ECH “OUT EAST” WEEK 4: MAIZE AND BLUE TAKE 2 FROM THE TERRIERS ON THE ROAD
BY Brendan locke - November 8, 2024The early round of non-conference play is starting to wrap up across the country. Teams will soon return to their home bases and face off with familiar opponents. Rivals will be renewed, and the grind of conference play will wear on everybody. But in this final week, two of the sport's most iconic brands met again. In a de facto third-place game of last year's Frozen 4, Boston University hosted Michigan in a top-10 matchup.
At BU, the banners above the ice at Jack Parker Rink don’t hang from the rafters telling people “Hey look at what we did”. Instead, they cast shadows over the current players to dawn the red and white.
This is the expectation.
5 banners dot the ceiling at Agganis Arena, right over Terrier goalie Mathieu Caron’s head. Tucked into the corner are the Frozen 4 appearance banners. 24 times in total the Terriers made it to the grandest stage in college hockey. Yet more often than not, they have come up short.
That is the task that Terriers head coach Jay Pandolfo has been handed, not just to make another Frozen 4.
But to win one.
To an outsider, Pandolfo’s first two seasons behind the BU bench have been a dream. Back-to-back Frozen 4’s, a Hobey Baker winner and first overall pick rejuvenated a rivalry with that school down at the end of the green line. A Hockey East Tournament Championship was won, yet there is a feeling at BU of wanting more.
So how, realistic can expectations be if the season is viewed as championship or bust every single year? For some, it works out and the expectations soar to unimaginable heights like Alabama football. Others fall short of that goal, and in doing so are labeled as failures and ostracized for being the ones that can’t get over the hump, think Gonzaga basketball.
Does falling short because of the pressure put on by previous teams that met that same fate mean the season is a failure?
The weight of expectations is a burden that must be earned, but not always desired.
Much of the same can be said for the Michigan Wolverines.
Who, despite a controversy along with a coaching change in the offseason of 2022, has been consistently one the best programs in the nation. Making three consecutive Frozen 4’s and winning two BIG 10 Tournament Championships in that span.
Yet, the Wolverines find themselves searching for their first national championship since 1998, or for the first time since Tom Brady was at Michigan.
Michigan holds the distinction of the most Frozen 4’s in the country with 28 appearances, they have made the grandest stage in college hockey 9 times since that championship over Boston College in 1998. The odds seem almost impossible to make it that far and fall short that often, but that is the reality Wolverine fans are living in.
Both teams have had legendary coaches step away within the last 15 years and were left picking up the pieces from stalwart pacing behind the benches of these historic programs. Jack Parker decided to step away after the 2013 season after leading the Terriers for 4 decades. Then, David Quinn returned to his alma mater and had BU up and running in short order, until a heartbreaking loss in the 2015 national championship and a pair of losses in the 2nd round of the NCAA’s, resulting in Quinn leaving for the Rangers. Another former player, Albie O’Connell took over for Quinn and was fired after 4 seasons for…
Failure to meet expectations.
Red Berenson retired at Michigan in 2017 after 36 years behind the Michigan bench. Mel Pearson was brought in and despite the success of the on-ice product, was relieved of his duties following an off-ice investigation.
Enter Brandon Naurato, the 39-year-old has kept the machine running at Michigan but has yet to get to that elusive championship game.
The weight of expectations continues to bear the heaviest on the ones who have earned it the most.
Game 1
There is a palpable buzz when you go to a big game at Agganis Arena, it even feels different when you walk around it before a game. The green line train rolls by with dots of red jerseys through the windows, generations past may be wearing an Eruzione, Amonte, or Drury jersey. Younger fans will match with Celebrini, Eichel, and Tkachuk.
Some people go to Boston for a show, dinner, or maybe a Sox game.
These folks go to Terrier games.
Michigan entered the season as the lowest-ranked team out of the 4 to make it to last season's Frozen 4 and while I don’t think it was slanderous towards the Wolverines, I do think that provides a little bit of motivation and fuel in an early season matchup like this.
So we’ve done a lot of build-up here, 800 words in and I haven’t mentioned one thing about the actual hockey game being played. However before we do that, can we please talk about this jersey matchup…
This was an All-Time setup on display. Michigan with the winged helmets, and the maize and blue. BU repped the red helmets + classic home whites, that’s simply as good as it gets for a jersey matchup.
Photo from Ryan Lambert
We were tied at 0-0 after one, Michigan hit the post twice but could not produce, and BU’s young stars got outskated but hung in well after taking a pair of penalties.
According to Jay Pandolfo, the Terriers are “not playing winning hockey, we’re playing losing hockey”. While that may be the case for the scale of the entire game, the BU powerplay is winning hockey.
Converting at over 30% on the season, this is not a unit that opposing teams want to give many chances and Michigan learned that in the 2nd period.
Enter: Cole Eiserman, the bell of the incoming freshman class. After scoring the most goals in the National Development Program history (127), he’s made an immediate impact at the college level scoring 5 goals in just 7 games.
Also worth noting, this was the 1st career assist for goalie Mathieu Caron!
The roof blew off Agganis, as Eiserman had his first big goal on a massive stage for BU and the Terriers were rolling for the rest of the 2nd, outpacing and out-chancing the Wolverines for the entire period.
It felt like BU would continue to roll into the 3rd, get another goal on the powerplay, defend home ice, and take game 1 of the series with a comfortable victory.
This is the sequence of events that took place in the 3rd period.
1-1
2 minutes later…
Quickly BU was down 2-1 with 10 minutes remaining. Then, Cole Eiserman took a disastrous penalty in the neutral zone, slashing away from the play.
Two more BU penalties later.
Michigan would tack on an empty netter to make it a 5-1 final.
“We got everything we deserved in that game, everything. We deserved to lose” - Jay Pandolfo’s takeaway after his team's 3rd period on Friday night. “I take responsibility for it”.
All told, BU came into the 3rd period bolstered by a 1-0 lead at home and in the following 20 minutes, committed 4 penalties, got outshot 19-10, and allowed 5 goals.
Woof.
The good news for the Terriers - They got the same opportunity the next day. The bad news was - they had to face Michigan again.
Game 2
Saturday night's matchup got off to a significantly different start than Friday’s game. BU came firing out of the gates controlling the tempo early in the game. Outshooting Michigan in the opening 5 minutes with Caron only being forced to make 1 save.
Michigan’s Ethan Edwards would go to the penalty box for hooking - a dream start for the Terriers. Now on the powerplay, this was the time for BU to strike.
Michigan would kill off Edward's penalty and moments later do this.
Whoops. Evan Werner did not have a goal before this series, and after this tuck, he had cashed in 3 goals in less than 2 periods (going back to 3rd period of game 1).
Captain Shane LaChance would find an answer shortly after, pulling the Terriers back into a tie at 1-1 as the captain picked the corner against Cam Korpi.
If there is anything coaches hate more than allowing goals in the first and last minutes of periods, I have yet to find it. BU’s Matt Capponi may have given the Michigan coaching staff a heart attack with this one.
Thus concluded the 1st period of action.
How about the beginning of the 2nd period?
I’m sure coaches on both sides we absolutely thrilled with how this went about.
Regardless, this game was tied and it was very good hockey, and freshman Alex Zetterberg would add one that will stay on his resume for a long time.
Where was this on Friday? Glad you asked. Pandolfo made some line changes after game 1, and in the shuffle, Zetterberg moved from the 4th line to the 1st line and saw immediate production throughout the game and this goal-of-the-year contender, to boot.
Once again, BU had a 1 goal lead heading into the 3rd period.
A much different style of game, but nearly a copy of what was the previous night. When asked about his team's response after game 1, Michigan head coach Brandon Naurato said, “You wouldn’t even have known they were down”.
Same story, different night.
However, this time it would be BU who would find a response and take the lead back again.
The whole building knew what was coming next and there was no stopping it.
To overtime we went!
Chances on both ends of a track meet would be the finish of this series and it was building to something. This was not going to be settled in a shootout this was going to end in open ice. In 3 on 3, it can be a single missed step, a bad bounce, or in the case of Matt Capponi, a shot.
High and wide, his shot led to a natural breakout for the Wolverines as Garrett Schifsky won the footrace and sent a cross-crease pass to Jackson Hallum who redirected it in, and Michigan would sweep the weekend on the road.
Hail to the victors.
This was an incredible series with two teams that should be in the conversation at the end of the season, but that seems far more likely for Michigan right now than for BU. One thing that will stand in the back of each team’s mind every time they step on the ice at their respective rinks… expectations.
