Nine days after Teddy Stiga scored arguably the most important goal of his life so far, the freshman forward slotted home his sixth goal of the year for Boston College men’s hockey, this time in a different country, wearing a different uniform.
On January 5, Stiga sent Finland home from the gold-medal game of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship with a breakaway goal in overtime. Stiga’s golden goal secured the U.S. its first-ever back-to-back World Juniors championship title.
Swapping his red, white, and blue for maroon and gold, Stiga potted the first goal of Tuesday night’s matchup between the No. 2 Eagles (14–4–1, 7–3–1 Hockey East) and Harvard. The goal might not have ranked as highly as his heroics in the World Juniors, but it sent BC ahead 1–0 early in its game against its in-state rival.
Despite giving up a goal on the penalty kill late in the first period, which tied the affair, Stiga and Will Vote helped the Eagles prevail against Harvard (5–8–2, 4–4–2 ECAC) and secure a 3–1 victory at Conte Forum. Brady Berard added an insurance goal on an empty-netter with 1:19 left in regulation, starting the first win streak of the new year for BC.
“Turned out to be kind of a tug of war,” BC head coach Greg Brown said.
BC and Harvard traded power-play goals in the first period as the Eagles obtained three total power-play opportunities in the frame, converting on one of three.
“Drew a few penalties with our legs, which is important—we were able to capitalize once,” Brown said. “But at the same time, when you get three penalties in a row like that, a lot of the team doesn’t get to go into the game. So [I] felt like after that, we were trying to get our rhythm back.”
BC’s first man advantage consisted of poor breakout effort and lackluster energy. BC did not manage to get off a shot the entire two minutes as Harvard executed efficient pass breakups.
The Eagles’ second opportunity had a much different ring to it.
Harvard’s Michael Callow was booked for interference and it only took 32 seconds for the Eagles to capitalize. Even though Lukas Gustaffson wasn’t credited with a point, the goal could not have been scored without him.
Gustaffson skated the puck all the way from BC goaltender Jacob Fowler’s crease, through the neutral zone, and into Harvard territory. He reversed directions and dished a short pass to James Hagens, who kept the puck swirling around the zone faster than the Crimson could track it.
Once it found Stiga after the merry-go-round passing sequence, the freshman forward fired it to the left of Harvard’s net, but Ben Charette blocked it down. Hagens swiped at the surface but missed, and it came to Stiga’s tape one last time. With a nearly wide-open net in front of him, Stiga cashed in to make it 1–0 in BC’s favor.
“Yeah, teams defend too well for the defense not to be involved in the offense,” Brown said. “If your [defense] are just hanging back and watching from the blue line and not joining the rush, then you’re not going to create much offense.”
Fowler was unable to stop a Ryan Healey missile when Harvard got its first man advantage with just less than two minutes in the period, but there was no help in front of the net. Healey took the puck from Lucas St. Louis on the point and crept in with space. His distance between him and Fowler narrowed, and the defensemen went bar-down, tying the game.
It didn’t take long for BC to add a goal in the early stages of the second period.
After Drew Fortescue fed the puck down low, wrapping it around the boards, Mike Posma retrieved it and put it right onto the stick of Will Vote on the right side of Charette. Vote shoved the puck in and skated around the net to embrace Posma with a one-armed hug as the Eagles retook the lead.
BC nearly potted a third goal halfway through the frame when Aidan Hreschuk provided Hagens with an open one-timer, but Charette stopped the freshman phenom in his tracks with a diving save that came straight out of a Sportscenter Top-10 reel.
https://x.com/graham_dietz/status/1879336005402247654
“When I first saw it, I thought it was an amazing save, but I didn’t know if Hagens had kind of got all of it, so to speak,” Harvard head coach Ted Donato said. “Then I watched the replay and it was better than an amazing save.”
Three defensemen for the Eagles—Fortescue, Hreschuk, and Gustaffson—registered a point in Tuesday’s victory, all on assists.
BC outshot the Crimson 27–21 in the game, but only in the first did it outshoot Harvard, 10–4. The other two periods were tied, 8–8 and 9–9, respectively.
With its next three opponents of Providence College, Boston University, and UMass Lowell all ranked in the Pairwise Top-10 in the nation, the key for the Eagles’ sustainability boils down to one word—predictability.
“You have to be predictable for your linemates, for your teammates, and if everybody’s on the same page, then you can keep the puck moving in the right direction. It won’t be beautiful, but you can muck pucks out when you have to.”
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