When Jacob Bengtsson took a hooking penalty with 4:43 left in the second period, nothing was going right for BC. They were down 2–0 to Merrimack at Lawler Rink and headed to the penalty kill for the first time in the game.
By the time the door was opened for Jacob Bengtsson to leave the box, BC had equaled the score thanks to a pair of shorthanded goals from Jamie Armstrong and Will Smith, beating Merrimack goaltender Hugo Ollas twice in one minute and four seconds, something they hadn’t managed to do in the first 35:56 of the game.
No. 1 Boston College (28–5–1, 20–3–1 Hockey East) defeated Merrimack (13–20–1, 6–17–1) by a score of 6–4—thanks to their two-goal shorthanded outburst and four unanswered third period goals.
The first period didn’t see much action for either team, as neither squad could break the ice in the first twenty minutes. Merrimack’s Frank Djurasevic finally broke the tie 8:43 into the second frame, finishing a 2-on-1 feed from Ty Daneault, registering Jan Korec’s first goal allowed on the season.
Devlin O’Brien would double the Warriors’ lead 2:11 later, beating Jan Korec glove-side. It appeared that Korec did not see the shot the whole way, as his own defenseman Aidan Hreschuk acted as a partial screen, making it tough for Korec to deny O’Brien.
BC’s two goals from the outburst on the Jacob Bengtsson hooking call came 1:04 apart.
But the Warriors mishandled the puck in the offensive zone, with the puck ending up glancing off of Zach Bookman’s stick to Mike Posma, who had nothing but open ice in front of him. By the time he got to the slot, it was a 2-on-1. Posma then fed Jamie Armstrong, who beat a sprawling Hugo Ollas, to give BC their first goal of the game with 4:04 left in the second period.
Then, Will Smith took a feed from Lukas Gustafsson and fired it past Ollas short side with 3:00 left in the period to even the game up and change the dynamic of the contest.
“All those guys we would consider offensive guys have started to kill late in the season here because they read plays very well,” BC head coach Greg Brown said.
Merrimack struck first in the third period, as Liam Dennison beat Korec 1:06 in the period, but from then on out, it was all BC.
Eamon Powell sniped the top corner 4:48 into the period to tie the game up again, pushing the momentum back in BC’s favor.
Colby Ambrosio then scored on the rush 3:08 after Powell tied it up, giving BC its first lead of the game and Ambrosio his first goal since BC traveled to Harvard on November 26th.
“You’re gonna need depth scoring in the playoffs,” Brown said. “The games get much tighter and you need good contributions from all the lines so for [Armstrong and Ambrosio] to get three goals is huge, and hopefully they can carry that momentum into next week.”
Cutter Gauthier then gave BC some insurance, scoring on a delayed penalty with 7:41 left in the game and increasing his nation-leading total to 32 goals on the season.
Jamie Armstrong of BC and Luke Weilandt of Merrimack traded goals in the final minute of the game, finishing out the game and capping off a 13-game Hockey East winning streak for BC to end the regular season.
“The bench stayed very positive, which you’re going to need in the playoffs,” Brown said. “The guys weren’t rattled, and then to come back with two short-handed goals to get us back in the game was really huge.”
