Fall of Athens (Week 3 Recap)
The women drop their 5th straight, losing to Brown, while the men get swept by #3 Michigan State
The women’s team lose to Brown, having yet to pick up a win, while the men fall to Michigan State on two straight nights.
Women’s
Brown (1-2 L)
The Terriers entered their single game weekend looking to finally get into the win column. The Brown Bears had other ideas, in their first game of the season. Luisa Welcke opened the scoring at 2:59 in the first, with her first of the season. Sydney Healey recorded an assist and has recorded a point in 3 of the Terriers first 5 games. Brown tied things up in the waning minutes of the period. After a scoreless second, the Bears took the lead for good at 1:04 of the third.
BU limited Brown to just 18 shots, out shooting the Bears 24-18. Neither team were able to take advantage of their 4 power play opportunities.
The loss to Brown was BU’s first against the Bears since December 5th, 2006.
Other Notes
The 0-5 start is their worst since 2017-18 when BU started 0-4
Men’s
Michigan State (2-4 L, 3-4 L (OT))
In a top 3 battle in Boston, the Terriers fall short on both nights. In night one, BU fell behind early, giving up two goals on Michigan State’s first two shots of the game. Late in the first, Sascha Boumedienne got the Terriers within one, with his first of the season and first career power play goal at 13:17. However, the Spartans restored their two goal lead less than 2 minutes later. The teams were scoreless in the second. Early in the third, Michigan State further extended their lead at 1:57. With exactly 1 minute to play in the game, Ryder Ritchie scored an extra attacker power play goal to cut into MSU’s lead, but it was not enough. The goal was Ritchie’s first power play goal and recorded a point in each of BU’s first 4 games.
On Saturday night, a similar start for the Terriers but a slightly different ending. The teams entered the locker room after the first only down 1 and almost did the same after the second, but the Spartans had other ideas, doubling their lead with just over a minute to play.
In the third, the Terriers began to fight back. Captain Gavin McCarthy kicked off the comeback with his first of the season and his 2nd goal against a Big Ten team—of his 5 total goals—at 2:13 in the period. The Spartans quickly responded 39 seconds later. After sending MSU on their 2nd power play on the game, Kamil Bednarik popped the puck loose for his the short-handed goal. 2 of Bednarik’s 3 goals have come shorthanded. Two minutes later, freshman Conrad Fondrk made his mark with his first career goal to tie things up. The teams ended regulation tied, heading to overtime, where a potential game winning goal for the Terriers was wiped out and turned into a Spartans game winner on the other side of the ice. After taking 14 penalties in their first 3 games of the season, the Terriers took just 5 on the weekend—with Saturday seeing just 4 PIM.
Other Notes
Boumedienne’s goal was his first on a date that didn’t end with a 5
The Terriers are winless in their last 7 (0-6-1) at home vs. Michigan teams
BU falls to 3-5 as #1 under Jay Pandolfo
Advanced Stats
Game 1
Despite having 1.5 mins of more OZone Possession time, BU could not get a significant amount of scoring chances and MSU held the xG edge by a whopping 1.91. At even strength, the xG differential was .61 to 2.67 in MSU’s favor.
Per Period xG: 1st (0.30-1.37, MSU), 2nd (0.45-1.01, MSU), 3rd (1.05-1.30, MSU)
Only 4 Terriers recorded a positive Game Score with Aiden Celebrini recording a lowly -3.30 his worst performance in the last two seasons.
BU recorded just 1 high danger shot (.42 xG), Ryder Ritchie’s third period goal and BU’s final shot attempt of the game, while Michigan State recorded 4 (.9 xG) including two of their 4 goals.
MSU dominated BU, never ceding the xG edge for the entirety of the game, and outside the first 5 minutes of the game never really got closer than .62.
No Terriers recorded an xG% over 50, with all but 4 under 30.
Game 2
BU played MSU much closer in Game 2, outshooting the Spartans (+4) and only having an xG differential of -1.7.
Per Period xG: 1st (0.25-1.22, MSU), 2nd (0.83-0.87, MSU), 3rd (1.15-1.70, MSU), OT (0.09-0.21, MSU)
Ben Merrill led all Terriers in Game Score and was 4th among all players in Game 2. Brandon Svoboda had his best game in terms of Game Score, besting his previous high of 2.485 vs. UNH on January 31st.
BU recorded 2 high danger shots (.5 xG), neither resulted in a goal, but both were on net, while MSU recorded 4 (.94 xG) with one resulting in a goal in the 2nd and the other 3 missed the net.
BU kept things closer in Game 2 but still did not challenge MSU in taking high percentage shots on goal.
Ben Merrill, Conrad Fondrk, and Brandon Svoboda, led the team in xG% despite TOI under 20 mins.