To say No. 2 Boston College men’s hockey’s matchup against Hockey East rival No. 5 Maine lived up to the hype would be an understatement.
BC’s (6–1–0, 1–0–0 Hockey East) three-goal third period lifted the Eagles past Maine (6–1–1, 3–1–1) in a thrilling Friday night showdown.
“We know Maine plays a very smart, cohesive game,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “I thought we stayed patient and did a lot of things very well.”
An early Andre Gasseau kneeing penalty was the highlight of the back-and-forth first period, with little else appearing on the scoresheet.
Both teams headed to the locker room to readjust gameplans and home in on the fundamentals, with high physicality and finding the open man making the difference in a game between two familiar foes.
“They outworked our power play with their penalty kill,” Brown said. “They closed fast, possessed pucks, and it really gave their bench a lift.”
The Eagles were handed a big momentum shift just under four minutes into the second period after officials called Maine’s Ross Mitton for a game misconduct following a knee to Aram Minnetian.
Unfortunately for BC, its offensive woes from the first period carried over, preventing the Eagles from taking advantage of their five-minute power play.
Goaltender Jacob Fowler saved any shorthanded tallies the Eagles could have suffered, stopping four breakaway opportunities and keeping the game knotted at 0–0.
“You look at [Fowler] and he’s staring at us like, ‘Let’s go,’” Ryan Leonard said in reaction to Fowler’s big saves. “That guy’s gonna have your back in those important moments.”
Those double zeroes did not stand for long. In the blink of an eye, Maine’s Nolan Renwick tapped a faceoff back to Josh Nadeau who ripped it straight off the draw to hand the Black Bears the first goal of the game.
BC could only blame itself for not capitalizing throughout the second period, losing the puck in critical moments while in the slot and heading into intermission down 16 shots to Maine’s 23.
“It’s just keep trusting yourself and keep shooting,” Leonard said. “They’re going to have to go in at some point. They have to.”
The third period kicked off with an interference call on Lukas Gustafsson, gifting Maine its second power play of the game. But it wasn’t until after Gustafsson’s release that the Black Bears picked up an insurance goal.
Oskar Komarov went for a wrap-around behind the net, blindly throwing one through the middle just for it to deflect off James Hagens’ skate and into the net.
The Eagles still had something to prove, though, and a tripping call on Maine led to a quick tic-tac-toe goal for Gasseau to cut their deficit in half.
“[We] want to make it a little bit more easy on ourselves getting a couple chances in the first and second, but we’re always waiting,” Leonard says. “All the chances were there, it was only a matter of time.”
Just five minutes later, Mike Posma picked up a loose puck and shelved it above the shoulder of Albin Boija’s shoulder to send Conte Forum into a towel-waving frenzy.
Then 90 seconds later—as if the crowd couldn’t get any rowdier—Hagens connected with Leonard on a 2-on-1 to flip the place completely upside down.
“I thought the last 10 minutes, we played out a great pace,” Brown said. “Guys dug deep, still believed they could find a way. They did.”
