GOAL BY GOAL: BC Men’s Hockey Earns 6th Straight Win With 3-2 Victory Over #11 New Hampshire

The first five games of Boston College’s six game winning streak were against certified body bags. Winning all five was pretty great, but they were bad teams, and expectations should have been at least a little tempered.

But Friday night’s win against #11 New Hampshire was definitely impressive. On the road in a hostile environment, the Eagles didn’t just take the 3-2 win against the Wildcats, but they also looked pretty good doing it, carrying play for the majority of the game and outshooting UNH along the way.

New Hampshire Goal #1: 4:30 of the 1st period
Chris Miller (Ara Nazarian)

UNH 1, BC 0

It’s been a theme all season — the Eagles tend to give up the first goal. But the good news is that time and time again, BC has found a way to come back in the game.

It was the same story Friday night. UNH got things rolling with an early goal off a pretty rough turnover from Connor Moore in the corner. His pass across misfires right onto the stick of Nazarian.

Jesper Mattila nearly saves the day with a clear, but unfortunately that clear ends up right onto a UNH stick in the slot. Not too many D1 hockey players miss from there, and it put the Wildcats up 1-0.

Boston College Goal #1: 1:49 of the 2nd period
David Cotton (Jacob Tortora, Julius Mattila)

BC 1, UNH 1

But the Eagles didn’t have to wait too long to tie things up. Right out of the locker room after the first intermission, David Cotton got a big monkey off his back by scoring his long-awaited first goal of the season.

Jacob Tortora’s wraparound attempt didn’t find its way through Daniel Tirone, but the rebound found its way to Cotton out front. Cotton digs the puck out of his skates and just slips the puck past Tirone on that rebound, and the game is tied at 1-1.

New Hampshire Goal #2: 7:30 of the 2nd period
Eric MacAdams (Unassisted)

UNH 2, BC 1

But UNH got the goal right back a few minutes later. A two-on-one for the Wildcats with a very impressive toe drag around the sliding defender gave Eric MacAdams the goal for a 2-1 Wildcat lead.

As a side note — who doesn’t appreciate a good bow-and-arrow-on-one-knee celebration? Nicely done.

Boston College Goal #2 (PPG): 9:31 of the 2nd period
Michael Kim (Casey Fitzgerald, JD Dudek)

BC 2, UNH 2

But a UNH penalty brought the Eagles level once again just two minutes later.

Michael Kim is the goal scorer for BC this time around, as he takes the pass up top from Casey Fitzgerald and turns it on net with a vicious one timer. The puck sails cleanly through Tirone, and we’re knotted back up at 2-2.

Boston College Goal #3 (GWG): 8:21 of the 3rd period
Michael Kim (Logan Hutsko, Christopher Grando)

BC 3, UNH 2 — FINAL

Michael Kim was the hero with the game-winner as well, giving himself his first multi-goal game of his career as well as giving the Eagles the victory.

It’s a rebound for Kim this time, as Hutsko’s shot off the draw is too much for Tirone to handle. Tirone loses his balance, but he’s also way out of is crease to close off the angle on the initial shot. As soon as he teeters off balance, Kim’s got him dead to rights, and all he has to do is fire the puck into the gaping net.

It wasn’t quite smooth sailing from there for BC, though. The Eagles had to kill a 5-on-3 in the waning minutes, and a bizarre ricochet off a stanchion forced Joe Woll to make one of the most sensational saves you’ll ever see:

But somehow the Eagles kept UNH off the board for the rest of the game, giving them their sixth straight win and vaulting them all the way up to 13th in the Pairwise, on the right side of the cut line, for the first time all season.

Things don’t get any easier for BC. Their next game is against Northeastern, the highest ranked team in Hockey East at the moment, who currently sit 11th in the Pairwise with a healthy 7-3-1 record (and 5-1-0 in Hockey East).

The Eagles have to like the fact that they’ve already taken two tough points out of the weekend, but BC can really make a statement with a good 60 minutes against the Huskies on Saturday night.