept it simple, too. I think he led the way by keeping it simple, and I think other guys followed. I thought our leadership group did the same."
At Monday's practice, the team wrapped up on a fun note, placing the two goals on each blue line and rotating a lot of players through four-on-three advantages both ways for tons of high-octane action. Pandolfo liked the positive energy and competitive vibe.
"You think you're just going to flip a switch on Friday," Pandolfo said. "It doesn't work that way at all. So that's another thing that we're working towards."
"There's definitely been some ups and downs so far," Harvey said. "I think that's to be expected, though, with such a young group, so many new guys. We have a culture here where it takes a second to get used to it and get yourself in and really be a part of it. It's a process; we're working through it right now."
The next test comes—appropriately enough—on the night of Halloween itself, where the now-No. 5 Terriers play the first of two games in a weekend series at No. 12 Maine.
"We feel confident, especially after that game on Saturday," Harvey added. "That was a good stepping stone for us, seeing the way that we want to play. Now it's just on us to go and do that every night."
