GOAL BY GOAL: Boston College Hockey Takes Huge League Contest Over Notre Dame, 4-3

Small crowd, bad ice, don't care. BC took care of business at Frozen Fenway 3.0 in a critical league matchup against Notre Dame, taking two Hockey East points in a 4-3 victory.

Why some of you even bother watching BC shootyhoops at this point, I have no idea. But as always, Dr. Jerry has your medicine, baby birds.

We have video! Let's go right to the GIFs.

Goal #1 -- 4:54 of the 1st period: Brendan Silk (Adam Gilmour, Michael Matheson) 
BC 1, ND 0

First goal of the year for Silk, and it was, uh... Silky Smooth? And it's just the way you drew it up given the bad ice. You knew some of these goals were going to have to be greasy (as it turned out, this was the only one like it, but still) and greasy this one was.

The funny thing was, lost in the fact that the puck actually went in off a scrum -- this was a really nicely set-up play and one hell of an initial stop by Summerhays. Matheson goes in deep and hands it off to Silk, who immediately feeds Gilmour for a one-timer. Everyone pretty much assumes goal, but the puck is stopped initially and plops itself right into the crease. *Dap* to Silk who stays with it and does what he has to to hit the back of the net.

Goal #2 -- 8:54 of the 1st period: John Gaudreau (Bill Arnold) 
BC 2, ND 0

Well that didn't take long. Exactly 4 minutes in fact.

This goal was so awesome. Oh, so awesome. And this time, while Johnny got the finish, this was all the work of Billy Arnold. Right off the draw he picks up a loose puck (I have no idea what Stephen Johns, #28 for Notre Dame, was doing here, maybe he hit a rut in the ice?) and just blindly tosses the puck on the backhand to Gaudreau who makes a quick little move into the empty space between the two ND defenders in the slot. Then it's just a layup from there.

2-0 Eagles pretty quickly, but we would be too spoiled to have this one be a runaway. After a remarkably strong first 10 minutes, Notre Dame started to add some pressure, and they would score late in the first on a delayed penalty to get within 1.

Things got interesting at the end of the first period as Michael Sit got 5+Game for Boarding... Pretty questionable call. Probably a penalty, as Sit did come in and complete a check on a Notre Dame player who was in a vulnerable position. But he didn't come in hard, and didn't exactly plow the guy. Tough to take.

Take a look; you decide.

In the intermission, Jerry York was a a bit conservative in his comments, but you could tell he didn't agree.

It was an unfortunate play on the boards, I looked at it 2 or 3 times. Is it a penalty, is it not a penalty? But whatever. So we have to kill 5 minutes.

Notre Dame scored right off the bat to tie the game at 2-2 just 23 seconds into the second. With 4 and a half minutes left on the major, you felt like that wouldn't be the end of it, but BC was able to complete the kill.

And that would be all the scoring in the second despite quite the parade of Irish players to the penalty box. By the time the game ended, BC was a head-scratching 0 for 9 on the power play. Lack of possession and general lethargic play were a hallmark of our many power plays on the night. Hard to pin 0 for 9 on bad ice.

If there was one thing more frustrating that the power play, it was Summerhays and his tendency to kick his own net off it's pegs over and over and over during the game, particularly while BC was threatening. It happened at both ends of the ice and it definitely happened more with Summerhays than with Billett. Ridiculous.

BONUS GIF! This penalty on Notre Dame's Kevin Lind at the end of the second period was absolutely hilarious.

Gaudreau was well on his way to doing That Thing He Does, and to Lind's credit, this was pretty much the only option he has. But seeing him just totally sell out for a penalty, dropping to his knees and using both arms to grab Gaudreau and push him out of the play.

Hilarious.

So to the third period we would go, tied at 2. It wouldn't be boring, I'll tell you that much.

Goal #3 (SHG) -- 4:38 of the 3rd period: Bill Arnold (Kevin Hayes) 
BC 3, ND 2

There is just so much Goddamn skill on this line. Were it not for Johnny Gaudreau and the Hobey Hype, Hayes would be getting a lot more attention. Hayes don't care. Hayes just gonna do stuff like this.

First of, he fights off his man and earns a delayed penalty. But then he and Arnold just totally burn two Notre Dame players on this developing shorthanded two-on-one. Poor Bryan Rust, a forward, doesn't have much of a chance. Just a perfectly executed two-on-one rush and Arnold has a beauty of a catch-and-shot before Summerhays can even move. BC back on top.

Rust would atone for his sins, so to speak, less than three minutes later with a goal of his own to re-tie the score at 3-3. But then we've got more breakaways and more odd-man-rushes and more top line nastiness. Roll tape.

Goal #4 (GWG) -- 8:21 of the 3rd period: John Gaudreau (Kevin Hayes, Bill Arnold) 
BC 4, ND 3 -- FINAL

Not shorthanded here, but another two-on-one with the top line, with predictable results. Give Stephen Johns of Notre Dame a little bit of credit, I guess, for forcing Hayes to make some kind of play well before he gets close to the net. But unfortunately for him, 1) Kevin Hayes is a freaking beast, and 2) the other half of the two-on-one is the best player in the sport.

Gaudreau gets the puck with enough space for it to work like a clean breakaway, and poor Summerhays gets absolutely embarrassed 5-hole and looks like someone just told him his dog died.

Game: Birds.

The game ended with a goal review as Notre Dame claimed to have stuffed a tying goal in under Brian Billett as time expired. Or at least Vince Hinostroza, screaming in the face of the Hockey East ref, tried to claim. The puck was under Billett the whole time and by the time the buzzer sounded it was four feet out of the crease, not even close to the net. Good job, good effort on the sell job, guys.

With the win, BC extended their lead in the Hockey East standings to two points over the Friars. Even more importantly, the win vaulted BC up to 3rd in the Pairwise Rankings, just 0.001 points out of second place. If BC ends up in the top 4 as the highest ranked eastern team, it will have been a successful regular season.

Next week, #3 BC takes on now-#5 PC at home in one of the biggest games of the year on Friday. Saturday afternoon, the Eagles head down to Providence to play... Brown, not PC. Neat.

5 game winning streak. 14 game point streak for Gaudreau. All is well in York's Kingdom, for now. A win against Providence next week would really have us feeling good.

Here are full highlights from tonight, courtesy of HockeyEastOnline.com. We'll see you next week.