GOAL BY GOAL: BC Men’s Hockey Ends Losing Streak With 3-1 Win Over Merrimack

It’s been a rough go of it this year for BC men’s hockey. The underclassmen-filled roster was thrown into the fire with far and away the NCAA’s toughest schedule to start the season, and they came out of it with a less than ideal 1-5-1 record.

Fortunately, BC finally found a body bad on its schedule in the form of the Merrimack Warriors. Playing Merrimack is a great way to right the ship, and the Eagles were able to come away with a 3-1 win to end their losing streak and get themselves back on track.

Merrimack Goal #1: 9:58 of the 2nd period
Johnathan Kovacevic (Michael Babcock, Alfred Larsson)

MC 1, BC 0

BC didn’t play terribly in the first period, but they really struggled to convert the chances they had — which included a pair of power play opportunities.

That brought the game tied into the 2nd period, and Merrimack found the first goal of the game. The Warriors are passing the puck in on net, but there’s too much traffic there to do anything with it. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the puck bounds out of the pile of humanity to Kovacevic in the high slot, who has space to shoot and a pile of humanity to screen Woll.

The puck somehow finds its way all the way through, and Merrimack was up 1-0.

Boston College Goal #1: 12:41 of the 2nd period
Jesper Mattila (Aapeli Räsänen, Christopher Grando)

BC 1, MC 1

But the Eagles would tie the game up just a couple minutes later on what will probably hold up to be one of the best goals of the season.

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, the Eagles go tape to tape all the way up the ice on some sensational passing. At the end of it all is the Finn to Finn connection, with Aapeli “Copy-Paste” Räsänen finding Mattila at the back door for the alley-oop slam with authority.

You have to love Mattila’s point to Räsänen at the end of the play.

Boston College Goal #2 (GWG): 12:15 of the 3rd period
JD Dudek (Michael Karow, Christopher Brown)

BC 2, MC 1

BC continued to create some chances, but it wasn’t until late in the third period that they took their first home lead of the season.

JD Dudek makes it happen with a solid undressing of a Merrimack defender along the boards. The deft maneuver around the back of the defender puts Dudek just below the faceoff circle but with a clear lane to shoot. He fires a shot far side over the shoulder of Craig Pantano, who really has no hope of saving this bullet without getting lucky and having his glove in the right spot.

He obviously doesn’t, and BC’s out front.

Boston College Goal #3 (ENG): 19:52 of the 3rd period
Christopher Brown (Graham McPhee, Michael Kim)

BC 3, MC 1 — FINAL

Christopher Brown finished things off with an empty netter thanks to a pass up the boards from Graham McPhee, and after another appreciative point to a teammate, the Eagles had themselves a 3-1 win.

It wasn’t BC’s best game, but it was clear they were the better team and they deserved the win. After playing top team after top team, it was nice to see them finally control a game against a team they should have handled. You would have liked for it to have been less of a nail-biter, but the way things have gone for the Eagles, you just take the win and move on.

The Eagles will head up to Merrimack to complete the second leg of the weekend’s home and home with the Warriors. Puck drop is at 7pm.