GOAL BY GOAL: BC Hockey Keeps Rolling With Win Over UNH

There was only one BC game that mattered on Saturday. I think we can all agree.

While the rest of the world had its attention turned to Fenway Park, BC hockey was up I-95 in Durham for another stop on Jerry York's march to 1,000 wins. There were no "moral victories" for the hockey team: They took care of business on the road by a score of 6-3, improving their record to 10-1-0 and matching BC's best season start ever under Jerry York.

Boston College Goal #1 (SHG): 6:23 of the 1st period
Ryan Fitzgerald (Colin White, Steve Santini)

BC 1, UNH 0

Joe mentioned that UNH's goaltending has been on the struggle bus this year in the Final Thoughts post:

With how mediocre UNH's goaltending has been, if BC gets 30 or so shots, they should score plenty of goals.

BC did manage 30 or so shots (35, actually) and sure enough, they scored plenty of goals. This is a great shorthanded shot from Fitzgerald, but this is also the kind of goal your team gives up when you have an .874 save percentage -- good for 76th out of 79 qualifying goalies.

...woof.

It's really a harmless shot. Fitzgerald is unscreened, all the way at the top of the faceoff circle and even though he's coming in with speed, there's really not much of a threat here with a UNH defender on him. But the simple wrist shot beats Tirone for the shorthanded goal to open the scoring.

New Hampshire Goal #1 (PPG): 17:40 of the 1st period
Matt Dawson (Matias Cleland, Andrew Poturalski)

BC 1, UNH 1

UNH didn't really let the game out of hand until late in the third period with a couple well-timed goals to stay in step with the Eagles. This goal on the power play went through three bodies on the way to Demko, touching none of them and popping the water bottle at the end to tie the game.

Boston College Goal #2 (PPG): 11:30 of the 2nd period
Teddy Doherty (Alex Tuch, Zach Sanford)

BC 2, UNH 1

BC and UNH skated pretty evenly through the first two periods (as evidenced by the matching shot totals), but special teams put BC ahead again midway through the 2nd.

This goal is straight out of the women's hockey team's power play manual, getting the puck to the net and creating chaos in front of the goalie. Sanford makes the initial shot that's stopped but the puck pinballs around, eventually making its way to Doherty who gets a stick on it for the 2-1 lead.

Things got a little crazy in the third period, but BC unlike their collapse against Michigan State, the Eagles never lost control of things.

Boston College Goal #3: 7:45 of the 3rd period
Matty Gaudreau (Colin White)

BC 3, UNH 1

It helped that BC had a multi-goal lead in the third period to play with, courtesy of a Colin White steal in the corner.

White gets it and just goes straight to the vacated front of the net, almost beating Tirone on his own. Honestly, it's amazing he didn't, because Tirone looked just awful on the first save. The puck might have been blocked but his teammate rather than stopped by his pads.

But Matty Gaudreau is coming in hard to take advantage of a disoriented UNH, getting to the puck first and wrapping the puck around a sprawling Tirone for the goal.

Gaudreau has a six game point streak. Raise your hand if you ever saw that comiPUT YOUR HANDS DOWN, FOOLS.

It's a Gaudreau world, we're all just living in it.

New Hampshire Goal #2: 10:04 of the 3rd period
John Furgele (Ara Nazarian, Marcus Vela)

BC 3, UNH 2

It seems like almost every time a 3 on 2 results in a goal, it's a result of great execution rather than poor defense. That seems to be the case here. BC very nearly prevents this goal from happening because the center Wildcat on the 3 on 2 is pretty well covered by an Eagle.

The Olympic ice is so wide that a pass to the left wing isn't really feasible, so UNH forces the pass to the center, who manages to direct the puck all the way over. That's just a nice play.

Vela, the right wing, goes straight to the net after the initial pass and looks to get a stick on it, though the box score doesn't say so. In any case, UNH gets itself a nice goal to keep itself afloat.

Boston College Goal #4 (GWG): 14:31 of the 3rd period
Teddy Doherty (Miles Wood, Steve Santini)

BC 4, UNH 2

This is the exactly the part where BC fell apart against Michigan State... and exactly the part where BC delivered a win against UNH.

Miles Wood pickpockets a UNH player and goes in one on one into the Wildcat end, but instead of just ripping off a shot, goes for a little jaunt, makes a sandwich, takes in Mockingjay Part 2, and writes a Yelp review of his local eatery while reinforcements arrive.

Teddy Doherty is his man, and Doherty fires off a shot from the hash marks that pops the water bottle and puts BC back up by 2.

Boston College Goal #5: 15:12 of the 3rd period
Adam Gilmour (Casey Fitzgerald, Alex Tuch)

BC 5, UNH 2

The thing about cutting short a comeback is it usually takes the life out of your opponent, and UNH pretty much gave up when BC went back up by 2. Just seconds later, the Eagles got another with a blast from Casey Fitzgerald that Adam Gilmour is able to deflect past Tirone for the three goal lead.

Gilmour acts-likes-he's-been-there-before with this goal, which is always a pretty solid "celebration" in my opinion.

New Hampshire Goal #3: 18:33 of the 3rd period
Tyler Kelleher (John Furgele, Andrew Poturalski)

BC 5, UNH 3

UNH gets one goal back in garbage time and poor Demko didn't have a prayer.

UNH seems like they're barely trying at this point, just putting a hopeless shot on the net almost from the blue line. The problem for BC is that the puck takes an unlucky bounce of a defenseman's skate and bounces right to the complete opposite side of the net directly on to the stick of a Wildcat player.

Demko goes superman to the other post but he really has no chance.

Oops

Boston College Goal #6 (ENG): 19:03 of the 3rd period
Miles Wood (Ryan Fitzgerald, Steve Santini)

BC 6, UNH 3 -- FINAL

BC gets the empty net goal after a little "no you take it" "no, after you" from Fitzgerald and Wood, and that's your ballgame.

Like pretty much every game this year, it wasn't a shock-and-awe dismantling from BC, but it was another in a stretch of systematic, skilled wins from a team that has quickly found its identity and is executing well.

The bad news is BC will be without the services of Chris Calnan for "extended time" according to the @BCHockeyNews:

Unfortunate news despite the victory - Chris Calnan will miss extended time with an upper body injury.

— BC Hockey (@BCHockeyNews) November 22, 2015

That's... really bad, as BC's starting to have a complete lack of depth in its corps of forwards. Hopefully with the winter break approaching, Calnan can get better quickly and return to the ice for the 2nd half as the strength of schedule heats up.

Next up for BC is a trip down to Hartford on Tuesday night (.........seriously?) for the first game of the year against UConn. Hopefully this game goes better than last time.