Ring that Bell (Week 9 Recap)
On the back of their co-captains, Shane Lachance and Ryan Greene, the Terrier men claim their first trophy of the season, the 2024 Belpot
A rough end for the women’s squad in their final game of the season at Agganis Arena, while the men’s squad returns home winners of the 2024 Friendship Four.
Women’s
Princeton (1-8 L)
A disastrous Agganis finale for the Terriers, losing 1-8 to the Princeton Tigers. BU out shot Princeton 45-32 and won 38 of 63 faceoffs. Princeton took advantage of nearly every BU mistake, scoring on 3 of 5 power play opportunities. Scoring on 3 of 10 shots in the 2nd and 3 of 8 shots in the third. Kaileigh Quigg scored her second of the season—first since opening night at Agganis Arena—extending her point streak to 3 games. Julia Shaunessy’s assist on the goal extended her career high point streak to 5 games. The Terriers 45 shots on goal were a season high, but they were unable to get much of anything past Princeton goalie Jennifer Olnowich.
It was the team’s biggest loss since 2015-16, when the Terriers lost to Boston College by the same score at Walter Brown Arena on November 7th, 2015. It was just the second time under coach Tara Watchorn that the Terriers allowed more than 5 goals in a game, the last time coming almost exactly a year ago on November 26th, 2023 vs. Minnesota State (2-7 L) at the Smashville Showcase.
Other Notes
Kaileigh Quigg has recorded 2 goals so far this season, the first in the first game at Agganis Arena and the second in the last game at Agganis
Men’s
Merrimack (Friendship Four Semifinal) (6-2 W)
The Terriers continued where they left off with the Merrimack Warriors, after scoring 4 in the 3rd last Friday against the Warriors, the Terriers opened the game with 3 in the first. Aiden Celebrini opened the scoring 7:10 into the first period, scoring his first of the season and second of his career. It was Celebrini’s first goal since October 21st, 2023 at Notre Dame. Tristan Amonte doubled the Terriers’ lead with his second of the season, setting a new career high. Tristan’s goal was the third goal by an Amonte in Belfast, with brother, Ty, scoring one in each of BU’s two games in the 2018 Friendship Four. Gavin McCarthy scored his 1st of the season and 2nd of his career—first goal coming vs. BC in the 2024 Hockey East Championship game. It was the second short-handed goal for the Scarlet and White in as many games, marking the first time BU has recorded a shorthanded goal in back to back games since 2018-19 (January 19th vs. Quinnipiac and January 21st vs. Merrimack).
Merrimack got one back on the power play in the second. Merrimack got another one back in the first minute of the third period with a goal from David Sacco, son of former Terrier Dave Sacco.
Coming back from injury, Quinn Hutson, scored midway through the third to extend the lead. Aiden Celebrini recorded an assist on the goal, for his first multipoint game of the season—third of his career—and first since October 21st, 2023 vs. Notre Dame. Tristan Amonte scored in the empty net, shooting from the other end of the ice, giving him his first career multi-goal game and equaling his career goal total prior to the game. Tristan matched his brother Ty’s two game goal total from the 2018 Friendship Four, doing so in just one game. Co-captain Shane Lachance capped things off with a power play goal in the final minute of the game, with Cole Hutson recording an assist to give him his first career multipoint game.
For the third straight game, Mathieu Caron made 30+ saves and allowed 3 or fewer goals. BU went 1-3 on the power play and 5-6 on the penalty kill.
BU extended their winning streak vs. Merrimack to 6 games and have scored 6+ goals vs. Merrimack in each of their last 3 matchups, and 5+ in their last 4.
Other Notes
First time since January 9th, 2021 vs. Providence that BU recorded an Even Strength goal, a PPG, a SHG, and ENG in the same game
All five Terrier goalscorers and 6 of 7 goalscorers in the game have family ties to BU
Advanced Stats
Despite what the final score says, it was a pretty even game with nearly equal SOG, shot attempts and scoring chances. Corsi% was even at 50-50, while puck battles were 51%-49% Merrimack. Where BU did lead significantly was Counterattacks: 20-12. Possession at EV was also nearly identical: 20:37 (BU) - 20:06 (Merrimack). BU dominated xG at even strength, 2.12 to 1.67.
Per Period xG: 1st (.52-.64, Merrimack), 2nd (.56-.62, Merrimack), 3rd (1.54-1.91, Merrimack)
For the first time this season and the first time since the regular season finale vs. Vermont, every Terrier recorded a positive Game Score. This was by far Tristan Amonte’s best game as a Terrier in terms of Game Score, with his next best game being October 18th vs. UConn (1.98). Shane Lachance recorded a Net xG of 1.10, it was the first time a Terrier had recorded a Net xG greater than 1 since October 18th vs. UConn.
Merrimack recorded 6 high danger shots (1.47 xG) compared to BU’s 4 (.899 xG), none resulted in goals for either side. Caron saved all 5 of Merrimack’s high danger shots on goal (1.23 xG) and saved 1.8 xG overall.
Cumulative xG was pretty even the entire game, with the differential not surpassing .4 till the final 10 minutes of the game, until Merrimack pulled their goalie and the attempts increased with a man up.
Shane Lachance recorded an incredible 91.67 xG% in his 15:08 on the ice, with BU’s xG at 1.21 with him on the ice and Merrimack’s just .11.
Notre Dame (Friendship Four Championship) (4-3 W)
On the back of their co-captains, Ryan Greene and Shane Lachance, Boston University secured their first trophy of the season, the Belpot, as winners of the 2024 Friendship Four.
The Terriers opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal from freshman Kamil Bednarik, his first goal as a Terrier. It was BU’s third straight game with a short-handed goal, their longest streak since 3 straight in 2018-19 (November 1st, 3rd, and 10th). Notre Dame scored two within a span of twenty seconds to take the lead before scoring another in the second to extend their lead to 2. Exactly 7 mins into the third, Gavin McCarthy scored his second goal in as many games. McCarthy has scored more goals in his 2 games in Northern Ireland than he has in his previous 50 games in the United States. Co-captain Ryan Greene tied the game off an assist from fellow co-captain Shane Lachance. Just 20 seconds later, Lachance gave the Terriers the lead for good. It was the first game this season that both co-captains have scored in. Shane Lachance recorded a point on all three of BU’s third period goals.
Mathieu Caron saved 28 of Notre Dame’s 31 shots on goal, including 14 of 14 in the third period. The Terriers were a perfect 3 for 3 on the PK.
The Belpot win was the first international tournament trophy for the Scarlet and White and the first non-Beanpot mid-season tournament trophy since the 2010 Ice Breaker Invitational also over Notre Dame. It was the first mid-season trophy under Jay Pandolfo, after falling in the final of both the 2023 Desert Hockey Classic and the 2024 Beanpot.
Other Notes
BU has scored 3+ goals in a period in each of their last 4 wins this season and 6 of their 8 wins this season overall
All but 1 of BU’s 8 wins over Notre Dame came in their first 4 games against the Fighting Irish or their last 5 against them
The Belpot final vs. Notre Dame was the first time, since at least 2002-03, that BU has both allowed 2 goals within 20 seconds and scored 2 goals within 20 seconds
Shane Lachance is the first Terrier captain to score the game winning goal in a tournament championship game since Matt Grzelcyk in the 2015 Beanpot
Advanced Stats
Although Notre Dame led the xG differential by .3, BU recorded more shots, shot attempts, and more Scoring Chances by a decent margin. Puck battles were an even 50-50 and the Terriers held the Corsi% edge 56-44. Notre Dame dominated at the face off dot, 68%-32%. BU won just 4 of 22 (18%) offensive zone face-offs, however one of those wins resulted in Shane Lachance’s tournament winning goal.
Per Period xG: 1st (.69-.59, BU), 2nd (.62-1.17, Notre Dame), 3rd (1.36-1.19, BU)
Shane Lachance led the team in Game Score for the third time this season and the first time since the Saturday game in Maine. Gavin McCarthy recorded a 45 xG conversion rate, the team high for the season. Sacha Boumedienne and Quinn Hutson led the team in Net xG with .66 and .61, respectively. Cole Hutson recorded a team high 57 seconds of puck control time and won a team high 13 puck battles.
BU recorded 2 high danger shots (.46 xG), one of which result in Kamil Bednarik’s first period goal, compared to Notre Dame’s 3 high danger shots (.69 xG)—one resulted in a goal, one missed the net, and one was saved by Caron.
BU recorded the first 9 shot attempts in the game, not allowing Notre Dame to record one till 21 seconds after the Terriers 1st goal. From the midpoint of the 2nd period till BU took the lead back late in the 3rd, Notre Dame held the xG advantage. BU recorded 39.3% of the xG (1.06) for the game in the last 10 minutes of the game.
Four Terriers recorded an xG% above 60, with two—Quinn Hutson and Sacha Boumedienne—above 70. Despite recording a -2 rating, the worst on the team in the game, Cole Eiserman still recorded an xG% over 54% and despite recording a +3 rating, Shane Lachance recorded an xG% of 48.1%.