Three Keys Can Unlock Second-Half Success for Terriers
January 7, 2026 | Men's Ice Hockey
by Scott Weighart, GoTerriers.com
BOSTON – Last season, the Boston University men's ice hockey team started off the new year with a disappointing 9-7-1 record. The Terriers went 15-7-1 the rest of the way, however, winning the Beanpot, making the NCAA Tournament and getting to the Frozen Four before coming up short in the national championship game.
The Terriers rang in this new year with a nearly identical record of 9-8-1. Once again, the team finds itself at an inflection point that will determine whether this is another great season or just an okay one.
Three keys will be critical to unlocking a similar run this year.
The first is building on the momentum of a stirring win at Northeastern to close out the fall semester. Playing in the last game in the storied history of Matthews Arena before its destruction, BU looked to be on track to yet another tough-luck loss. Trailing 3-2 in the waning minutes in front of a rabid Husky crowd, the Terriers pulled the goalie and tied it up on a Kamil Bednarik goal with 1:57 remaining. Stunningly, BU scored again just 18 seconds later, when Brandon Svoboda flipped in a shot while tripping forward over a defender's stick, resulting in a 4-3 win and pulling the season record over .500.
"I thought the last game going into break certainly helped us," head coach Jay Pandolfo said after Saturday's 8-2 exhibition win over Simon Fraser. "Being down in that game and finding a way to stick with it and get a win in a tough environment…that being their last game ever to play there, they were going to give it everything they got. For us to find a way to win that game certainly can give our group confidence."
The Terriers have the youngest team in college hockey. While the fall semester was a roller coaster, Pandolfo sees a silver lining to the struggles.
"Having a young team, there's probably a benefit to some of this adversity we went through in the first half. These guys now know what to expect, what this level's all about - a lot of new players just getting a feel for what we need to do to be successful. Our guys are starting to understand that, so yeah, we're looking forward to having a really good second half."
It also turned out to be a great move to schedule an early January exhibition game. With five regular players out of the lineup due to the World Junior Championship as well as the Spengler Cup, it would have been foolish to play a game that counts when it comes to making the national tournament. Plus this game is a good way to ease back into competitive action after several weeks off while providing more ice time to players who didn't see as much of it in the first half. Better still, there was a good-sized crowd of 4,079, even with the vast majority of students away on vacation.
"Coming out of break, we had a really good week of practice," Pandolfo said. "We practiced three times and then to get some real live game action in before we get back into the hockey schedule was real important instead of just going into a game next week without playing a real game. That's what we tried to do tonight, make sure that we were taking like it was a real game, even though we're missing five or six guys from our lineup."
The Terriers looked rested and ready in the exhibition game, playing particularly well in the first and third periods. But maybe the best news relates to the second key for second-half success —getting their best players fully healthy.
After having star-crossed semesters in the fall, sophomore Sacha Boisvert had a pair of goals, including one absolute snipe, and freshman winger Conrad Fondrk notched four assists to earn the No. 1 star for the game.
You can't just look at the games played totals to understand how tough the fall was for both players. Boisvert played in 12 of the team's 18 games, but he really was only fully healthy for the first game before suffering an injury in the subsequent exhibition game against RPI. For a player who was named NCHC Rookie of the Year before transferring from North Dakota last season, he was only a fraction of his full self on top of playing a fraction of the games.
"It was definitely frustrating," Boisvert said. "Coming from a different school, joining a new team, obviously you want to show your teammates you're willing to play and do anything for the program. Then I got the injury in the first exhibition game of the season, so that's really tough not only from a performance standpoint, but obviously my mental standpoint is obviously hard, not being able to do what I want on the ice and knowing that I could perform a lot better.
"I'd go back to my room at night and wonder what I could do better and do some extra work, but really all I needed to do was be a little smarter and rest, and I think the Christmas break really gave me the opportunity to do that."
Pandolfo noted that Boisvert looked much better in that Northeastern win, but Boisvert says he was still not where he wanted to be.
"Definitely not. I was definitely closer compared to the beginning when I started playing again, but having the break, seeing my family, resting, seeing my coach from back home, just really helped me with obviously everything, mentally and physically."
Two resounding goals on Saturday are hopefully a harbinger of a big second half.
"It felt good, but I think the biggest thing for me was just coming back, having a great week of practice, showing the guys that I can do a lot better than I did the first half, and I think I'm on the right path."
As for Fondrk, perhaps he was a little too eager to contribute to his new program from the get-go. Ultimately, less ice time and more conditioning work with strength and conditioning coach Ken Whittier was in order.
"I broke my femur last year in March," Fondrk said after his playmaking heroics on Saturday. "I was almost forcing it at the beginning of the year, trying to get back on the ice. I had to make the decision of playing through maybe the entire year at kind of half-speed, not fully recovered from that injury, or stepping back from games and really focusing on getting back to 100% for my leg.
"I talked to my coaching staff and worked with Kenny to make that decision to step back from games and just focus on really getting back to 100% so I can help the team as much as I can."
Pandolfo is delighted to see both players positioned for better things to come.
"The whole first half for both those guys was just a battle trying to get through injuries that were bugging them. I think you saw tonight that they're feeling a lot better, and I think that's really important for our team because they can really help us."
Meanwhile, the program endured another injury scare when sophomore defenseman Cole Hutson, the team's leading scorer, took a shot to the back of the head in front of the net during a World Juniors game last week. It was an incredibly scary moment. Hutson later told NHL.com that he was knocked out cold and that he couldn't move anything on his body for a few minutes.
In a poignant moment, good friend and classmate Cole Eiserman held his hand before Hutson was stretchered off. Terrier Nation held its breath for several hours, but ultimately Hutson was fine, missing just one game before returning to the lineup for Team USA's disappointing quarterfinal loss to Finland.
"I was not watching it live," Pandolfo recalled. "I was at my son's game, so I was getting texts left and right. I was real concerned, but we were in communication with the family, and it sounded like he was doing really well once he got to the hospital, and he was released shortly thereafter."
Long-time Terrier fans will recall that Pandolfo was the BU captain when Travis Roy suffered an injury that left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
"No question, anytime any player is laying on the ice, and he's not moving and he's not getting up, it's a big concern," Pandolfo said. "You don't want to think the worst, but sometimes it creeps in in the back of your mind. It didn't take too long to find out that he was going to be fine, which was really important."
As for roster depth, the program made a big announcement on Tuesday: Prized recruit Tynan Lawrence, a forward from New Brunswick, is joining the team for the second semester. Most recently, Lawrence was playing for Muskegon in the USHL, where he had 10 goals and seven assists in 13 games played this season. He is now tied as the youngest player in college hockey, as he will not turn 18 until August 3.
Last year, the team's fortunes changed dramatically when goaltender Mikhail Yegorov was brought aboard in January after the team muddled through an inconsistent first half. During Wednesday's Zoom call with the media, Pandolfo talked about the reasons to make a similar move this year.
"As the season progressed, he had some injuries early on," Pandolfo said. "We talked to him maybe a month ago, and he seemed set on staying there (in Muskegon). Then in the last little bit, really recently, we mutually decided it might be best for him to come in and help us."
As of Wednesday afternoon, Lawrence had been delayed by visa issues but was expected to arrive shortly and join the team on the ice for Thursday practice. No decision has been made yet as to whether he will suit up for Friday night's game against UMass. Whenever he does appear in the lineup, Terrier fans should expect a player who eventually will be a real difference maker.
"Tynan's just a play driver, a center iceman who is a 200-foot player," Pandolfo said. "He can drive, play through the middle of the ice. He has an engine on him; he doesn't stop moving his feet. We're getting a really good player."
Asked why he is perched at or near the top of the NHL Draft rankings, Pandolfo replied, "Because of the mature game he plays at a young age at the center ice position. He's very good offensively, but he doesn't cheat the game: He's very good in his own end. It's hard to sit here and compare someone to Macklin Celebrini because of what (Macklin) did at BU and what he's doing now at the National Hockey League level, but I see a lot of Macklin in Tynan."
The upshot should be a real boost when it comes to addressing that second key to success around roster depth.
"If all our forwards are healthy, there is going to be a healthy competition for ice time," Pandolfo said. "Clearly in the first half, we had a lot more injuries than we're used to, and we didn't have the depth up front to be honest with you. I mean, how many times did we dress a D as a forward in the 18 games we had? Probably half if not more."
With the team looking healthier - and deeper - this semester, the third key to second-half success will be consistency. At its best, the team showed that it can win high-stakes games against great teams in challenging environments, including the 2-1 Red Hot Hockey win over Cornell at Madison Square Garden.
On other nights, the team suffered from defensive breakdowns, lack of flow and unpredictable levels of intensity. The question isn't whether the team is good enough to return to the NCAA Tournament and get back to the Frozen Four. It's whether they can show that they've learned some tough lessons from the fall and can play at that high level that much more consistently.
"Being consistent - you took the word right out of my mouth," Fondrk said. "I think it's being present every day, just working at it in practice. If we're focusing every day in and day out, then it's going to carry into our games. It's just not getting too far ahead of ourselves, just preparing for those games up ahead. If we stick to our game and stick to our process, it's going to be good."
