GOAL BY GOAL: BC Men’s Hockey Loses Again, 3-1 To Lowell

The regular season is over, and the Eagles have miraculously squandered any chance at taking the #1 seed in the Hockey East tournament after holding the top spot nearly wire to wire.

It was more of the same for the Eagles against Lowell on Friday night: A listless performance, defensive breakdowns, goaltending issues, and an inability to find a way to win when they absolutely needed to. In the end, Lowell took the win by a score of 3-1, and the Eagles backed into the Hockey East tournament on the lowest of lows.

Lowell Goal #1: 0:19 of the 2nd period
John Edwardh (Dyland Zink)

UML 1, BC 0

BC actually started out pretty well. They hit two or three posts in the first period and generally was the better team over the first 20 minutes. But it was a bad omen for the Eagles to control play and not come away with anything to show for it.

Just 19 seconds into the second period, Lowell scored a soft goal that took the wind right out of BC’s sails. There’s no spin possible on this goal — this is a really soft goal for Joe Woll to give up. I still can’t figure out how it slipped through his pads, as he went down to the ice well before the puck got there, but it found the only opening and trickled into the net to give Lowell the lead.

Lowell Goal #2: 10:02 of the 2nd period
Ryan Lohin (Kenny Hausinger, Jake Kamrass)

UML 2, BC 0

BC just couldn’t get anything going the rest of the second period, and Lowell was able to extend the lead.

Jake Kamrass took a nice backhand feed from Hausinger at the top of the faceoff circle, and sends the puck in on net. There’s a lot of bodies down there, and the puck bounces every which way until it ends up on Woll’s back door. The puck deflects off Lohin’s skate and into the net, but there was no kicking motion, so the goal would stand.

Boston College Goal #1: 3:30 of the 3rd period
Colin White (David Cotton, Scott Savage)

UML 2, BC 1

But early in the third period — hope!

I wish BC would take more opportunities from up top like this when they’re struggling. Savage takes the shot from the top of the faceoff circle into traffic. There’s so much that can happen on a play like this — either it goes in clean because the goalie can’t see it, or there’s a deflection, or the puck is bouncing around in the crease after a block.

Option 3 is what happens here, and BC gets the first two sticks on it. Cotton spots White unmarked for just long enough to send him the puck, and he slips the puck behind Wall to get BC within 1.

Lowell Goal #3: 10:04 of the 3rd period
Jake Kamrass (Connor Wilson, Nick Master)

UML 3, BC 1 — FINAL

But that was as close as the Eagles would get. The Riverhawks twisted the knife a few minutes later on another goal that Joe Woll just has to have. It’s just a simple wraparound, and while Woll does have the near post sealed, he leaves the far post too wide open.

Kamrass’s attempt flings right into the opening, and Lowell had their two goal lead right back.

That’s all she wrote on BC’s regular season. The Eagles will limp into the Hockey East tournament on a 7 game winless streak, but will get to take next week off thanks to their Octofinals bye.

Hopefully the Eagles can rest up and find some mojo for the conference playoffs, because it looks like they’re going to need to win the whole thing to make the national tournament.