Earning the role as the starting netminder for Boston College men’s hockey as a true freshman and guiding the Eagles to a 2024 national championship appearance, Jacob Fowler is known for being even-keeled between the posts, hardly ever letting the score affect his play.
But in Friday night’s matchup against UConn, Fowler let his emotions get the better of him.
In the second period, after allowing three straight goals to the Huskies in just under five minutes, the 2023–24 Hockey East Goaltender of the Year cocked his arm back and launched a punch that connected with the face of Tristan Fraser, who had given the Huskies a 3–1 lead over BC just seconds before.
“I’m sure he was frustrated with how we weren’t playing nearly tight enough in front of him,” BC head coach Greg Brown said of Fowler’s reaction. “You know, a guy went crashing through him in the crease. I think the combination of how the game was going and the fact that the guy made contact as he went through, and the puck ended up in the net, it had him react not in his normal, even-keeled fashion.”
Fowler immediately received a game misconduct and was ejected from the game, prompting Jan Korec to take his place in the net.
The Huskies (6–5–1, 4–4–1 Hockey East) capitalized on the catastrophe that was the second period for No. 2 BC (7–2–0, 2–1–0) and ultimately defeated the Eagles 5–4, handing them their second loss of the season.
The Eagles rattled off three goals in the third period, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the second period.
“We know that we can’t do that in short spurts and have success,” Brown said. “We know that’s gonna have to be much more consistent and more sustained for 60 minutes. It’s too hard to win in Hockey East or any college hockey if you aren’t consistent with your effort.”
Aidan Hreschuk got the Eagles on the board first after he launched a one-timer past Tyler Muszelik just under five minutes into play.
“I think when they’re at home and there’s a large crowd, and they got the first couple shifts under their belt, they had the advantage,” Hreschuk said after the first period. “I think just getting pucks on net, kind of found a squeaky one, but that can really shift the tide in our favor when we had a slow start.”
The Eagles took that 1–0 lead into the second frame, but the tide quickly shifted back in UConn’s favor.
Hudson Schandor knotted the game up just 18 seconds into the frame, and less than two minutes later Kaden Shahan gave the Huskies a 2–1 edge.
The Huskies were not satisfied, though, and a minute and a half later Nick Carabin set Fraser up to slam the puck past Fowler, making it 3–1 and prompting Fowler to punch Fraser in the face.
“We knew UConn was gonna come out with everything they had and we weren’t able to match that,” Brown said. “We scored pretty early in the game, and then it felt like UConn really made a push after that.”
After a disastrous second period for BC, Ryan Leonard kicked off the third with a wrister from the top of the left circle to make it 3–2 just 31 seconds after the opening faceoff.
But Korec let up his first goal of the game with 9:05 left to play as Thomas Messineo launched a wrister of his own from near the blue line to reestablish UConn’s two-goal lead. The back and forth was only beginning.
Andre Gasseau picked up a goal on the power play with 1:14 left in the game, but 18 seconds later Ryan Tattle found the back of the net to give the Huskies a 5–3 lead.
Hreschuk reemerged and made it 5–4 keeping the Eagles’ hopes of a comeback alive, but time ran out on the comeback bid.
“We tried to make a push in the third,” Brown said. “Got some momentum going, but we weren’t able to get that last goal to tie it up.”
