GOAL BY GOAL: Clutch Late Goal Gives BC Men’s Hockey Huge 3-1 Win Over Providence

Boston College men’s hockey didn’t quite have a full roster for Frozen Fenway, with Colin White missing the game due to illness, but they were pretty close. After closing out a rough 2-4-1 stretch in Pittsburgh missing six players, the Eagles managed to get back on track with a huge league and Pairwise win over Providence College by a score of 3-1.

Providence College Goal #1 (PPG): 4:00 of the 2nd period
Josh Wilkins (Brandon Duhaime, Bryan Lemos)

PC 1, BC 0

The first period was all Boston College, but with the ice already in rough shape by being outdoors, and even worse shape after having the BU/UMass game played on it just prior, ice conditions prevented either team from mounting much of an attack.

For a while it looked like the teams would need greasy goals to break the ice, but the Friars scored on a really nice bang-bang play to get things going. The fact that Duhaime was able to gather the puck in the corner without it bouncing right off his stick was a minor miracle, but he was able to find Wilkins for the one timer to make it 1-0.

Boston College Goal #1: 8:22 of the 2nd period
Michael Kim (Austin Cangelosi)

BC 1, PC 1

This was much more along the lines of the type of goal we thought we would be seeing. This looks like a bomb from Kim, but it’s really not that crazy of a shot.

The problem PC goalie Hayden Hawkey (oh God, nobody tell Buccigross that this guy exists...) has is that it takes a funny bounce on the way in. It’s tough to tell on the GIF, but Hawkey has a clear view on it, but the last second hard hop it takes is enough to get it over his glove and into the net.

Greasy or not, Michael Kim has a couple of big time goals for the Eagles this season.

Boston College Goal #2 (PPG, GWG): 16:49 of the 3rd period
David Cotton (JD Dudek, Julius Mattila)

BC 2, PC 1

The Eagles score their gamewinner on a goal that looks just like PC’s first.

Give JD Dudek a lot of credit for being the engine that makes this play work. He wins a good puck battle behind the net against the Providence defender and works his way into a passing lane. Cotton is banging his stick on the ice screaming for the pass, and he backs it up by putting home a great one-timer goal to give BC the big win.

Boston College Goal #3 (ENG): 18:52 of the 3rd period
Austin Cangelosi (Ryan Fitzgerald, Scott Savage)

BC 3, PC 1 — FINAL

Cangelosi does a nice dance through the neutral zone for the empty netter, and that was that.

We’ve said it a few times now, but this was a really important win for BC. They really needed to stop the bleeding from the end of the first half that dropped them onto the Pairwise bubble, and with a pair against Boston University coming up, they need to bank as many points as they can in the league if they want a shot at the regular season title, and, more importantly, the top seed in a Hockey East tournament that re-seeds throughout. The Terriers are on fire, having climbed all the way up to 4th in the Pairwise, and this will certainly be one of BC’s toughest tests of the season.