Students began lining up outside Conte Forum several hours before the highly anticipated rivalry game between No. 1 Boston College men’s hockey and No. 8 Boston University.
As soon as the game actually began, though, the Eagles didn’t leave their fans waiting—not even for a minute.
“When you have people lined up at nine in the morning, it’s honoring to have a fan base like that, and makes our job easy,” Ryan Leonard said.
Twenty-four seconds was all it took for Eagles fans to see what they had waited all afternoon for, as a Leonard miss-turned-Teddy Stiga goal set the crowd on fire, making Conte even louder than it already was.
Leonard flew up the right side of the ice and sent the puck right at BU goaltender Mikhail Yegorov. Although Yegorov stopped Leonard’s attempt, he couldn’t do the same to Stiga’s, as the rookie sliced the rebound into BU’s net for his ninth goal of the season and fifth in six games.
After dominating Friday night’s matchup and beating the Terriers (13–9–1, 9–5–1 Hockey East) 6–2 down the road at Agganis Arena, the Eagles (18–4–1, 10–3–1) started Saturday’s game at home a man up, thanks to a bench penalty called on BU before the puck had even dropped.
BU head coach Jay Pandolfo said Yegorov went onto the ice before he was allowed to do so, which led to the penalty.
“It’s a joke that that’s how the game starts,” Pandolfo said. “And that’s not how these games should start. Like, come on. Like, really, this is how we’re gonna start a BC-BU game?”
That gave the Eagles the power-play opportunity that led to their one-goal advantage—a lead they never gave up as BC took down the rival Terriers 2–0 to sweep the weekend series.
Jacob Fowler tallied 30 saves and Yegorov collected 23 of his own in his first start for BU.
With seven minutes remaining in the first period, Fowler found himself staring straight at Ryan Greene with the puck and no defenders between them. Greene crept into the crease, jerking the puck around with his stick to try to fake out Fowler.
“We try not to take it for granted, but he’s so consistent,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “He gives us a chance every night. And his demeanor is so calm that it really helps spread confidence throughout the team. If he’s under pressure, and he’s making some spectacular saves, he doesn’t get flustered or look to the bench like, ‘Come on guys,’ he just keeps doing his job.”
Fowler had none of that. He stayed right where he was and made the stop to keep BU off the board. Fowler is ranked top seven in the nation in both save percentage and goals against average.
The Eagles squandered some great looks at a goal in the second period, keeping the game within reach for BU. With about six minutes remaining, Jake Sondreal received a cross-ice pass from Mike Posma as he cut toward the goal, giving him a good look for a short goal, but it turned into another missed opportunity for BC.
Neither team put any more points on the board until about a minute left when Ryan Leonard scored on an empty net to cement the Eagles’ 2–0 win and keep his four-game goal streak alive.
“Take ‘em when you can get ‘em,” Leonard said.
Stiga’s goal was the only one BC could get past Yegorov. But it didn’t matter. It was enough for the Eagles to get a win in the 297th battle of Comm. Ave.
“Just from the way the guys were in the locker room, they understand that these were big games, but there’s big games coming again next week and the week after,” Brown said. “The older guys really said the right things about staying calm, keeping our presence. Relax and enjoy this, but right away we have to be focused on Friday.”
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