After a hard fought win on Thursday night, the Boston College men’s hockey team put Northeastern away early on Friday, scoring six goals in the second period on their way to a 10-1 win. The win capped off a weekend sweep for BC and gave them some breathing room in a still tight Hockey East race.
Graham McPhee got the Eagles on the board early on with his fourth goal of the season. BC’s third line put together a nice cycling play that ended with Marc McLaughlin feeding McPhee with a great pass from below the goal line. NU’s goalie Craig Pantano was caught looking the wrong way, and McPhee had and empty net to shoot on. That was all the scoring in the first period, as BC killed off two Northeastern power plays and came up empty on their sole advantage. The Eagles looked dangerous for long stretches and Pantano had to be sharp to keep the Huskies’ deficit at one, but McPhee’s goal remained the only tally through the first 20.
Alex Newhook doubled the lead just 65 seconds into the second period, after a bad breakdown in coverage by Northeastern. After a clean breakout, Newhook found himself uncovered at the attacking blue line for a breakaway. Pantano got a piece of his wrist shot, but not enough to keep it out of the net and the Eagles went up 2-0. After a power play the came up empty, McLaughlin made it 3-0 thanks to a big mistake by Pantano. Pantano did failed to handle a dump in cleanly and was slow getting back into his net. McLaughlin got in on a good forecheck, recovered the puck, and deliberately banked it in off the goalie for his fourth goal of the season. Just a few minutes later, Logan Hutsko blasted a one timer from the top of the circles past Pantano for a 4-0 lead. The three games all came in the first six and a half minutes of the second and BC was rolling.
Northeastern made a goaltending change after the fourth goal, but the Eagles weren’t done in the second period, with Matt Boldy making it 5-0 with a power play goal off of a nice passing play. Boldy doubled his total a few minutes later when his wrist shot found its way through Connor Murphy and into the back of the net. McLaughlin got his second of the night just a few minutes after that to convert on the extra point when he buried his own rebound after a partial breakaway. Northeastern got on back late in the period to make it 7-1, to cap off an absolutely wild 20 minutes of hockey.
BC refused to take the foot off the gas in the third, as Matt Boldy capped off his hat trick just over two minutes into the third period with a nice finish in tight after a nice passing play. Ben Finkelstein made it 9-1 about halfway through the period when an attempted pass deflected off a Northeastern stick and into the net. Things got chippy after a big hit from Jack McBain at center ice, and three players including McPhee and Finkelstein were given ten minute misconducts that ended their nights. Aapeli Rasanen scored an unassisted shorthanded goal to give BC ten goals on the night on the ensuing power play. And that’s where the scoring finally stopped, giving BC a 10-1 win. This game was absolutely hilarious from the second period on.
Northeastern didn’t belong on the same ice as BC tonight, as the Eagles turned in what may have been their most complete performance of the season. From the opening puck drop, BC was crisp all over the ice, breaking the puck out with ease and looking dangerous every time they entered the attacking zone. They utterly dominated a team with NCAA Tournament aspirations for the full 60 minutes and gave Spencer Knight very little work to do. They’re back at it next week, with Thursday/Saturday games against Merrimack and at BU. There will probably be some clinching scenarios in those games depending on how the rest of this weekend in Hockey East plays out, but for now, it’s probably best to just sit back and enjoy what was a fantastic night of hockey.