#7 Boston College Hockey Utterly Dismantles #2 Wisconsin, 9-2

Holy mother of God. I think we just scored again.

BC welcomed Wisconsin to Conte Forum on Jerry York Night but it doesn't look like the Badgers even showed up. The Eagles routed the Badgers 9-2 in a game that wasn't even as close as the brutal scoresheet might suggest.

There were just so many goals in this game. I'm not going to go into detail on all of them because we scored nine times.

Nine times?

Nine times.

Here are the basics.

BC jumped right out and started getting quality chances early, but once one goal hit the back of the net, the floodgates were wide open.

BC scored four goals in about a 5 and a half minute span in the first period by Cangelosi, Cangelosi, Gaudreau, and McCoshen to immediately put the game out of reach. I mean, that was it. Good night. It was only going to get worse for the Badgers from there.

After a completely dominant first period, the Eagles were up 4-0, and it could have been significantly worse. Wisconsin, who coming in was lauded for their defense, allowed two breakaway opportunities for John Gaudreau on the same shift. His first opportunity rang the post, but his second was a nice finesse to slip it between the post and the pad of Wisconsin starting (but not finishing) goaltender Landon Peterson.

Even other than Gaudreau, there were tons of other chances, including one robbed on an absolutely brilliant post-to-post larceny from Peterson with about a minute left to play in the period.

It was, in all honesty, a complete and utter obliteration.

The second period started right where the third left off, with BC scoring twice early at 0:21 and 1:45 by Mike Matheson and Scott Savage to make it 6-0, and then Michael Sit scored the first of his career to put home the extra point just past midway through the period. 7-0.

BC's first penalty -- a horrible call on Bill Arnold for slashing in what should have been matching penalties at best -- resulted in Wisconsin's first goal, ending the second at 7-1.

But by this point we were well into garbage time. Kevin Hayes found the back of the net to start the third, Wisconsin responded, and then Patrick Brown scored shorthanded to cap off a relentless BC attack. 9-2, final.

Jerry York called off the dogs early, giving the bottom lines some extra minutes and putting in Brad Barone for mop-up goaltending duty, and yet BC still managed to continue to extend its lead. Even late in the third period, with the fourth line logging extra minutes, the Eagles nearly put home their tenth goal with some brilliant play.

Some pretty remarkable stats out of this game:

--Matheson and McCoshen were each a +6 in this game. That's just ridiculous.
--Johnny Gaudreau scored the gamewinner. Yay. He is now tied for 2nd in the country in points per game. Gaudreau had another ho-hum 1-2--3 night on the scoresheet. And, again, could have had a lot more. His passing sets up a ridiculous number of opportunities for his teammates.
--BC outshot the Badgers -- again, a team that prides itself on defense -- a whopping 49-21. Those are some BC Women's Hockey-like shot totals.
--BC scored nine times and yet Austin Cangelosi was the only BC player with 2 goals. That makes 8 different goal scoeres (#HotMathTakes).
--Even crazier is that in BC's last two games, THIRTEEN DIFFERENT PLAYERS HAVE SCORED A GOAL. That has got to be some kind of program record. It also is enough to make us fans get a little overexcited about the potential of this freshman-loaded team.

BC needs to get focused for an absolutely huge weekend of hockey next week, as the Eagles will travel to Mariucci Arena to face the #3 Minnesota Golden Gophers in a two game weekend series.

There is a reasonable chance that when the new polls come out, this game could feature the top two teams in the country facing off.

...And I'm pretty sure BC just scored yet again.

More coverage to come in the coming days. Go Eagles.