3 Little Things in Hockey East Week 2
By Brendan Locke - November 6, 2025Let’s give it up for Northeastern!
Just as we all expected, Northeastern has shot up to the top of the Hockey East standings. There was a bit of surprise when Cameron Whitehead departed after just his sophomore year last season. He went through a dip in play compared to his freshman year, but turned it on in the late stages of the season. Dragging the Huskies to double overtime of the Hockey East semi-final, as well as another Beanpot title. But Whitehead leaving Huntington Ave. left a gaping hole in Jerry Keefe’s roster, enter Lawton Zacher.
Regarded as the top goalie in the transfer portal this past spring. The junior made a short drive up 93 North from his previous home at Brown to his current digs at Northeastern. In the Huskies’ last three games, against the bluest of blue bloods in the sport, Denver and Boston College (Maroon? Red?) Zacher has faced over 110 shots, 48 high-danger scoring chances, and almost 10 expected goals from 11 top 100 NHL draft picks. He allowed 1 (one) goal. He’s been the most stable foundation at Matthews Arena all year.
Photo via Northeastern Athletics
Elsewhere, Vinny Borgesi has developed into one of the best non-NHL drafted in the nation. Pressure has been relieved from the stick of Dylan Hryckowian, and Joe Connor continues to make strides as a top-six forward. But it is newcomers who have truly made the difference in their brief acquaintance with Matthews Arena this year. Giacomo Martino, Amine Hajibi, and Jacob Mathieu, the freshman trio, each have six points and have not shown any signs of slowing down. A favorable schedule for Huskies puts the Huskies in excellent standing after the sprint to turn one. In January, they have Vermont, UNH, and Merrimack in that order. Don’t look now, but Northeastern very well may have a single digit next to their name come Beanpot time.
Cole Eiserman’s injury, what does it mean?
It has not been the start that anybody imagined for Jay Pandolofo and the BU Terriers this season. They picked up just one win in their six games since the game on ESPN 2 against Michigan State. Their star goalie, Mikhail Yegorov, has been downright dreadful, and now Cole Eiserman is out with a lower-body injury for some time, but he will “be back soon,” according to Pandolfo.
We don’t receive an official injury report in college hockey, but the sophomore was labeled as week-to-week by his coach following the win against UConn, in which he got hurt.
Eiserman also has not been ruled out to defend gold and represent Team USA at World Juniors at the end of December. But it has not been put in certain terms, either that he will be there.
What does it mean for BU now? After digging a hole that they now need to climb out of in the first month. They just lost their best climber.
The Terriers are 11th in goals per game. Eiserman’s coffee buddy Cole Hutson has a legit case as the best player in college hockey, averaging over a point a half per game. But at the defensive end, the Terriers cannot defend a parked car at the moment, seventh-worst team in the nation in terms of goals allowed per game.
Fitting this back into Eiserman, I don’t think that anybody is lauding him for his prowess in the defensive zone. In fact, many people do the opposite, saying he bails from the zone early and looks for the big break more than simple play. Those people are right, Eiserman was one of the worst players in the defensive zone in the country last season. Accounting for his icetime, he lived in the bottom of nearly every defensive measurable.
So at this very moment, with BU the preseason number three team in the nation, who sits at 3-5 and got swept by Maine, allowing 13 goals in two games a bad thing?
I’m going to say no.
I actually think this gives BU a chance to fully hit pause this season. Without feeling the need to try to stretch the puck and move as quickly as possible to Eiserman. Then have Hutson jumping in the rush and run n’ gun and go go go go!
Stop. Slow down.
BU needs to change something after the first month, and maybe a forced change is not a bad thing. Cole Eiserman will be fine, both this season and beyond. He should be back for the 2nd half of the year, and ideally for everyone should be fully healthy. But he may have unintentionally just saved the season.
The Terriers have a “get right” series against Merrimack this weekend. Boy, do they need that.
Hockey East Goaltending, Yeesh
This tweet from Mark Divver made me stop in my tracks.
It’s really easy to scrutinize goalies, especially ones at this age, and goalies famously develop late, yes, yes, yes. Got it.
But Mikhail Yegorov, Albin Boija, Philip Svedeback… truly, what the hell is happening here, guys?
Three legit candidates for the Richter Award are each sitting here with sub-.900 save percentages. Each has allowed over two goals expected this season. So not only are they not making the great saves that they were last season. They are allowing the easy ones in, too.
Svedback was benched in Providence’s most recent game against UMass Lowell, and Nate Leaman did not mince words regarding sitting his senior goalie, “wanted to give him a look” regarding freshman Jack Parsons playing in game two.
Maine’s freshman backup, Mathis Rousseau, got the nod in game two against BU. He got rung up for 5 goals on 31 shots. While Boija sat on the bench against a ranked team, after playing in 37 of 38 games last season. The junior has already sat for two.
Yegorov has not looked settled for a moment this year and has been pulled twice, only lasting the first 12:00, allowing 3 goals on 8 shots.
BC can’t find a goalie, and Greg Brown has talked about wanting somebody to win the job, neither of which Yan Korec nor Louka Cloutier has done.
If you flipped this list a month ago, it would not be unreasonable. Granted, a drop-off at BC was expected, but this has been a chasm.
The numbers will undoubtedly normalize, and things will be more stable than this, as Zacher’s number will likely take a dip and the bonafides will rise towards the end of the season. But is the scouting report out on these guys at this point? Time will tell.
