With the regular season now at a close, No. 13 Boston College men’s hockey finds itself in a precarious position.
The NCAA Tournament uses a 16-team field, selecting the top-15 teams in the NPI rankings as the at-large cutoff, with the Atlantic Hockey America champion being given the 16th seed.
With a 4–2 loss to Northeastern on Saturday night, extending its losing streak to four, and the next set of rankings being released on Monday, BC (19–14–1, 13–11–0 Hockey East) by no means has a spot secured.
Although they led 2–0 in the second period, the Eagles let the Huskies (16–17–1, 11–13–0) rattle off four straight goals en route to a season sweep over BC for the first time since 2008–09.
“We have to be patient and manage the puck better, and it’s not always fun to play the game that’s in front of you—play winning hockey,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “You’ve got to be okay with playing a territorial game against teams like Northeastern that are excellent at it.”
The Eagles’ first goal occurred in typical BC fashion: on the power play and only 2:40 into the first period.
The puck went straight back to captain Lukas Gustafsson from the face-off, and the senior defender fired in a shot from the point for his sixth goal of the season in his last BC regular-season game.
“They’ve been invaluable,” Brown said about this year’s senior class. “We’re in a tough stretch, but they’ve been invaluable to the good parts that we’ve had this season—the leadership, the on-ice hockey stuff.”
Despite two penalties being called on the Eagles in the opening frame, Northeastern failed to capitalize on either, including on the 1:56 of power-play time that carried over to the second.
Just three minutes into the second period, luck continued to be on BC’s side as it took on a commanding two-goal lead. From the top of the blue line, Nolan Joyce looked for a streaking Oscar Hemming on the far-side post. His pass was redirected by a Northeastern defender through Lawton Zacher’s five-hole.
In its loss to Merrimack last month, the only other two-goal lead blown by BC this season, BC saw the Warriors start their scoring in the first period, but it took until 5:43 into the second for Northeastern to break through.
Matthew Maltais slid a pass to Jack Pechar, who snuck his way through the Eagles’ defense and went backhand past Louka Cloutier to cut BC’s lead in half.
The Huskies wouldn’t finish their comeback bid before the second frame was over, though, as a roughing call on Landan Resendes put them on a power play for the fourth time of the night.
Giacomo Martino took advantage of the man-up opportunity, finishing a rebound after being fed a pass from Austen May to tie things up 2–2.
“I’m sure there’s a few [Cloutier] would want to have back, but he’s given us a chance the whole season, so we’re gonna have to step up and play well,” Brown said.
Statistically speaking, BC suffered a big blow with Northeastern’s late-period goal: the Eagles were 17–0–0 when leading after the second period.
Amine Hajibi gave the Huskies their first lead of the night 6:26 into the third after Jacob Mathieu intercepted a pass at the bottom of the neutral zone and put a shot off Cloutier’s right pad and into Hajibi’s wheelhouse for him to snap home the tie-breaking goal for a 3–2 lead.
“[Northeastern] is very content to just kind of get above, hang out and wait for opportunities,” Brown said. “And they’re quick when they get their transition game going—they’re outstanding. They can get up the ice in a hurry once they see a little mistake.”
The Eagles would get a power-play opportunity just over two minutes later, but could not put the necessary pressure on a goalie who has taken the driver’s seat against their offense all year—Zacher has contained BC to three goals and posted a total of 97 saves in the schools’ three matchups.
“It eats away at your confidence, especially as goal scorers, when you’re not scoring,” Brown said. “But there’s stuff that we can build on that we did.”
Martino netted another for the Huskies with 7:26 left, but the Eagles were not able to take advantage of the remaining time. The clock hit zero without BC generating any offensive scare as Northeastern finished off its regular season with a 4–2 win over its cross-town rival.
“It’s a new season, now everything starts,” Brown said. “We have to get ready for Friday … now it’s playoffs.”
