The 2021–22 Boston University Terriers Men's ice hockey season was the 100th season of play for the program. They represented Boston University in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season and for the 38th season in the Hockey East conference. The Terriers were coached by Albie O'Connell, in his fourth season, and played their home games at Agganis Arena.
BU entered the season with a great deal of hope after making the NCAA tournament despite having to cancel several games as a result of COVID-19. The Terriers received a top 10 ranking in the preseason polls and were expected to compete for the Hockey East championship.[1] When they hit the ice, however, Boston University got off to a terrible start. BU got off to a 3–7 record with their offense struggling mightily in the first month. Despite Drew Commesso playing well in goal, the Terriers scored more than two goals in just three of those contests. By mid-November the team appeared to be rounding into form but were still a middling team in their conference. Ordinarily that might not have been a terrible position to be in, however, Hockey East was having a bad season with a poor non-conference record.[2]
While the first half of their season was disastrous to the Terrier's postseason hopes, their situation went from bad to worse in late December. During the winter break, Tyler Boucher left the team and signed a professional contract with the Ottawa Senators.[3] In spite of losing their top prospect, however, BU came out guns blazing in the second half and won seven of their next eight games.
The winning streak was put in jeopardy when Commesso was selected to be a member of the United States national team at the 2022 Winter Olympics.[4] The team rallied around backup Vinny Duplessis, however, and continued to pile up wins. Boston University went so far as to knock off Northeastern in the Beanpot championship, capturing their first title in seven years.
Commesso returned to campus at the end of February found his team with a top-15 ranking and a near-lock for the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, the team faltered at the very end of the season and lost two of their last three regular season games. The defeats pushed BU down to 5th-place in the standings and below the cutoff line for at-large bids. The Terriers still had a chance to win their way into the tournament but they would need a good showing in the Hockey East playoffs. In their quarterfinal match, BU took on Connecticut and were stymied by a stellar performance from Darion Hanson. The 1–3 loss ended the Terriers' once promising season.
After the year, head coach Albie O'Connell was fired after having made the NCAA tournament just once in his four years behind the bench.[5]
| Forward | Left mid-season (signed with Ottawa Senators) | |||
| Jack DeBoer | Forward | Transferred to Niagara | ||
| Defenseman | Graduation (signed with Nashville Predators) | |||
| Matthew Quercia | Forward | Transferred to Michigan Tech | ||
| Jake Wise | Forward | Transferred to Ohio State | ||
| Jake Witkowski | Forward | Graduate transfer to Canisius |
| Tristan Amonte | Forward | 21 | Norwell, MA | ||
| Forward | 18 | Scottsdale, AZ
| |||
| Forward | 22 | Wood Ridge, NJ
| |||
| Brian Carrabes | Forward | 20 | North Andover, MA | ||
| Braden Doyle | Defenseman | 20 | Lynnfield, MA
| ||
| Ty Gallagher | Defenseman | 18 | Clarkston, MI
|
As of August 12, 2021.[6] |}
|-!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition|-!colspan=12 ! style=""; | Regular Season|-!colspan=12 ! style=""; | |-!colspan=12 style=";" |
| 35 | 5 | 26 | 31 | 8 | |||
| 35 | 15 | 15 | 30 | 20 | |||
| 34 | 11 | 14 | 25 | 28 | |||
| 24 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 38 | |||
| 24 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 4 | |||
| 28 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 12 | |||
| 29 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 18 | |||
| 34 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 35 | |||
| 26 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 20 | |||
| 34 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 12 | |||
| 30 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 8 | |||
| 26 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 16 | |||
| 30 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 14 | |||
| 24 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | |||
| 32 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 31 | |||
| 31 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 14 | |||
| 26 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 12 | |||
| 22 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 18 | |||
| 29 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 6 | |||
| 17 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 34 | |||
| 17 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 | |||
| 31 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 | |||
| 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |||
| 18 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | |||
| 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 107 | 172 | 279 | 387 |
|---|
| 17 | 517 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 18 | 194 | 2 | .915 | 2.09 | ||
| 28 | 1595 | 13 | 11 | 3 | 67 | 715 | 1 | .914 | 2.52 | ||
| Empty Net | - | 14 | - | - | - | 4 | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 35 | 2126 | 19 | 13 | 3 | 89 | 909 | 3 | .911 | 2.51 |
|---|
See main article: 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey rankings.
| Poll | Week | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 (Final) | ||
| USCHO.com | 10 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 19 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 19 | 20 | 17 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 18 | NR | bgcolor=FFFFFF | - | NR |
| USA Today | 10 | 10 | 15 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 14 | 14 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | |
| Domenick Fensore | Hockey East Second Team | [9] |
| Wilmer Skoog | ||
| Ty Gallagher | Hockey East Rookie Team | [10] |
| 2 | 57 | Ryan Greene† | Chicago Blackhawks | |
| 2 | 62 | Lane Hutson† | Montreal Canadiens | |
| 3 | 69 | Devin Kaplan† | Philadelphia Flyers |