Boston College Men’s Hockey had a great start to their game on Saturday night in Orono against the Black Bears, peppering Maine goaltender Jeremy Swayman with the first ten shots of the game and taking an early lead. But from there, it was yet another carbon copy of just about every BC game this season. The Eagles couldn’t score again, Maine made the comeback to win 2-1 in overtime, and we were all left to wonder just why exactly we put ourselves through the torture of watching every single one of these painful exercises in futility as we await the merciful end to this miserable season.
David Cotton got credit for the opening tally of the game in a first period that was all BC. The Eagles took the aforementioned first ten shots of the game in less than five minutes, and just past midway through the frame, the Eagles got their goal to make it 1-0. By the end of the period, BC had a whopping 15-2 edge in shots, and you would have been forgiven for thinking to yourself “surely such a shot margin as that will not be topped for either team on this eve.”
You, sir or madam, would have been mistaken, because Maine figured out they were playing a team that is frankly not all that good and blitzed the Eagles for a 23-8 edge in shots in the second period, scoring a tying goal just before the period expired to make it 1-1 and tell us unequivocally that, surely, the end was nigh, and the end would be painful.
Perhaps the end would be a facepalm of a tie. Perhaps it would be a third period collapse that made the game look like it was never close to begin with. Nay, my dear reader, it would come to pass in the most frustrating way possible, as is tradition with this squad of not-so-merry men, as Maine found a winning goal in the final seconds of overtime, winning 2-1.
That gives BC a zero point weekend against Maine, and puts the Eagles on a six game losing streak. With three games remaining against the 2nd and 4th place teams in the conference — both of whom are on the right side of the cut line for the NCAA tournament (a dark, shadowy place where we as a program have not ventured in quite some time), it’s looking all too likely that the season will come to an end soon without another win for those of us too proud and too masochistic to stop watching this beautiful disaster.
BC will take on two-time defending Beanpot champion Northeastern (where did we as a species go so awry as to end up in a universe like this) in a home and home next weekend. The Eagles will be at home Friday night before breaking out the road maroons on Saturday at Matthews Arena.