Garden Party Foul (Hockey East Semifinal Recap)
BU falls to UConn 5-2 in the Hockey East Semifinal, who ultimately fall to Maine in the final
The #3 seed Terriers drop the Hockey East semifinal to the #4 UConn Huskies at TD Garden.
Men’s
Connecticut (2-5 L)
Quinn Hutson opened the scoring in the first on the power play, the 10th Terrier goal scored by a Hutson at TD Garden. His brother, Cole Hutson, recorded his 40th point with an assist on the goal, becoming just the 3rd Terrier defenseman to record 40 points in a season since 1997-98, joining David Farrance (2019-20) and Lane Hutson (2022-23, 2023-24). The Terriers ended the first with the lead despite being out shot 8-4.
In the second, UConn outshot the Terriers 13-10, scoring 3 goals in the 9 minutes of the period and taking a 2 goal lead into the third.
The third period, saw the Terriers lock down defensively, allowing just 3 Husky shots on goal. However, UConn was still about to get one in the net to extend their lead to 3. After BU pulled Mikhail Yegorov and peppered UConn goalie with shots, the puck got out of the zone and the Husky scored an empty net goal to seal victory. Kamil Bednarik cut the lead to 3 with 10 seconds left in the game, but it was too little too late. The goal was Bednarik’s 2nd of the season and first since the Friendship Four vs. Notre Dame.
Yegorov allowed 4 goals for just the 3rd time in his 14 games as a Terrier.
The loss locked the Terriers into the 7 spot in the pairwise, which will most likely send them to Toledo, Ohio in a regional with #2 overall seed Michigan State.
Other Notes
Yegorov is 1-3-0 when making 19 saves or fewer, and 7-2-1 when he makes 20+
Cole, Quinn, and Lane are the first trio of Terrier brothers to all record 40 point seasons
Advanced Stats
Despite the scoreline, the advanced stats were pretty even, although a lot of that came in the third period when the Terriers were able to slow the Huskies down offensively. For example, 6 of BU’s 12 scoring chances came in the third period—2 in the first, 4 in the second.
Per Period xG: 1st (0.23-0.91, UConn), 2nd (0.57-1.02, UConn), 3rd (1.38-0.27, BU)
Two of Nick Roukounakis’ top Game Score performances have come in a semifinal at TD Garden, with his second-best performance coming vs. Harvard (1.4126) and his third best vs. UConn (0.8796).
BU edged UConn 2-1 in high danger shots on goal, however UConn’s 1 (.24 xG) result in their 3rd period goal while BU’s two (.41 xG) had 1 saved and 1 that missed the net both occurred in the third.
UConn dominated xG for much of the game, with the lead maxing out at -1.26 at the 28th and 45th minute marks. In the third, BU was able to limit UConn to just 5 shot attempts in the third period while cutting into their xG lead, bringing the game down to -.02. Despite 25 shot attempts in the period, the Terriers were only able to score 1 goal in the third.
Only two Terriers—Matt Copponi and Cole Hutson—with more than 6.5 mins of ice were about to record an xG% over 50.