GOAL BY GOAL: Boston College Hockey Starts Second Half With Win Over Brown

Hockey's back! Who's excited?

Despite missing several key players to Team USA at World Juniors, the Eagles got off to a hot start and finished strong on the way to a 4-1 win over Brown at Dartmouth's Thompson Arena in the Ledyard Bank Classic.

Did you guys miss the GIFs? I sure did.

Boston College Goal #1: 4:14 of the 1st period
Zach Sanford (Matthew Gaudreau, Adam Gilmour)

BC 1, Brown 0

The shot on this goal was a beauty of a snipe from Sanford, no doubt. But let's give some props to Matt Gaudreau. The puck comes around the boards right to the Brown player who really has all the space he needs to either pass back behind the net or pin the puck along the boards and wait for reinforcements.

He chooses the latter, and Matt Gaudreau just comes and gives him a shove, earns the puck, and tosses it back to a well-placed Sanford.

Nice finish to pick the corner, and BC's got the early lead.

Brown Goal #1: 7:15 of the 1st period
Matt Lorito (Mark Naclerio, Nick Lappin)

BC 1, Brown 1

That's Mark Naclerio making a shimmy or two around a couple BC defenders and holding on to the puck before throwing a blind shot-pass toward Barone. Lorito picks it up and beats Barone to tie the game.

Fortunately, a well-played first period by BC didn't go for naught.

Boston College Goal #2 (GWG): 19:44 of the 1st period
Ryan Fitzgerald (Austin Cangelosi, Destry Straight)

BC 2, Brown 1

Critical, clutch goal here from Fitzgerald that set the tone for the rest of the game.

Gotta give a shotout to both Straight and Cangelosi, two guys who BC really needs to step up in the 2nd half, for creating this goal. Straight finds Cangelosi in the slot practically begging for the pass. He gets it and rips a shot on target that's just kept out.

Fitzgerald is in the right place, though, and taps home the goal to put BC up in the closing seconds of the first period.

The second period featured a parade of Eagles to the penalty box, one for Too Many Men, but BC's penalty kill looked excellent against an anemic Brown power play.

BC would put the game away in the third.

Boston College Goal #3 (PPG): 8:01 of the 3rd period
Adam Gilmour (Ryan Fitzgerald, Teddy Doherty)

BC 3, Brown 1

A power play goal.

A POWER PLAY GOAL.

A POWER PLAY GOAL!

A POWERRRR PLAYYYYY GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!

This goal is sexy. A two-man advantage against one of the worst penalty kills in all of college hockey is apparently just the doctor ordered. BC uses slick passing down low and a glorious finish from Gilmour to pot this beauty and give the Eagles a little breathing room.

It'll probably be a little while until we get another power play goal so we should probably enj...

Boston College Goal #4 (PPG): 9:22 of the 3rd period
Austin Cangelosi (Ryan Fitzgerald, Teddy Doherty)

BC 4, Brown 1 -- FINAL

Oh my God it's ANOTHER POWER PLAY GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111one11

Does this goal look familiar? It's the exact same play as goal #2. This time Straight is the man behind the net, Fitzgerald plays the setup man instead of the scorer, and Cangelosi manages to beat Ernst on the shot instead of drawing a rebound. 4-1 BC, and that's a wrap.

It was against Brown, who was pretty bad, but it was also the first game back after the winter break. With the possible exception of taking a ton of needless penalties, there is very little to complain about with this win. BC outplayed a bad team while missing several of its most important players, they looked pretty decent on the power play, and they pulled out a multi-goal win.

With Team USA's major fail up at World Juniors, BC should be able to have a full complement of players (minus Steve Santini, for hopefully just one more game) in a huge matchup against Dartmouth—one of the teams standing between BC and an NCAA tournament berth, in 19th in the Pairwise prior to their matchup against Denver.

BC will look to extend their 3-game winning streak and inch ever closer to tournament eligibility.