Boston College Men’s Hockey Falls to Providence 5-4 in OT

The Boston College men’s hockey team blew a 2 goal lead tonight in a 5-4 OT loss to the Providence Friars. The Eagles started the game strong after giving up an early goal, but were unable to keep their momentum going and are now down 1-0 in the best of 3 series that will determine which teams head to the Hockey East Tournament at the Garden next weekend.

Providence scored the first goal of the game just a minute and 48 seconds into the game tonight, but Marc McLaughlin tied things up shortly after with his third goal of the season. Chris Grando gave BC the lead almost immediately after PC’s goalie allowed the puck to trickle past him, and Michael Kim closed out the first period scoring.

Things remained scoreless for much of the second period, although Providence started to gain momentum and to limit BC’s shots on goal. With 4.1 seconds left in the second the Friars scored to give themselves major momentum heading into the third, cutting BC’s lead to 3-2.

Two straight Friars goals in the third gave Providence a 4-3 lead that looked like it was going to stick, but Julius Mattila scored with 1 minute and 36 seconds left in regulation to send them game into overtime. Unfortunately for the Eagles, overtime was all Friars and BC ended up losing 5-4.

The teams will meet again tomorrow night - if Providence wins, BC’s season is over and if BC wins game 3 will be played at 5 PM on Sunday.