Triple-Doubles (Week 8 Recap)
On the back of a 4 goal 3rd period, the Terriers knock off Merrimack 6-3 at Agganis Arena
A cold start ends with a hot finish as the BU men take down the Merrimack Warriors at Agganis Arena.
Men’s
Merrimack (6-3 W)
The Terriers and Warriors faced off in the first leg of their multinational home-and-home series, on Friday night. Brandon Svoboda, returning from injury, opened the scoring in the second minute of the game, his second of the season. Merrimack tied things up 42 seconds later, and after a second goal took the lead into the break.
Svoboda knotted things up early in the second with his second of the game, his first career multi-goal game of his career. Svoboda joined Jack Eichel, Jack Harvey (and would be later joined by Cole Eiserman) as the only BU freshmen to record a multi-goal game vs. Merrimack at Agganis Arena. Goalie Mathieu Caron recorded an assist on Svoboda’s second goal to become the fourth BU goalie—John Curry (2005-06), Matt O'Connor (2014-15), and Connor Lacouvee (2015-16)—since at least 2002-03, to record multiple points in a season. Merrimack scored their third goal of the game to take the lead into the third period.
BU came out in the third firing. Cole Eiserman scored 4:24 into the third period, scoring in 6 of BU’s 7 home games. Less than 8 minutes later, Eiserman gave BU the lead for good with his second of the game, recording a multipoint game in all 3 home conference games this season, including 2 multi-goal games. Matt Copponi extended the lead with his first career shot handed goal. Copponi becomes the second BU transfer since, at least 2002-03, to score a goal against his former team—Jay O’Brien (January 8th, 2021 vs. Providence). Copponi scored his second of the night in the closing minutes of the third, his first multi-goal game as a Terrier and first overall since November 12th, 2022 vs. Maine as a member of Merrimack.
Three different Terriers recorded multi-goal games, for just the third game, since at least 2002-03. The first being David Van der Gulik (hat trick), Bryan Ewing, Dan Spang on March 17th, 2006 vs. New Hampshire and the last being January 30th, 2015 when Jack Eichel, Ahti Oksanen (hat trick), and Brandon Hickey when did so vs. UMass-Amherst.
Matheiu Caron tied a season high 36 saves on Merrimack’s 39 shots on goal. BU is 5-0-1 this season when Caron allows 3 or fewer goals.
BU killed all 3 of the Warrior’s 3 power play opportunities, the first time they did not allow a power play game since October 18th vs. UConn. For the first time this season, BU held their opponents to 0 third period goals in back-to-back games. Their 6 goal effort was the Scarlet and White’s most since back-to-back 6–3 wins in the 2024 West Regional Semifinal (vs. RIT) and Final (vs. Minnesota).
Other Notes
Cole Eiserman leads all freshman nationally with 9 goals, and tied for 2nd overall among all skaters
BU has scored 5+ goals in each of their last three vs. the Warriors
Advanced Stats
BU held the slight edge in xG aided by a flurry of 21 shot attempts in the 3rd period. They led Scoring Chances by 6 despite 2:16 less OZone Possession. BU also held the puck battle edge, 52%-48%.
Per Period xG: 1st (.62-1.01, Merrimack), 2nd (.9-1.02, Merrimack), 3rd (1.20-.55, BU)
Matt Copponi led the Terriers in Game Score for the third time in the last four games. Apart from the home opener against Holy Cross, Copponi has the top two performances in Game Score all season, which were vs. Lowell on November 9th (4.7086) and last night vs. Merrimack (4.2296). Jack Hughes and Sascha Boumedienne led all Terriers with a Net xG of .48 and .47, respectively. Svoboda recorded an xG Conversion rate of 201, the highest for any Terrier in a game this season.
BU record 3 high danger shots (.65 xG)—1 led to Copponi’s 2nd goal, Shane Lachance recorded the other two which were saved—compared to Merrimack’s 2 (.41 xG), one of which resulted in a goal.
BU started off strong, leading xG up until Merrimack’s 2nd goal, and did take back the lead—sans a brief period in the 2nd—until Matt Copponi scored the last goal of the game, allowing 19 shot attempts (.83 xG) from the 30-minute mark to 50 minute mark of the game.
Gavin McCarthy and Sascha Boumedienne are the only Terriers to play over 15 mins and record an xG% over 60. 9 Terriers recorded an xG% over 50 and 9 Terriers record an xG% under 50.
xG Conversion = Goals/total xG