Boston College Men’s Hockey Falls to UMass Amherst 3-1

BC saw their ten game winning streak come to a frustrating end on Friday night, dropping their game 3-1 to UMass in the first game of a home-and-home series this weekend. BC had chances all night but were unable to capitalize while UMass made the most of their opportunities en route to a big Hockey East win.

After a slow start to the period that included an early BC power play, UMass got on the board first just more than ten minutes in. Logan Hutsko made a bad pass at the offensive blue line right onto the tape of UMass’s John Leonard to accidentally spring him on a breakaway. Leonard made a nice move to his backhand and slid the puck past Spencer Knight to give the Minutemen a 1-0 lead. BC killed a penalty of their own shortly thereafter before Alex Newhook tied the score with less than two minutes left in the period. After Knight made a big save on a UMass chance in transition, Newhook turned in a sensational individual effort, stick-handling past a defenseman at the blue line to set up a breakaway that he made the most of, beating UMass goalie Filip Lindberg through the five-hole to send BC into the intermission tied at one.

The second period was full of grade A chances for both teams, but the two goalies stood strong and kept things knotted at one. BC had a few chances on the power play that yielded some good puck movement and caused Lindberg to make one incredible save and Matt Boldy was stopped on a breakaway, but the Eagles were not able to put a second in the net. At the other end, Knight’s best save of the period came while BC was on the man advantage, when he was shut down a UMass two-on-one that threatened to give the Minutemen the lead. For the period as a whole, BC outshot their opponents 15-4, but had to settle for the same 1-1 score heading into the third.

The third started with the same incredible pace that we saw in much of the second period, with both Knight and Lindberg making incredible sprawling pad saves on pucks that seemed destined for the back of their nets. That was the story with much of the third, with both goalies making big saves and bailing their teams out. With 3:45 to go, UMass picked up a loose puck after a handful of BC clearing attempts were unsuccessful. A shot from in close snuck past Spencer Knight to give the Minutemen a 2-1 lead. BC pulled their goalie with just under two minutes left and had some great looks at the net, but Lindberg stood strong and UMass eventaully iced the game with an empty netter to make the final 3-1.

BC ran into a hot goalie on Friday night. That’s your one sentence recap. BC was the better team for large stretches of this game but Filip Lindberg simply played an outstanding game in net. There are no moral victories, and this loss still stings, but the Eagles will have a quick chance to bounce back and salvage a weekend split tomorrow when they play at UMass.