GOAL BY GOAL: BC Men’s Hockey Dominates Vermont 5-1 For Fifth Straight Win

It’s now been five games against lesser teams, and the Eagles have come through victorious in all five.

It’s hard to say just how much BC men’s hockey has progressed so far this year given that Merrimack, UConn, and Vermont are not that good, but the fact that the Eagles were able to handle them all is a good sign. The Eagles are above .500 for the first time this season and have climbed all the way up to 19th in the Pairwise after starting the year 1-5-1, and their 5-1 win over Vermont on Friday was easily their most dominating effort of the season.

Vermont Goal #1 (PPG): 11:26 of the 1st period
Ross Colton (Matt O'Donnell)

UVM 1, BC 0

BC started both its games in Burlington from behind. Saturday’s opening goal from UVM was one hell of a snipe job that beats Edquist glove side. He may have been partially screened, and if so, it was a masterful job by Colton to pull the puck in closer to the body of the BC defender to do so.

Vermont had a much better first period than any of their periods on Friday, but winning one out of six periods isn’t going to get you much. It was all BC from here.

Boston College Goal #1: 8:39 of the 2nd period
Graham McPhee (JD Dudek, Christopher Brown)

BC 1, UVM 1

BC put together a handful of really nice goals in this game, which is a great sign because the young players on the roster are showing some good chemistry early.

The set up on this goal is great; it’s hard to keep up. The Dudek to Brown to Dudek give and go in the corner is just the prettiest bit of hockey. With quick puck movement like this, Vermont is going to have a lot of trouble staying organized.

Dudek does a little toe drag after getting possession of the puck down low, and he throws it on Lekkas. The rebound bounces right out to McPhee, who throws the puck in and gives a fantastic bit of “Oh, wha happa??” taunting to Lekkas while sliding in on his rear.

Boston College Goal #2 (SHG, GWG): 9:52 of the 2nd period
Christopher Grando (Kevin Lohan, Ryan Edquist)

BC 2, UVM 1

*GOALIE ASSIST ALERT*

BC’s game-winner comes shorthanded thanks to a nice individual effort shorthanded from Grando. Edquist gets the second to last touch and so he gets credit for the secondary assist, and Lohan chips the puck out of danger.

An underappreciated part of this play is Grando’s jump to get the rush started in the first place. Lohan’s clear dribbles off the stick of Matt O’Donnell and he gives a nonchalant effort into going to get it. Grando goes 0 to 60 in no time flat and roasts O’Donnell, sending the Eagles off to the races.

Grando has the option to pass on what develops into a two on one, but he opts to take it himself. He finds his own rebound to give BC a lead they wouldn’t give up the rest of the night.

Boston College Goal #3: 14:58 of the 2nd period
Jacob Tortora (Christopher Grando, JD Dudek)

BC 3, UVM 1

This is hockey’s version of an alley-oop. Dudek starts things off with the pass up to Grando, and thanks to Vermont’s overly aggressive defending on Dudek (which breaks Dudek’s stick and is probably a good candidate for a kneeing penalty), Grando and Tortora enter on a two on one.

This time, Grando knows that Tortora’s got a much better angle for the shot, so he slides a pass right onto Tortora’s stick right at the doorstep. Tortora roofs it with authority over the sprawling Lekkas.

BC’s just getting warmed up.

Boston College Goal #4: 8:15 of the 3rd period
Christopher Brown (Graham McPhee, Casey Fitzgerald)

BC 4, UVM 1

Vermont was pretty solidly checked out in the third period. It’s a good sign that a team of underclassmen can take the hope out of a Hockey East team the way they did.

The Eagles were rewarded for keeping their foot on the gas with a pair of goals in the third period. Christopher Brown was up first, with thanks to McPhee for breaking through two Vermont defenders across the blue line. He and Brown earn this goal just by working harder than the Catamounts around them, and Brown pots the puck for BC’s fourth goal.

Number 7, Liam Coughlin, in particular looks like he could have done a lot more to help his goalie out. I’m not liking that if I’m Vermont’s head coach.

Boston College Goal #5: 12:19 of the 3rd period
Christopher Grando (Logan Hutsko, Aapeli Räsänen)

BC 5, UVM 1 — FINAL

Christopher Grando finishes the scoring off for BC. The all-freshman line is trying to bust through a bunch of Catamounts at the blue line, and thanks to the pile of humanity on the near side, Hutsko enters the offensive zone pretty much by himself.

Räsänen finds him for what almost looks like a breakaway, and while Lekkas makes the original stop, he’s way out of his crease for the rebound, which Grando finishes off easily.

Things are looking up on the Heights. BC has some much tougher games coming up, but they are definitely starting to look like a team with chemistry and a bit of a scoring touch. The Eagles put up nine goals on the weekend, taking four league points and looking good doing it. They’ll be at New Hampshire and at Northeastern next weekend to face Hockey East’s top two Pairwise ranked teams, so we’ll learn a lot more about how much they’ve developed a week from now.