Boston College Men’s Hockey takes down Vermont 3-2

It wasn’t pretty, but they’ll take it.

Boston College grinded their way to a 3-2 win over Vermont on Friday night, with both teams looking sloppy and fatigued for long stretches of the game. BC just had a bit more when it mattered the most, as they won their third straight to bring their record to 3-5-0 on the season.

The Eagles struck first just 16 seconds into the game as their reunited top line continued to roll. Logan Hutsko recovered a puck in the corner and found Julius Mattila for a quick snap shot. Mattila’s shot was stopped, but the rebound went right to David Cotton, who had an wide empty net in front of him. Vermont responded with a goal of their own shortly after a BC power play had expired. A chipped pass got past a BC defender and landed on a Catamount’s stick. Ryan Edquist got a big piece of the shot, but it trickled past him into the net. BC strung a few good shifts together after the Vermont goal, but were unable to get anything out of it. A first period that largely featured some sloppy play and lacked flow ended tied at one.

BC regained their lead a few minutes into the second period after a truly bizarre few seconds of hockey. After killing off a penalty, Julius Mattila and Cotton were sprung on a 2-on-0 rush that incredibly ended without a shot attempt. A bad pass went into the corner and the puck eventually worked its way over to Michael Kim, who hit a seemingly covered Mattila in front for a redirect. The puck snuck past the Vermont goalie and BC was back on top. Vermont tied it back up a few minutes later, however, when a wrist shot beat a screened Edquist while Vermont was on a 5-on-3 power play. After a long stretch of play with both teams struggling to create, Cotton ripped home his second of the night on a one-timer off a pass from Hutsko. The goal came with just over 20 seconds remaining in the period and gave BC the lead headed into the third.

Neither team scored in the third as BC took a few more penalties, but proved up to the task when shorthanded. Edquist made a few nice stops and the Eagles walked away with their third straight win.

This was a grind it out win for BC, who has done a nice job bouncing back after an 0-5 start. The Hutsko-Mattila-Cotton line is clicking on all cylinders right now (each had two points tonight) and some of the freshmen are starting to play a bit better. I said in my recap last week after the team’s first win that the hope should be to build off of it and start digging themselves out of the hole that they put themselves in. The last two nights have been a step in the right direction towards making that happen.