Boston College Men’s Hockey Falls to UConn 5-4

The Boston College men’s hockey team dropped a close game on Saturday, falling 5-4 in a back-and-forth contest against UConn. The Eagles gave up the game winner with just over 30 seconds left in regulation shortly after tying things up for a bit of a gut punch of a loss.

Casey Carreau got the scoring started early on with his second goal of the season just 1:50 into the first period. Carreau’s goal came on a wicked wrist shot after some nice work by his linemate Mike Posma and BC’s third line got the Eagles on the board first. That was it for the scoring in the first, but the Eagles certainly had some great chances to increase their lead. It was a good first period for BC, especially considering with Jack McBain (arguably their best player) not in the lineup today. The penalty kill came up with a good kill about halfway through the period and Eric Dop made some nice stops in his return to the net and the Eagles took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

Marc McLaughlin made it 2-0 with his 14th goal of the season early in the second period. The goal came off of a very slow developing cycle play as McLaughlin was on the ice with two fourth liners, Matt Argentina and Jack Dempsey. Argentina managed to find McLaughlin with a pass out front, and the captain made no mistake as he continued his outstanding senior season. The two-goal lead didn’t last long, however, as UConn got a goal of their own just about 40 seconds later. UConn tied things up a few minutes later with a nice goal just a few moments after a BC power play had expired to make things 2-2. That’s how things looked at the end of the period as well, as BC failed to score on another late power play and Marshall Warren was denied on a great rush late with under a minute left in the period to keep the two teams tied headed into the third.

UConn took their first lead of the game just over a minute into the third period on a one-timer from the point that Dop couldn’t get to. That’s how things stayed for a while despite a pretty decent response from BC until Colby Ambrosio was finally able to tie things back up about seven and a half minutes into the third. Ambrosio fired a quick wrist shot through into the net for his sixth goal of the season to make it a 3-3 game. The goal came off of a nice takeaway in the neutral zone by Patrick Giles, who broke up a UConn rush before sliding the puck ahead to Ambrosio.

UConn regained the lead a few minutes later, however, taking advantage of a late power play chance after Trevor Kuntar was whistled for goaltender interference. It didn’t look like BC had any response this time, as they were trapped in their own zone for long stretches of time, including a 90 second stretch when they were clearly trying to pull Dop for an extra attacker. But Patrick Giles managed to pick up a loose puck at the end of a long shift and create a breakaway out of nowhere. He buried his chance to tie things back up at 4-4 and it seemed like this game was headed for overtime. UConn had other plans though, scoring with 32.2 seconds left in regulation to take a 5-4 lead. The Eagles didn’t have another comeback in them and dropped a game that had some crazy moments and shifts in momentum.

This was a bit of a tough loss to swallow, especially after BC jumped out to a 2-0 lead and seemed to be in control. The Eagles drop to 10-6-3 on the season after this one and will have a chance to bounce back next weekend when they have a home-and-home series with a bit of a stuggling UNH team.

Jack Dempsey picked up his first career assist on McLaughlin’s goal in the second period.