Valley Highs (Week 6 Recap)
Valley Highs (Week 6 Recap)
The women's squad extended their unbeaten streak to 9 games, as the men's squad ended their 3 game skid with a win on Saturday night
The women took 5 of 6 points from the Merrimack Warriors, while the men earned a split of the UMass Lowell River Hawks.
Women’s
Merrimack (5-1 W, 3-3 T (SOW))
Sydney Healey, Clara Yuhn, and Christina Vote were the top performers of the Terriers on Thursday night game vs. the Merrimack Warriors. Healey opened the scoring in the first and scored another in the third for her second career multi-goal game—her last one coming October 21st, 2023 vs. Syracuse. It was also her second multi-point game of the season (Oct. 12th 2024 vs. Northeastern) and third of her career. Yuhn recorded her third career multi-goal game and her second vs. Merrimack, with two goals in the first, including the game winner. Yuhn is on a career-high 6 game point streak. Christina Vote recorded a point on each of the first three BU goals, her 9th career multi-point game, and 4th against Merrimack. Neeley Nicholson brought the lead back to 4, after a Merrimack goal late in the third.
The Terriers went 1-3 on the power play and 2-2 on the penalty kill. On the dot, the Terriers were 19-34, with only Ani FitzGerald winning a majority of her faceoffs. Callie Shanahan saved 15 of the Warrior’s 16 shots on the night.
In game two, the Terriers opened up a 2 goal lead mid-way through the first, with goals from Lindsay Bochna and Luisa Welcke. For Welcke, it was her third goal in three games, her best stretch since a four game goal streak from December 8th, 2023 through January 12th, 2024. After Merrimack tied it with two straight goals from Chloe Goofers, Neely Nicholson broke the tie early in the second, with her third goal of the season and her second in as many games. Merrimack would tie it minutes later, sending the game to Overtime. After a scoreless OT, the Terriers won the extra point in the shootout with goals from Maggie Hanzel and Sydney Healey.
The Terriers dominated the shot battle 41-8, with Callie Shanahan allowing a goal on two shots in each of the first two periods, and a goal on just 4 shots in the third. Merrimack blocked 15 of the Terriers shot attempts compared to the Terriers 2 blocks. Merrimack didn’t take many shots but was able to make the ones they did take count.
The tie ends BU’s 8 game winning streak, their longest since October 26th, 2013 through November 15th, 2013—also 8 games. It did extend their unbeaten streak to 9 games, their longest since 2018-19.
The Terriers are 5-0-1 vs. the Warriors, their most wins vs. any opponent under coach Tara Watchorn.
Other Notes
Thursday marked just the second time since 2020, that multiple Terriers recorded a multi-goal game in the same game (last: Feb 17th, 2024 also vs. Merrimack)
Friday’s shootout was the Terriers’ first at Agganis Arena
Christina Vote has recorded 15 career points (all assists) against the Warriors, the most of any opponent and 7 more than her second-best (Providence).
Men's
UMass Lowell (3-5 L, 5-2 W)
Co-Captain Shane Lachance opened the scoring for the Terriers in game one with a power play goal midway through the first. Lachance’s first three goals this season have opened the scoring for BU. Lowell answered back with three straight goals in the second before a second Shane Lachance power play goal brought things back within one. Lachance recorded his 5th career multi-goal game and first since February 17th, 2024 vs. Providence. Cole Eiserman tied things up in the third off a feed from Cole Hutson. It was Hutson’s third assist on an Eiserman this season, meaning Hutson has recorded an assist on half of Eiserman’s goals. BU allowed a River Hawk power play goal minutes later—the eventual game winner. It was the 6th game this season that BU has allowed at least one power play or shorthanded goal in the third period.
The return of the Lachance-Ryan Greene-Quinn Hutson top line led to a combined 5 points and 2 goals between the trio and 7 points and 4 goals on the weekend.
The Terriers won the shot battle 29-27 after outshooting the River Hawks 13-8 in the third. They also dominated at the dot, winning 58% of faceoffs overall and in all three zones: 50% - 40% in OZone, 77% -23% in the Neutral Zone, and 52% - 50% in the DZone.
On Saturday, the Terriers bounced back with their biggest win since opening night. After a scoreless first, Quinn Hutson and Matt Copponi gave the Scarlet and White a two goal lead scoring within 43 seconds of each other in the second minute of the period. Lowell got one back on major power play. Jack Harvey and Cole Hutson extended the Terriers lead to 3. With Cole’s goal, all three Hutson brothers have now scored on Henry Welsch at the Tsongas Center, Cole's coming almost exactly a year to the day of his brothers’ goals on November 10th, 2023. Quinn Hutson closed out the 2nd with his second of the night, his 6th career multi-goal game and 2nd vs. Lowell.
Max Lacroix got the start in game two becoming the first #33 to start in goal for the Terriers since Karson Gillespie (who changed to #29 from his sophomore year on) on October 9th, 2004. Lacroix stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced to earn the win. He is the third straight Terrier goalie to earn the win in his first career start—Vinny Duplessis and Mathieu Caron the others.
The Terriers went 0-6 on the power play, only the second time (last: November 2nd vs. Michigan) this season they didn’t score on the man advantage. BU limited Lowell to just 19 shots, the least of any opponent this season.
The win was their second consecutive at the Tsongas Center, the first time the Terriers have won back to back regular season games there since February 5th, 2010 and October 29th 2010 as part of a five game streak going back to 2008.
Other Notes
The Hutsons have scored a combined 11 goals vs. UMass Lowell in their careers, the most vs. any opponent for the Hutsons
In game two, for just the 2nd time this season, BU did not allow a third period goal, first game since October 12th vs. Union
Max Lacroix is the first #33 in program history to record a win in goal for the Terriers
Advanced Stats
Game 1
BU led nearly every statistical category, except the one that matters most, goals. Leading xG (+1.3), SOG (+4), Shot Attempts (+12), OZone Position (+2:48), Corsi% (55% -45%), Puck Battles (51%-49%). BU won xG for the first time since their game vs. UConn on October 18th.
In terms of per period xG: 1st (.99-.86, BU), 2nd (.96-1.20, UML), 3rd (2.00-.58, BU)
Only 4 Terriers recorded a positive Net xG: Devin Kaplan (.13), Matt Copponi (.11), Mick Frechette (.09), and Brehdan Engum (.02).
Cole Eiserman led the team with 6 scoring chances. BU recorded 7 high danger shots (1.97 xG) including both of Shane Lachances goals and limited UML to just 2, one of which resulted in a goal (.59 xG). 3 of the River Hawks’ goals came off of low danger shots which were a combined .12 xG.
UML allowed BU 25 shot attempts in the 3rd though nearly half of them, 12, were low danger shots. The Terriers led in xG in nearly the entire first and third period, however, unlike most games this season, the second period was where they had their issues.
Below is a new plot we’re trying out this week it shows xG% vs. TOI. It’s calculated by xG/(xG+xGA) when the player is on the ice. An xG% above 50% means the team is expected to outscore the opponent when a player is on the ice, below 50% means the team is expected to be outscored by their opponent when a player is on the ice.
Game 2
BU again led in xG (+.5), SOG (+5), shot attempts (+2) and doubling UML’s scoring chances (+8). It was the first time they limited their opponent to under 10 mins of OZone Possession since February 16th of last season vs. Providence (9:37).
The Terriers led xG in the first (.86-.33) and second (1.85-1.36), with the River Hawks leading the third (.54-1.08).
Every Terrier recorded a positive Game Score for the first time this season. Matt Copponi is the first Terrier with a Game Score greater than 4 since the opener vs. Holy Cross where Ryan Greene (6.65), Shane Lachance (5.76), Quinn Hutson (5.65) all did so.
4 of the Terriers’ 5 goals were on high danger shots (.96 xG), in fact all of BU’s high danger shots resulted in goals. The other goal, Cole Hutson’s, had a 7% of going in. Max Lacroix saved 75% of UML’s high danger shots, with only 1 resulting in a power play goal for the River Hawks.
BU took the lead in xG in the first 11 seconds of the game and never looked back, they averaged a .74 xG differential over the whole game and dipping only as low as .3 after the first 3 minutes of the game.
Nearly every Terrier had an xG% over 50, only Kamil Bednarik and Brehdan Engum were below 47%.
Double Header Wrap-up
With the end of week 6, comes the end of the five game set of doubleheaders for the 2024-25 season. The women ended the season 4-0-1 in doubleheader games while the men ended up with a 2-2-0 record—including an exhibition tie vs. Harvard. Overall the women improve to 10-1-4 in Agganis Arena while the men go to 6-6-1. Interesting to note both teams scored the same number of goals on 3 of the 5 double header days.