Boston College Men’s Hockey Defeats UMass 6-3

The Boston College Men’s Hockey team defeated UMass tonight with a score of 6-3, earning a weekend sweep of the #7 Minutemen. Overall, it was a fairly even matchup between two pretty good teams at Mullins Center, with BC clearly having the edge in the second game of the weekend series. And, we can’t ignore a momentous occasion: BC played a full weekend series without a hitch!

Now, onto the recap.

At first, the game was back and forth for a while, and it seemed like the game was going to be a drag — at least, that’s what it seemed like through my very pixelated feed of NESN+. UMass was playing super defensively, which makes sense considering two of BC’s goals yesterday were scored off of stretch passes. However, BC got on the board first with a goal from Patrick Giles, off a rush that started off with a beautiful breakaway pass. (Originally, the goal was credited to Marc McLaughlin, but later it was switched to Giles.) A minute or so later, UMass scored to tie it up with 4:24 remaining in the period. With about 2:30 remaining in the period, BC had a chance on the power play. Drew Helleson was able to capitalize with 1:39 left, scoring his first goal of the season. The Eagles entered the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.

The second period was more eventful, as freshman Colby Ambrosio scored his first goal as an Eagle a minute and thirty seconds in, putting BC up 3-1. BC was able to kill off a penalty, but UMass scored through tons of traffic not much later. However, McLaughlin responded less than two minutes later to put the Eagles up 4-2. At one point in the period though, Logan Hutsko left the ice and we didn’t see him for the rest of the game, which is concerning.

The third period started off fast, as BC killed a power play and Spencer Knight came up clutch (as per usual). However, UMass was dominating play and ended up capitalizing, making it a 4-3 game with about 12 minutes to go in the period. With about 6:50 remaining in the game, Mike Hardman scored off an incredible pass from Matt Boldy, putting the Eagles up 5-3. Knight continued to stand on his head for the rest of the period, preserving the two goal lead. The UMass goalie was pulled with 3:28 to go, and freshman Nikita Nesterenko put the empty netter in from 140 feet out with ten seconds left in the period.

While this game was an exciting one and BC came away with the W, something that was worrisome was that Hutsko did not return to the game after leaving in the second period. It seemingly did throw a wrench into BC’s play at the start of the period, but luckily they were able to get it together at the end. Here’s to hoping Hutsko isn’t seriously injured and is able to play the next time BC takes the ice!