The Boston College Eagles (20-4-1, 12-3-1 HE) delivered a painful blow to the three-peat-dreaming Huskies (9-13-3, 4-9-3 HE) Feb. 3 at TD Garden in a 8-2 Beanpot semifinal loss that didn’t let up in the third period.
“The game kind of settled in. It was back and forth. We were fortunate. We got a couple of huge saves to keep the lead. And then when we got some chances, we were able to capitalize. I didn’t feel like it was as lopsided as the score,” said Boston College head coach Greg Brown.
Through all three periods, Northeastern was outplayed by the No. 1 Eagles, and the Huskies faced increasing frustration as the game went on with their lack of pucks that found the net.
Despite Northeastern having the initial possession of the puck, BC scored immediately on their first drive down the ice, just 46 seconds into the period for freshman forward Teddy Stiga’s 10th goal of the season. Off a faceoff on the Eagles’ own left faceoff circle, the puck was swiped to Stiga at the blue line. Stiga passed the opposing blue line before cutting into center ice, taking the shot which sailed past sophomore goaltender Cameron Whitehead.
Seven minutes later, sophomore defenseman Drew Fortescue was sent to the penalty box for holding. BC has kept their composure on power plays throughout this season with the second highest penalty kill rate in the country at .896.
The clock expired, giving the Eagles full force and Northeastern nothing to show for their man-up advantage.
Right under 13 minutes, senior forward Connor Joyce doubled the score for BC with his first goal of the season. From behind the Huskies’ net, junior forward Brady Berard sent it backward for a hustling Joyce, who sniped it into the net.
Northeastern finally had enough. Twenty seconds later, freshman forward Ben Poitras swiped up his first goal of his collegiate career. Junior defenseman Jackson Dorrington took a shot from just below the blue line into the chaos in front of the net, where Poitras was able to sneak the puck in, taking the Huskies’ to their last one-point differential of the night at 2-1.
With a minute and a half to go in the first period, graduate student defenseman Eamon Powell earned the Eagles’ third goal of the night. Off a pass from freshman forward Jake Sondreal, Powell handled the puck before chucking it into the net.
The Eagles came out hot in the second period, scoring their fourth goal of the night in just 75 seconds.
Sophomore forward Ryan Leonard brought the puck down the ice before spinning towards his own net to cut in towards Northeastern’s goal. Instead of shooting, he passed it off to junior defenseman Lukas Gustafsson at the far side of the net.
The scoring streak went on a drought for both teams as the Eagles outshot the Huskies 10-7.
Northeastern went on their second power play of the game when freshman defenseman Will Skahan sent to the sin bin for boarding. The game was growing increasingly tense, heated shots dissolving into fights as the periods crept on.
Northeastern had chances with sophomore goaltender Jacob Fowler, who would push the puck out in front of the net, but no Husky was there to pop it back in.
Graduate student defenseman Jake Boltmann was sent to the box for tripping with four and a half minutes left to give, giving BC their first power play of the game with over seven minutes to go.
As the two minutes winded down, the Huskies kept the Eagles out of their net. But as soon as Northeastern returned to full strength, sophomore defenseman Aram Minnetian scored for the Eagles.
Off a pass from junior forward Oskar Jellvik, Minnetian rocketed the puck into the net from the faceoff circle, widening BC’s gap to 5-1.
The four-goal differential quieted the Doghouse as the Huskies were looking farther and farther from earning their third consecutive title.
Northeastern entered the third period frazzled, resulting in simple mistakes. With 16:44 left, Berard was sent to the box for slashing. The Huskies passed around, looking for an open opportunity to score, but one small mistake would send the puck down toward Whitehead.
With under eight minutes to go, Boltmann and Leonard were both sent to the box for hooking and roughing, respectively.
Freshman forward Joe Connor drove the puck down the ice in an attempt to secure a second goal for the Huskies. He cut in to try to sneak the puck past Fowler, but went flying over the netminder’s stick courtesy of Leonard. The Eagle was sent to the penalty box for roughing with 12 minutes to go.
Northeastern was unable to hit the net with four-on-three and was still unsuccessful with full strength at five-on-four. Instead, BC managed to drive down on a breakaway twice but Whitehead blocked both attempts.
The Eagles were able to put another one on the board with 6:24 remaining by junior forward Andre Gasseau.
With over four minutes to go, sophomore forward Dylan Hryckowian finally put another one on the board for Northeastern, bringing the score to 6-2.
Hryckowian brought the puck down the ice, sniping the puck into the back of the net from the side of the right faceoff circle. The celebration was minimal given the four-point differential.
The Eagles answered with their seventh goal of the night 80 seconds later when Leonard collected his 23rd goal of the season, sliding down the left side of the ice and sneaking the puck past Whitehead.
With 40 seconds left in the game, freshman forward James Hagens scored the eighth and final goal of the night. adding salt to the Huskies’ wounds. Hagens stole from Dorrington and sniped it into the top left corner.
Northeastern sophomore netminder Cameron Whitehead saved 23 shots in the game, keeping Northeastern from an even higher differential.
Fowler continues his strong defense in the net as he holds the sixth highest save percentage in the country at .938. He saved 28 shots by the Huskies.
The Huskies will play the consolation game against Harvard University (7-12-2, 6-7-2) Feb. 10 at 4:30 p.m. in TD Garden. Boston College will take on Boston University at 7:30 p.m. after their defeat of Harvard 7-1 in the semifinal round.
