The “Sieve!” chant is a Boston College men’s hockey tradition like no other.
When the Eagles score a goal at home, the student section serenades the opposing goaltender with a choreographed chant reminding the netminder of his name and that he “sucks at life and goaltending,” also noting that the goal that BC scored was “all [his] fault.”
While the students were still faulting Vermont’s goaltender Gabe Carrier for the goal he let up to Cutter Gauthier on the power play with 10:37 left in the second frame, Jacob Bengtsson scored again, causing the student section to erupt and pause the chant, adding insult to injury amid the blowout Catamounts loss.
No. 1 BC (24–5–1, 16–3–1 Hockey East) ultimately dominated Vermont (12–14–3, 6–10–3) by a score of 7–1 thanks to a four-goal second period and a combined effort in net from Jacob Fowler and Jan Korec.
“The first couple minutes we had some turnovers at the blue line that we didn’t need to do, but other than that, we played solid, so it’s a good 60-minute game for us,” BC head coach Greg Brown said.
BC went to its first power play after Gabe Perreault drew a trip on Vermont’s Daniel Sambuco while driving to the net at the 11:25 mark, but the Catamount defense held strong. Seven seconds after the penalty time expired, however, Lukas Gustafsson intercepted an attempted clear by Thomas Sinclair and put the puck top shelf past Carriere, giving BC the lead 13:32 into the game.
BC got its second period started with a dominant three-zone play in which Ryan
Leonard laid a huge hit and found Will Smith streaking through the neutral zone, who in turn entered the offensive zone and executed a 3-on-1 with Perreault and Gauthier. Gauthier then finished the play to double BC’s lead 6:38 into the second.
“When I hear one of them call my name from behind me, I kind of just, wouldn’t say hope they’re there, but I know they’re gonna be right behind me and I trust that he’s gonna be open if he’s calling for it,” Smith said, “So once I got it, I was able to execute that pass over to Cutter.”
Gauthier got another power-play goal on yet another feed from Smith 2:45 after his first goal to give BC a three-goal lead 9:23 into the period.
“Their second power play goal was a couple of good quick passes and a pretty nice shot by Cutter,” Brown said.
Bengtsson found the back of the net on a rebound from Jack Malone during the “Sieve!” chant just 14 seconds later at 9:37 to make it a four-goal lead.
Andre Gasseau continued the onslaught when the puck fell into his lap in the slot, burying it with 8:12 left in the period.
“Scoring wasn’t there in the first, but we did generate a lot of good chances, and then [in the] second period we were able to convert a bunch of them and get a decent lead for ourselves,” Brown said.
Mario Gasparini got one back for the Catamounts with 7:15 left in the period, but it would be their only goal of the night.
BC wasn’t done scoring, though. Smith was able to take the puck away from Joel Määtä and pirouette into a pass to Perreault at the back door, who finished the play just 19 seconds into the third frame.
“We get a lot of rush chances, but just trying to get more sustained pressure,” Smith said. “I mean, forechecking is a huge way that we can score goals, so I think that’s something we’re trying to do a lot more.”
Aidan Hreschuk hammered one home 9:25 into the third to wrap up a dominant win for the Eagles in the front half of the series.
“We know we have to be sharp,” Brown said of preparing for tomorrow’s contest. “We know they’re gonna come hard. They’ve done a great job. They’ve only been swept by one Hockey East team this year, and it was BU, who is obviously a very good team. They’ve taken points from every other team that they’ve played against, so we know it’ll be a tough challenge tomorrow.”
