Facing Northeastern for the third time this season on Saturday, Boston College men’s hockey was still without a win over the Huskies.
The third time was the charm in Conte Forum, however, when captain Marshall Warren broke a tie in the third period of a chippy 3–2 win for the Eagles. The goal was Warren’s first of the season.
The previous matchup 24 hours prior ended in a shootout win for the Huskies (6–2–3, 5–2–3 Hockey East) after they scored a last-second goal to tie the game and sent it to overtime.
Back on home ice with a packed Conte Forum, the Eagles (3–4–2, 3–3–1) earned their first win since Oct. 23.
Midway through the first period, the Eagles failed to capitalize on their first power play opportunity but quickly regained possession of the puck. With 6:19 remaining in the first period, BC’s Colby Ambrosio sent the puck flying into the back of the net from close range to put the Eagles up by one.
Another power-play opportunity put the Eagles back on the attack. This time, Trevor Kuntar slid the puck past Northeastern goaltender Devon Levi on assists from Eamon Powell and Nikita Nesterenko, putting BC up 2–0 with just under five minutes left in the first period.
The intensity of the game began to show in the final minutes of the first period with emotions boiling over between the Huskies and Eagles, resulting in a total of seven penalties, including the ejection of BC’s defenseman Charlie Leddy.
“Charlie is a strong defenseman, and losing him for a huge chunk of the game just doesn’t help us,” head coach Greg Brown said.
The Leddy scrum resulted in a Northeastern power play, and although BC killed it, the Huskies’ Jack Williams put Northeastern on the board moments later with under a minute left in the first period.
“We have to reign in our emotions and be smarter than that,” Brown said. “Up until that point, the game was going pretty well for us.”
The Eagles led 2–1 just over 19 minutes into the second period until Northeastern’s Gunnarwolfe Fontaine fired a shot past BC’s goaltender Mitch Benson to tie the game at two.
Though the Eagles had 15 more shots on goal than Northeastern, the teams entered the third period tied.
Warren, however, broke the tie with a goal from right in front of the net eight minutes into the third period.
“It was good to get the first [goal of the season], but at the end of the day I’m more happy about the win with the team,” Warren said.
The puck was on the Eagles’ end of the ice for almost all of the final five minutes of the game, but Benson fended off the Huskies’ last attempts to tie it up. BC did not trail at any point of the game, and it earned its first win in four games.
“Last night … after we got the fourth goal, we really started to back off almost instead of keeping our foot down and keep pushing,” Brown said. “We didn’t have that kind of retreat in us tonight—I think we stayed positive and stayed forceful the whole game.”
Following the game, tensions remained high between the teams, and yet another scrum broke out.
“Playing a rival like Northeastern, obviously it’s going to get a little chippy,” Warren said. “I think at the end there we gotta be a little bit more composed, but, at the end of the day it’s a big matchup, and I think our team can hit some bodies. We can play physical, and I think that’s a little bit of our identity.”
