Men's hockey completes first weekend sweep of season behind Eiserman's hat trick

01/12/2025 02:39 PM

BOSTON — Cole Eiserman paused before skating off the ice. The freshman forward bent down to pick up a red plastic helmet that had been thrown on the rink amid a flurry of hats.

"We had a lot of great plays out of my linemates. We had a really good week of practice and were clicking, so it was nice to see that on the ice," Eiserman said. "I was just getting open. I had a really easy job with how we were doing the O-zone."

The goal-scoring phenom — fresh off a World Juniors gold medal — had completed his first hat trick in college hockey with a rocket from the top of the right circle. 

"Cole Eiserman was unbelievable tonight," head coach Jay Pandolfo said. "You could just tell from the drop of the puck, he came to play."

The effort was not individual, however. His line of Jack Hughes and Quinn Hutson combined for 10 of the 21 points the Boston University men's hockey team (11-7-1, 7-3-1 Hockey East) recorded on the day, and five of the goals in BU's 7-4 rout of Vermont on Saturday night at Agganis Arena.

Pandolfo has lamented how no lines were working, shuffling the combinations by the game. Hughes mentioned how the changes have even "gone in circles" with previous lines being put back together after time apart. But from puck drop, the Eiserman-Hughes-Hutson line made a case to stick around. 

"The big thing for them tonight was they were working. They were on pucks, there was second, third effort on every offensive zone possession," Pandolfo said. "They were winning the puck back. It was great to see and then their skill takes over."

The Catamounts (8-10-3, 3-6-2 HEA) broke through first when graduate student forward Will Zapernick followed up a rebound off BU goaltender Mathieu Caron to take a 1-0 advantage at 15:15 of the first period. 

Then, just two and a half minutes later, Eiserman took a pass from Hutson and drove through the right side of the ice. Crashing towards Vermont goaltender Axel Mangbo, Eiserman beat him stick side to even the game.

Early in the second period, at 1:15, Hutson scored a highlight-reel goal. He lost his stick in the middle of the ice, and Eiserman carried the puck to the corner as he raced to pick it up. Eiserman's pass found Hutson's tape in time, and he ripped it to the back of the net for a 2-1 lead. The eldest Hutson brother had a three-point day and a three-goal weekend overall, pushing him to the top of the BU points leaderboard.

About four minutes later, during an offensive possession, Hutson had the puck in the slot, but he found Eiserman circling the net, who sniped his second of the day to give BU a 3-1 lead.

Vermont's Massimo Lombardi cleaned up a rebound from Michael La Starza to bring the game within one.

The third period began with a slew of penalties, and the period overall saw seven calls. Hughes took an early tripping penalty followed up by Lombardi's interference. BU junior forward Ryan Greene took a holding call at 4:23 that was matched by a questionable too-many-men penalty when Vermont pulled its goaltender on the delayed penalty.

During the chaos of the penalties, the Terriers' powerplay showed out. On a rush, Hughes danced into the slot and went five-hole on Mangbo to give BU a much-needed two-goal cushion.

It was a three-point night for Hughes and his second goal in as many games — his first two of the season.

"I felt I’m not helping the team after the whole first half of the year, not having a goal, so just to get one last night, a little bit of weight off my shoulders," Hughes said. "It wasn't very hard to put it in with the plays that were made."

Then, on another power play, Eiserman put a charge into the puck, ricocheting it off the back pipe and out the other side of the goal for a 5-2 lead at 5:15 of the third. 

At 5:59, sophomore forward Jack Harvey moved Mangbo out of position to score his first of the game and second of the weekend. 

With a four-goal lead, the Terriers got a little too comfortable. Vermont netted two quick goals at 13:27 and 15:48 to get the game within striking distance, 6-4, with just under five minutes to go.

"We got sloppy a little bit. We got away from our game. We didn’t just continue to do the things that we did early in the third period that worked," Pandolfo said. "We made some more decisions, but I did like our response when they cut up to two." 

Greene, however, put the lid on the game with his empty-netter to secure the Terriers' first weekend sweep of the season and two crucial Hockey East wins. BU sits at second in Hockey East — a point behind Maine — and eighth in the pairwise. Entering a home-and-home with New Hampshire before the Boston College series, the team still isn't happy with its play.

"We can’t be satisfied with two wins in a row. I think we have done it all year — we’ve had a big win here or there, and then the next weekend didn’t follow it up," Hughes said. "We’ll enjoy it, but we got to get back to work and fix a couple things to keep trying to get better, because we’re not where we want to be right now. We hope we'll get there by April."