GOAL BY GOAL: Boston College Hockey Drops Disappointing Contest To Maine

We jinxed it.

Friday night, Boston College put its undefeated streak at eight, the longest in the nation. Everyone started tweeting about it. Why did we have to do that?

In a classic letdown game, the Eagles took the long bus ride up to Orono, fell behind early, and couldn't recover, falling to the Black Bears 4-2 and dropping once again to the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble.

BC came out to a hot start, dominating the opening minutes of the game, but by the midway point the game was still scoreless. It was Maine who got on the scoreboard first.

Maine Goal #1: 11:58 of the 2nd period
Jake Rutt (Devin Shore, Nolan Vesey)

Maine 1, BC 0

This won't be the first goal Maine scores from a distance. It all starts with a well placed feed from Shore along the wall to Rutt at the far point. Rutt takes a low wrist shot and it beats Demko.

They would score the same goal just minutes later.

Maine Goal #2: 16:11 of the 2nd period
Liam Pacararo (Jake Rutt, Cam Brown)

Maine 2, BC 0

Same goal, but from the other side. Rutt takes a pass from along the boards to the far side wrists a low shot in on Demko. This time, another Black Bear is able to get a stick on it, so Demko really had no chance.

That led us into a wild and crazy third period where BC did just enough to feel in the game, but not quite enough to ever fully recover.

Boston College Goal #1 (4v4): 1:57 of the 3rd period
Michael Sit (Noah Hanifin)

Maine 2, BC 1

What a great time for Sit to get his first goal of the season. With a goal this early in the period, BC would have the whole period to try and get the equalizer.

And this is quite the individual effort. It's hard to decide which was more impressive, the initial bomb that hits the very corner of the post, or the one-handed follow up from one knee to poke the puck in from no angle. Beauty.

Maine Goal #3 (4v4) (GWG): 8:48 of the 3rd period
Devin Shore (Eric Schurhamer)

Maine 3, BC 1

Penalties were a problem in this game, not so much for giving Maine chances, but for taking away our own. On this goal, BC had just squandered a huge power play with a penalty on Alex Tuch, putting the faceoff in the Maine end.

The Black Bears score right off the draw. Another goal that starts out from a long-range shot, but Demko gets the initial stop. Unfortunately, the rebound pops right out into traffic where Shore, who had taken the face off, had drifted. He gets a stick on that rebound and gets it past Demko to put Maine up by two once again.

Boston College Goal #2: 16:02 of the 3rd period
Ryan Fitzgerald (Ian McCoshen, Alex Tuch)

Maine 3, BC 2

It's a shame that pretty goals didn't count for double because BC would have pulled out a tie.

Hard to tell, but I think that's Fitzgerald earning the puck on the initial puck battle at the top of the faceoff circle. Tuch makes a spinaround pass over to McCoshen, who gives a textbook shot-pass over to Fitzgerald, who went hard to the net after initially winning the puck.

Fitzgerald gets a stick on the pass and deflects it in beautifully, pulling BC back to within one with plenty of time to once again pull even.

Unfortunately, that's not how things would play out.

Maine Goal #4: 17:07 of the 3rd period
Cédric Lecroix (Cam Brown)

Maine 4, BC 2 -- FINAL

What an awful comedy of errors on this goal.

It all starts with Sit losing the puck attempting to play back to the defensemen to set up the breakout. A pair of Black Bears bear down (ha!) on him and he loses the puck. Not only does he lose the puck, but he loses his balance and goes down...right into Cam Brown, who had picked up the puck.

Brown goes down in a heap, drawing a penalty, and Lecroix picks up the puck and slips it through a sprawling Demko.

With the penalty, that was effectively game over for BC, and that would be a final.

It was a brutal let down after Friday's emotional win against BU, but with the long road trip after the rivalry game, it's hard to say any of us are shocked to see it happen. It is killer for the Pairwise, but from a mathematical perspective, we're actually better off beating Maine and losing to BU, even though the Maine loss is so much worse.

BC will need to regroup for Wednesday's matchup against a somehow-ranked-#13 Merrimack at home. A win for BC would go a long way toward getting the Eagles back up on their feet for the stretch run.