Boston College Men’s Hockey Knocks off Northeastern 3-2

The Boston College men’s hockey team bounced back in a big way from their late game collapse on Friday night, getting some revenge against Northeastern with a solid 3-2 win. The Eagles got goals from three different players and looked like the better team for long stretches of this game, as they broke a streak of four consecutive games without a win.

After Northeastern had the advantage in the opening minutes of the first period, Cutter Gauthier drew a penalty and BC was able to put some pressure on the Huskies. It appeared like Nikita Nesterenko had opened the scoring, slamming home a goal near the crease, but it was immediately waved off due to goaltender interference. Northeastern killed off the rest of the penalty, but BC had established some momentum. They continued to look dangerous in the shifts immediately following the disallowed goal, and it eventually paid off. Colby Ambrosio put home a rebound off of a rush to give the team a 1-0 lead while there was a delayed penalty against Northeastern. That meant BC had a power play after the refs confirmed that there was no interference on the play, and the Eagles took advantage of it, with Trevor Kuntar putting the puck home after a scrum near the crease.

They gave some of that momentum back right after the second goal, however, after the closest thing to a line brawl you can have in college hockey ended with seven players in the penalty box, Charlie Leddy thrown out of the game, and BC forced to try and kill off a five-minute major penalty. They killed two minutes and were given a bit of a reprieve when Northeastern took a penalty of their own, but the Huskies got on the board with 39.1 seconds left in the period while the two teams were skating at four-on-four to cut the lead to 2-1 after one period of play.

It looked like that would be the score after the second period as well, as BC put up a few good chances that were turned aside while Northeastern’s best look came on a shot that went wide on a breakaway. For the third straight period (going back to last night), however, BC let up a goal with less than a minute to play, this time allowing Northeastern to convert on an odd man rush with just 22.5 seconds remaining. The Eagles probably had the better of the play through 40 minutes, but the two sides entered the third period tied at 2.

BC had about half a dozen great chances to take the in the early stages of the third period, but they were kept off the board. They weren’t kept off the board for much longer though, as Marshall Warren jumped on a loose puck and slammed it home to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead after about eight minutes into the period. It looked like they lost their lead just 24 seconds later, when Mitch Benson was beaten on a wrist shot from the circles, but the refs reviewed the play and waved the goal off after BC challenged for a potential high stick.

Northeastern kept the pressure up from there, but the Eagles did a much better job defending their lead than they did on Friday. They got their sticks and bodies in the way of a whole bunch of shot attempts and the ones that they didn’t block or deflect, Benson had a clear line of sight and. Northeastern never really did get another great scoring chance and the Eagles left with a 3-2 win.

This was a big one for BC, who had been winless since their 5-0 victory over New Hampshire back on October 23. The win brings them to 3-4-2 on the season and while that’s not great, it should be said that they did play two (mostly) good hockey games this weekend against a team that was highly ranked coming into the season. They’ll have a chance to start a bit of a winning streak on Tuesday night when they take on another strong opponent in UMass Lowell.