As No. 11 Boston College men’s hockey searched for some positive momentum heading into the Beanpot final, the Eagles found the opposite and got crushed 6–1 by Vermont at home on Friday night.
The game marked the third time the two teams have met this season. BC (15–9–1, 10–6–0 Hockey East) had gone 2–0 in their sweep over Vermont (12–14–0, 7–9–0) in early November, but the Eagles found their four-game win streak broken nonetheless.
“We had some mistakes that you just can’t make in college hockey, and we gave up too many opportunities,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “We don’t have many games like that.”
Just 1:20 in, Catamount Colin Kessler scored off a one-on-one opportunity against BC goaltender Louka Cloutier. Kessler outpaced the forwards and had BC defenders looking over their shoulders as the puck hit the back of the net, and his unassisted goal secured a 1–0 lead for Vermont.
The Eagles struggled to maintain possession throughout the period, resulting in another Vermont goal. Matteo Michels intercepted a pass and slid the puck to Ethan Burroughs, who flicked it past Cloutier’s right pad to boost BC’s lead to 2–0.
BC pulled its goalie with just under four minutes left in the first. The move generated offensive momentum for the Eagles, and Vermont’s Daniel Sambuco was penalized for holding, sparking a power-play opportunity for BC.
If there was any time for BC to score, it was now. They had the extra man, they had the motivation—and yet, they lacked the execution.
The Eagles have been strong on the power play and entered the matchup with a 25 percent conversion rate, the best in Hockey East. And though James Hagens kicked off the sequence with a shot on goal, it was promptly denied by Vermont goaltender Aiden Wright. That trend continued throughout BC’s two-minute advantage.
The Eagles fired shot after shot, with Oscar Hemming slamming the puck in from the top and registering four shots, but Wright was a brick wall. The freshman stopped nine consecutive shots and sent the period into intermission 2–0 Vermont.
“We started a little slow, but we had a good, solid couple periods of hockey after that,” Brown said. “We have to get back to being predictable to each other.”
The Eagles came out of the locker room looking like a completely different team. BC had an extended power play from a penalty on Burroughs with 1:02 left in the first.
Hagens notched a power-play goal just 47 seconds into the period, assisted by Lukas Gustafsson and Ryan Conmy, cutting the deficit to 2–1. But that lone goal was a rare bright spot in what was otherwise a bloodbath.
Shortly after Hagens’ make, Vermont’s Caeden Herrington scored what looked like an unassisted even-strength goal, but a review overturned it due to a kicking motion. The threat of heading back into a two-goal deficit seemed to send the Eagles into overdrive.
Halfway through the frame, Cloutier secured three saves in eight seconds. But a power-play opportunity for Vermont following a cross-checking penalty on Andre Gasseau gave Sebastian Törnqvist enough room to fire in another goal and secure a 3–1 Catamounts lead, which they ended the period with.
The third period concluded similarly to how it began. Just 2:27 in, Jonah Aegerter stormed down the ice and snuck around the goal. Massimo Lombardi was waiting, received the pass from Aegerter, and tipped it past Cloutier. With Vermont up 4–1, fans began to trickle out of Conte.
The final nail in the coffin for the Eagles was Michels’ goal just three minutes later. BC led the game in shots on goal, holding 33 to Vermont’s 27, and the teams went 50-50 in faceoff wins, but Vermont dominated on offense.
To add insult to injury, the Catamounts racked up another goal before a nearly-empty BC student section. The 6–1 defeat marks the Eagles’ worst loss all season, coming right before their most anticipated game of the season thus far as they prepare for the Beanpot Championship.
“We talked about this game a lot—it’s about league standings, for national standings, and it’s important,” Brown said. “We just weren’t sharp enough.”
