BU men’s hockey ‘played direct’ at UMass and won because of it

AMHERST, Mass. — Here’s the good news for the Boston University men’s hockey team, enigmatic as these Terriers are: It truly doesn’t have to be so complicated.

The formula is actually quite simple, one that UMass head coach Greg Carvel laid out perfectly after his Minutemen fell, 4-2, to No. 13 BU at Mullins Center on Wednesday night. Asked by a student journalist what he thought the Terriers did so effectively on the power play, where they scored two goals, Carvel did not let the young reporter finish their question.

“Shoot,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Shoot the puck.”

Yep. That’s it, really. Because here’s the thing about BU, which is going for its third consecutive Frozen Four: the Terriers have some pretty good players. And when good players shoot the puck? That tends to be quite a handful for opponents, even the goalies selected in the second round of the NHL Draft, which UMass sophomore Michael Hrabal was.

Hrabal was excellent on Wednesday, as he was in the Minutemen’s 4-0 victory over BU on Friday at Agganis Arena. But there was little he could do to stop the Terriers’ comeback from a 2-0 deficit in Amherst.

First, phenom freshman Cole Eiserman tattooed a slap shot on a BU power play at the end of the second. Hrabal, understandably, spilled the save, and junior Devin Kaplan scored the ensuing rebound. Then halfway through the third, star freshman Cole Hutson fired a shot into traffic, perfectly picking out the top corner as Hrabal failed to locate the shot. Not two minutes after that, Hutson glided into the slot on another power play, sent a wrister into another crowd of bodies and lit the lamp.

Bingo, bango, bongo — BU wins.

All it had to do? Shoot the puck. You know, rocket science.

“To me, that was the difference,” Carvel said.

Throughout a disappointing fall semester, though, shooting the puck kind of was rocket science for BU (9-6-1, 5-3-1 Hockey East). It falls into the greater idea of “keeping it simple,” something head coach Jay Pandolfo has bemoaned his team’s failure to do at multiple instances so far this season. It was a criticism way back in early October after a home win over UConn — and it showed up again as recently as last Friday’s Friendship Four win over Merrimack. Even though BU’s 3.5 goals per game rank fourth in the nation, the Terriers have regressed significantly from last year (4.1). Pandolfo has tweaked the forward lines virtually every game this season.

“It’s getting pucks behind, playing north, getting to the net and making sure we’re doing all the things that make us a good hockey team,” Pandolfo said in Belfast after Merrimack. “I think our guys understand and are aware of that, it’s just getting them to do it on a consistent basis.”

The Terriers did it on Friday, and to great results. Despite conceding less than two minutes in and eventually going down 2-0 in the second period, BU was dangerous throughout the game. It led in shots on goal after each frame and, through sudden rushes and slicing individual carries (that’s the “playing north” part), had the Minutemen (8-7-2, 2-5-2 HE) on their heels all night. The Terriers peppered 33 shots on goal off those initial moves, and critically, BU also crashed the net when those shots were taken. Hrabal had his hands full all game.

“I thought we were much more direct,” Pandolfo said. “We did it early on and didn’t get rewarded for it, but we didn’t get away from it. We stuck with it.”

BU didn’t score until 17:52 of the second period — ending a 102 minute and 14 second spell of scoreless hockey. And sure, when the Terriers did finally break through, Kaplan needed a fortunate bounce to score Eiserman’s rebound — “I think it went off the kid’s faceoff mask and dropped in front of him,” Carvel said — but as the losing coach was quick to point out:

“You got to shoot the puck for that to happen. So good for them.”

BU should really be doing that more — especially Eiserman, who, said NESN color commentator Jonny Lazarus during the replay of the goal, “has a hell of a one-timer.” Same goes for Hutson, who scored his first goals in over a month to steal the win. For all of his faults — and there have been plenty so far this year — Hutson is one of the best offensive defenseman in the country. He’s a dangerous puck carrier (especially, it should be noted, when he’s moving “north”) and has a pretty dang good shot, too.

Eiserman and Hutson were actually dropped from BU’s top power-play unit for the first time on Wednesday, such was the result of their poor play and the team’s inconsistency. (Pandolfo, for what its worth, said the staff’s “mindset going in was that there wasn’t a top unit,” which was contrary to what it looked like during the game.) Ironically enough, those changes did result in two man-advantage goals… by way of Eiserman and Hutson doing what they do best.

And that’s driving downhill and getting the puck on net, which is what BU, as a whole, does best. Remember, this is a roster boasting 13 NHL Draft picks.

BU made life far too hard on itself throughout a frustrating fall semester, but its final (counted) game before the break was a pressing reminder — this can all be quite straightforward if the Terriers want it to be.

“We’ve had an up and down first semester, no question about it,” Pandolfo said. “But when they’re committed to playing that way, we’re going to have success.”

More reading on BU men’s hockey:

• Behind Cole Hutson’s heroics, BU downs UMass, 4-2
• Mid-season BU hockey mailbag
• BU drops another at Agganis Arena with 4-0 loss to UMass
• The vision gets clear for BU at Friendship Four
• Never in doubt, BU takes 2024 Belpot with 4-3 thriller over Notre Dame