Over two months ago, Cole Hutson stood in the bowels of the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass. and opened his arms to the criticism.
“I take full responsibility for the first half of the season,” he said after a 4-2 win over UMass. “I haven’t been good enough for this team.”
Boston University men’s hockey was a frustrating 9-6-1 then and its phenom freshman defenseman was caught in the crosshairs. A semester-long parade to the penalty box and an avalanche of turnovers marred Hutson’s electric moments at the other end.
“I think it’s about time that we get going,” Hutson concluded.
Even after a 2-2 tie and shootout win at No. 9 UConn on Tuesday night, BU still isn’t all the way there yet. But that’s not for a lack of performance on the part of Hutson, who is on an absolute tear and is playing like the second-round NHL draft pick — and Lane Hutson successor — the Terriers thought they were getting all along.
The Capitals prospect bailed out the No. 9 Terriers (18-12-2, 12-8-2 HE) at Toscano Family Ice Forum, scoring the equalizer late in the third period on a preposterous solo effort that included nutmegging a defender at the circle. It was his 10th goal of the season (tied-fourth on the team) and 33rd point (second), and it added to a second-semester resume that already included game-winning goals over Boston College in the Beanpot final and Northeastern at Matthews Arena on Saturday.
In a game with little sustained offensive zone time and few Grade-A chances at either end, BU had a player capable of taking matters into his own hands. The Terriers and Huskies (17-10-3, 9-8-3) played each other to a virtual stalemate on Tuesday, with the game dissolving into a track meet. But neither BU nor UConn was very effective on the rush, meaning Terrier freshman goalie Mikhail Yegorov (25 saves) and Husky junior Tyler Muszelik (22) had little to do for most of regulation.
Things picked up in the five minutes of 3-on-3 overtime; Hutson almost won the game on a breakaway but couldn’t deke around Muszelik, and Yegorov made a miraculous save with his stick in the final minute to send the game to a shootout.
Yegorov stood tall from there, while Quinn Hutson and Cole Eiserman (the latter with some luck) buried their attempts at the other end to clinch the extra league point. BU is in third-place in the standings with 40 points, two behind Maine and seven behind BC, but the Black Bears have two games in hand and the Eagles have one. The extra point did bring the Terriers nine points clear of fourth-placed UConn, so with only two games left in the regular season, BU will likely be the No. 3 seed in the Hockey East tournament.
“The extra point in Hockey East is real important this time of year,” head coach Jay Pandolfo said.
UConn opened the scoring early in the first period when sophomore Jake Richard buried a rebound on a power play, but 10 minutes later, BU junior Ryan Greene fed a perfect pass to freshman Sacha Boumedienne at the back post, and the defenseman tapped home his second collegiate goal.
Husky freshman Ethan Gardula regained the lead four minutes into the third, whacking in another rebound in front of Yegorov, before Hutson’s highlight-reel tally tied it again.
“It was really good for our team,” Pandolfo said. “The way we responded, you get down in the third period on the road, and for us to find a way back and tie that game up… you know, it was big for us.”
BU was without freshman forward Brandon Svoboda and Alex Zetterberg, graduate defenseman Brehdan Engum and backup goalie Mathieu Caron, forcing Pandolfo to essentially play with three forward lines. But on two day’s rest, in a fast-paced game that went to overtime, the Terriers made it across the finish line.
“It was tough on them,” Pandolfo said. “But they continued to battle and compete all the way to the end… I was really happy with our overall effort.”
Still, he is not able to say that consistently enough, a reality that reached a boiling point just four days earlier, when BU was dominated by lowly Northeastern, 5-1, at Agganis Arena. It was the third consecutive Friday game Pandolfo’s group had lost and seventh overall. The Terriers responded with a win the next day, marking the sixth time BU has won or tied a series finale after losing the opener.
It prompted senior forward Tristan Amonte to say, of the looming Tuesday game against UConn, that BU “might need to imagine we lost a game on Monday.”
It’s fitting, then, that without an opener to lose or a finale to win in Storrs, Conn., BU left with a tie.
