Eagles win their home opener in impressive fashion
The Boston College men’s hockey delivered in a big way in their home opener on Friday night, blowing out AIC 5-0 in front of a packed and rowdy student section. The Eagles made this one look easy, jumping out to an early lead and never looking back en route to a dominant win. BC got goals from five different players and contributions from all over the lineup as they got back on track after dropping their last game to Michigan State.
It was a slow first few shifts for the Eagles, with Jacob Fowler having to make a big stop on a breakaway before BC came up empty on a pretty uninspiring power play, but they worked themselves into the game shortly thereafter. They had a flurry of scoring chances that started when Ryan Leonard ripped a puck off a post and continued for the next several shifts before they finally got on the board. It was Aram Minnetian who broke the scoreless deadlock less than halfway through the first period, when he fired a shot from just inside the blue line and under the crossbar to give BC a 1-0 lead. Gabe Perreault doubled the lead about six minutes later with a power play tally, scoring on a one-timer after a nice feed from Eamon Powell for his second goal of the young season to make it a 2-0 game after 20 minutes of play.
BC killed an early penalty to start the second period before putting another goal on the board, this time courtesy of Will Vote. Vote put home a great pass from Gabe Perreault for his third goal in as many games to continue his hot start to his sophomore season. The Eagles made it 4-0 less than a minute later, when Will Skahan’s shot from distance found its way through traffic and into the back of the net to give the freshman defenseman the first goal of his collegiate career. James Hagens followed that up with the first goal of his college career later in the period, scoring at the end of a great passing play that left him with a wide open net to slam the puck into and make it a 5-0 game after two period of play.
The two teams skated to scoreless and mostly uneventful third period, with BC seemingly and understandably content with a five-goal margin of victory. Jacob Fowler made a few easy saves to preserve his second shutout in three games to start the season and the Eagles took this one by a final score of 5-0.
This was just about everything you could have hoped for from a home opener from the Eagles. They took the lead early and scored a whole bunch while not giving up too much in their own end. AIC isn’t exactly a powerhouse opponent, but BC handled their business and had this one pretty much wrapped up by halfway through the second period. With the win, BC improves to 2-1 on the young season. They’ll play an exhibition game tomorrow night against the US National Team Development Program and get back to their regular season schedule next Saturday when they host a Western Michigan team that is currently ranked in the top 20 nationally.