Vermont led No. 2 Boston College men’s hockey in shots on goal through Saturday night’s entire game, yet it took the Catamounts 58 minutes to get a puck past BC netminder Jacob Fowler.
While BC (24–6–1, 16–4–1 Hockey East) did not dominate the game in shots on goal, it did so in nearly every other way and ended the game with a three-goal advantage over Vermont (11–16–3, 6–12–2) sweeping the weekend series with a 4–1 win.
BC’s quick puck movement to start the game led to some chances, but none of those early opportunities made it past Vermont’s Axel Mangbo.
Vermont responded with a flurry of shots against Fowler, who remained impenetrable in net. This offensive attack led to a minor penalty on Ryan Leonard for holding eight minutes in.
One man down, the Eagles remained calm, fending off a series of shots from Vermont. Once they managed to clear the puck, Teddy Stiga took off from just behind the red line for a short-handed breakaway goal to put BC up. The goal was BC’s seventh shorthanded goal of the season.
“You build that confidence [on the penalty kill] over the season,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “The guys start to believe and when they’re comfortable in the system and they believe it, they’re not hesitating so they’re reading when they can pressure and when they have to be patient.”
Just four minutes later, Leonard flung the puck out from behind the net to allow Gasseau to slam it into the goal, putting the Eagles up 2–0 with five minutes left in the period.
Vermont called a timeout following the goal, leading 7–5 in shots on goal with nothing to show for it. After returning to the ice, the Catamounts played a more aggressive game, taking shot after shot at Fowler, who denied them all.
Leonard, in frustration, got another holding penalty with less than two minutes left in the first frame.
The second period continued in much the same way as the first, and the increasingly physical nature led to coincidental minors for roughing on Gasseau and Vermont’s Jens Richards, and the teams faced off 4-on-4.
Once both teams had all their men back on the ice, Perrault took the puck up and passed it to Leonard, who faked out Mangbo with some quick stickwork for his second and the Eagles’ third goal of the night at the 4:37 mark in the second period.
Then at 14:40, Stiga dropped it off for Gasseau, who brought the score to 4–0 with his second goal of the game.
When Gentry Shamburger drew a minor penalty for holding, the Catamounts pounced into position to try and snap the shutout that had held them all game.
Then, Philip Törnqvist hit Brady Berard shoulder to chin, forcing him to come off the ice with six minutes left. Just two minutes later, Stiga faced off against Törnqvist leading to a scuffle with all five players on each team.
“You try and avoid those, but Brady took a big hit there and the bench got emotional,” said Brown. “You have to be able to manage that but you also want to stand up for your teammates. So there’s a fine line there that you have to walk.”
The fight culminated in Gasseau, Stiga, and Will Vote all taking two-minute minors for roughing and 10 minutes for misconduct, leaving Vermont on a two-minute power play with four minutes left in the third.
The Catamounts refused to let this chance pass them by and snapped Fowler’s shutout with a goal from Timofei Spitserov with 2:12 left in the game, cementing a 4–1 final score.
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