GOAL BY GOAL: BC Men’s Hockey Returns From Break With 2-0 Win Over UConn

Hockey! It’s back! Hooray!

After a few weeks off for the winter break, the Eagles returned to the ice on Saturday for their first game of the second half with a Hockey East matchup again the UConn Huskies. BC was without Aapeli Räsänen and Joe Woll, who were away at World Juniors, but Ryan Edquist and the Eagles took care of business with a 2-0 win at Conte Forum.

Boston College Goal #1 (PPG, GWG): 12:43 of the 1st period
David Cotton (Julius Mattila, Casey Fitzgerald)

BC 1, UConn 0

BC showed just a little bit of rust to start the game, but in all it was a positive first period. A UConn penalty midway through the period put BC on their first power play, and David Cotton converted.

It was a great dual effort from Cotton and Mattila in the corner to take advantage of the solitary Husky defending them. After a couple passes to open things up along the goal line, Cotton skates in on Huska and tries to take a shot. A UConn defender blocks it, but Cotton keeps it on his stick and finally get the puck through for the goal.

Boston College Goal #2: 10:52 of the 3rd period
Ron Greco (Zach Walker, Casey Fitzgerald)

BC 2, UConn 0 — FINAL

The second and third periods weren’t quite as good for BC, but they were good enough to hold on for the win. Ryan Edquist kept the Eagles out front with a quality goaltending effort until Ron Greco could give the Eagles some insurance in the third.

BC created the goal with some good puck movement after winning a battle for the puck at the blue line. Greco probably should have taken the shot earlier on, while he was between the dots, but instead he sends the puck over to Fitzgerald who fires away. The puck goes wide, but Walker gets to the puck and throws it to the front of the net where Greco is there to put it home.

And that was it — UConn pulled their goaltender but couldn’t get any meaningful opportunities, and the Eagles came away with an unremarkable, but still solid, shutout.

It was a nice little warmup for BC to start off the second half. The Eagles will now fly out west to Las Vegas for the “Ice Vegas Invitational” where they’ll play Michigan Tech and either Northern Michigan or Arizona State. Other than the Beanpot, these are the last two non-conference games for BC this season. Taking the holiday tournament would go a long way toward getting the Eagles into the NCAA tournament.