Just over three months ago, tensions were high for Boston College men’s hockey after a 3–0 loss to Northeastern on Halloween night gave it a three-game losing streak and moved its record to 2–4–1.
After that defeat, the Eagles rattled off nine wins in 11 games, rerouting their season toward their preseason expectations, and making the three-game losing streak a simple beginning-of-the-season hiccup far behind them.
But with a 2–1 loss to No. 17 Massachusetts (20–12–1, 13–9–1 Hockey East) on Thursday night, No. 13 BC (19–13–1, 13–10–0) is now on its second three-game skid of the season. Now, time is not on its side—only one game remains before the Hockey East Tournament.
Before this season, BC had not lost three straight games since 2022–23.
“When you’re not scoring, everything is magnified,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “We’ve got to find a way to finish off our chances.”
Generating chances wasn’t the issue for the Eagles, as the first six minutes of the opening frame featured plenty of odd-man rushes for UMass goaltender Michael Hrabal to warm up with.
Hrabal was the reason the Minutemen secured the first lead of the night—by the time their opening goal rolled around, BC led in shots 17–3.
It was 4:02 into the second period when Cameron O’Neill glided through the left side and fired a far-side snipe past a defeated Louka Cloutier, who was passed up on just his third shot faced of the night.
BC had no trouble exhausting its time in the offensive zone, but it could not get the puck across the goal line.
“You have to find a way to be able to execute and finish—you’re not gonna finish all of them, but you gotta finish a couple,” Brown said.
Will Skahan went to the box for hooking 90 seconds later, but BC put more shots on net than UMass during the penalty kill and kept its deficit at one in the process.
The Minutemen crawled back slightly in the remainder of the second in the shots category, falling behind 22–10. Despite a .667 save percentage after surrendering the first goal, Cloutier had no trouble as UMass’ offense began to pick up.
BC’s power play was given its second chance of the night just under six minutes into the third period with a kneeing penalty on Cameron Dunn.
Leading Hockey East in power-play percentage at 27.0, the Eagles have had 28.3 percent of their goals come on the power play—the second-highest in the conference.
“When you fail to convert on your chances, you start to try and be a little too fine,” Brown said. “We have to just simplify and play our game.”
There was nothing fancy about James Hagens’ game-tying goal just over a minute after Dunn’s kneeing call, though. After chugging from the blue line to between the circles, he fired a shot that squeezed through an unknowing Hrabal, and Hagens shoved it home to tie with nearly 13 minutes remaining.
BC rode that high for 53 seconds before UMass took it right back.
In almost the exact same spot as O’Neill’s far-side snipe, Owen Murray raised a shot above a sliding Lukas Gustafsson and mere inches below the crossbar for a top-right snipe that put the Mullins Center fans back on their feet.
Hrabal remained on his heels the remainder of the game, shutting down the handful of chances the Eagles put his way.
A cross-checking penalty on Justin Kerr was the perfect opportunity for the Eagles and their dominant power play with just under five minutes remaining in the game. But BC failed to put any sort of pressure on UMass’ penalty-kill unit, sending an even-strength offense back on the ice that had scored nine goals in its past eight games.
“It’s always good to get a lead and have them chase, but you also have to be able to come back,” Brown said. “And we had plenty of chances tonight, but we didn’t convert.”
Even with an empty net for the final 1:36 of the game, the Eagles failed to score one more on their 35 shots throughout the night, and Hrabal lifted UMass to avoid a season-sweep from BC in its 2–1 win.
“The guys are aware of what has worked for us earlier,” Brown said. “We just have to get back to that.”
