BOSTON — If Boston University freshman Lane Hutson was expressly showing off for the Hobey Baker Award voters, he could have done a lot worse than the performance he turned in during the Hockey East championship game.
Hutson scored twice, including the game winner at 1:57 of overtime to lift the Terriers to a 3-2 win over Merrimack before a crowd of 14,306 Saturday night at TD Garden.
“I couldn’t completely see it,” said Hutson, whose heroics earned him tournament MVP honors. “I just heard everything.”
Scooping up the puck at the Merrimack blue line after a pass from down low off the stick of teammate Matt Brown, Hutson worked his way along the line to center ice, where he ripped a long shot that sailed through a sea of Merrimack defenders and a number of BU players and into the top corner of the net past Warrior goalie Hugo Ollas. It was Hutson’s 14th goal of the year.
Making their 13th Hockey East championship game appearance, the top-seeded Terriers (27-10-0, 21-6-0 Hockey East), won their 10th title and first since 2018.
“I know we’re not done yet, but to get this first one that we really wanted to win this year, we’ve accomplished that,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo, who became the first Hockey East coach to win a league title in his inaugural season. “Now we move on. So it’s just a credit to our group. (I’m) really happy for this group.”
The Terriers, ranked No. 5 in the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll, will represent Hockey East in the NCAA tournament starting next week.
It was the second straight night BU had to come from behind to win in overtime, and also the second night a member of the Hutson family scored the game winner. On Friday, Hutson’s older brother Quinn was the hero of a 2-1 win over No. 7 Providence in the semifinals.
The loss left No. 2 Merrimack (23-13-1, 18-9-0 Hockey East) still looking for its first league tourney crown after making only its first appearance in the final since 2011. The Warriors now wait to see if they will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The field of 16 will be announced Sunday.
“Hopefully we get to play, because I think we deserve to,” Merrimack coach Scott Borek said. “We won 23 games this year, and if we’re not in the national tournament, then there’s something wrong.”
Merrimack opened the scoring when Christian Felton finished off a 3-on-2 rush by redirecting Alex Jeffries’s soft backhander from the right wing and past the right skate of BU goalie Drew Commesso (23 saves) at 6:57 of the first period. It was Felton’s second goal of the year.
BU took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play with fresh ice when Lane Hutson slammed home a one-timer from the right faceoff circle just 38 seconds into the second period to tie the score at 1-1. Devin Kaplan and Dominic Fensore provided assists.
Borek made it clear he was upset with the officiating, especially the penalty that led to BU’s 5-on-3 advantage.
“It was very disappointing how that game was managed,” Borek said.
Merrimack took a 2-1 lead at 15:09 of the second as Mac Welsher beat Commesso right off Tristan Crozier’s faceoff win for Welsher’s seventh of the season.
Devin Kaplan tied it for the second time at 9:02 of the final frame with his 10th of the year. The freshman forward took the puck from the left dasher board and skated around a large number of Merrimack defenders and buried the puck from the right faceoff circle and past Ollas (27 saves) to make it 2-2.
Hockey East All-Tournament Team
Forward: Matt Copponi (Merrimack)
Forward: Devin Kaplan (BU)
Forward: Dylan Peterson (BU)
Defenseman: Lane Hutson (BU)
Defenseman: Christian Felton (Merrimack)
Goalie: Drew Commesso (BU)
MVP: Lane Hutson (BU)
