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GOAL BY GOAL: Boston College Hockey Scores Early And Often In 4-0 Win Over #8 Notre Dame

Eagles put together one of their most complete efforts of the season to top the Irish

BC Athletics

The complaints of BC putting up wins on a "weak" schedule are long gone.

Yes, last weekend, the Eagles faced UMass and UConn, two teams in the bottom half of Hockey East. But aside from those games, BC has faced a team in the top 10 in the Pairwise in 7 of their last 10 games. And since the start of the new year, the Eagles are undefeated at 4-0-3.

Friday night, in their final tune up before the Beanpot, Boston College went to work on the road against Notre Dame, scoring twice in each of the first two periods on their way to a big 4-0 road win over the Irish.

Boston College Goal #1 (GWG): 0:16 of the 1st period
Austin Cangelosi (Steve Santini, Scott Savage)

BC 1, ND 0

BC's twitter account hadn't even gotten a chance to tweet that the puck was down for the start of the game before BC scored its first goal.

This must be BC's quickest goal to start a game in years, if anyone wants to do the research. Nope, BC scored 12 seconds in against Wisconsin this year—also Cangelosi. Thanks to the comment section for this. Only 16 seconds in, Steven Santini dumps the puck in down behind the net and Cangelosi takes a whack at it just to put the puck on net.

This is one of those examples of how putting the puck on net is never a bad play. The puck takes a funny bounce over the shoulder of Notre Dame goaltender Cal Petersen and it finds its way through.

Boston College Goal #2: 12:55 of the 1st period
Colin White (Miles Wood, Adam Gilmour)

BC 2, ND 0

Whether it was the goal that put a jump in BC's step or whether they just came out firing from the drop of the puck, they played a strong first period. They would get a second before heading into the locker room.

This goal was more of the conventional variety, with White and Wood connecting on a give and go. We've seen this a lot out of BC hockey this year, with the puck carrier dishing it over and going to the net while the defender gets caught in no-man's-land trying to defend two people.

Petersen is leaving a gaping hole on the near side of the net, and the Notre Dame defender lays out to prevent the pass across, but Wood drops the puck back over to White through the defender for the easy tap-in goal.

Colin White hadn't seen the ice much at all in the first period, and he looked gimpy heading to the bench for the post-goal high fives. But he must not have been that hurt.

Boston College Goal #3: 14:58 of the 2nd period
Adam Gilmour (Miles Wood, Ian McCoshen)

BC 3, ND 0

As good as the 1st period was, the 2nd was even better. BC outshot the Irish 18-5 in the 2nd and cashed in on a pair late in the period.

Wood gathers in the puck along the boards at the blue line and skates to the top of the faceoff circle before taking a shot in on net. Petersen makes the save but Gilmore pulls the rebound away before he can steer it aside. Petersen is dead to rights now and All Gilmore has to do is guide the puck into the open net for the goal.

Boston College Goal #4 (PPG): 17:42 of the 2nd period
Zach Sanford (Alex Tuch, Colin White)

BC 4, ND 0 -- FINAL

Penalties were somewhat scarce early on but Hockey East refereeing found its stride about halfway through. The Eagles found themselves on a lengthy 5 on 3 late in the second period and were able to convert for the dagger that put the Irish away.

Two Notre Dame defenders are tracking the pair of Eagles up high, and BC does a good job getting the puck down low quickly to set up the cross-crease pass. This play is all about quick execution—if it takes too long, Notre Dame can crowd the slot to prevent the pass across and there's no play.

But BC uses their numbers well and before the Irish can react, BC has the puck where they need it, they have the fifth skater coming in the back door, and they execute the play to go up 4-0 to wrap up the scoring.

BC did get a penalty shot at the end of the 2nd period even though Notre Dame's feed didn't realize it happened until the start of the third period, but lucky for them Colin White couldn't convert. There would have been some pretty upset Irish fans who would have found out that their team had given up a goal during intermission for the first time in hockey history.

That's all the hockey, men or women, for this weekend. What will we do with ourselves?

The BC men and women will both rest up for a few days before taking on Harvard on Monday and Tuesday respectively for the first round of their respective Beanpots. With the Harvard men sitting at 5th in the Pairwise going into the weekend, it'll be yet another big test for the Eagles on this tough second half stretch.