Eagles finish off a huge weekend sweep
The Boston College men’s hockey team knocked off Boston University on Saturday night, winning 2-0 to sweep their rivals and finish off a fantastic weekend of hockey. This game wasn’t as exciting as what we saw on Friday night, but it was a strong overall effort from the Eagles and the latest standout performance in net from Jacob Fowler in what has been a fantastic season from the sophomore netminder.
There was a bizarre start to this game, with BU being called for a penalty before the game even started. The Terriers’ starting goalie, Mikhail Yegorov, went out for a solo lap before his first career start, but he hit the ice too early in the pregame process and was called for a delay of game penalty as a result. BC started on a power play as a result, and they made it count, when Teddy Stiga jumped on a rebound off of a shot from Ryan Leonard and buried it just 24 seconds into the game for his second goal of the weekend. BU settled down after the goal and probably had the better of the play for most of the period, but Fowler was sharp from the opening faceoff and stopped all 16 shots that he saw in the opening frame. The Eagles were able to kill off both of the penalties they took while coming up empty on a chance of their own late in the period and Stiga’s goal on the first shift of the game held up as the only tally of a pretty wild opening 20 minutes of play.
Fowler had to be sharp again in the second period, as the Eagles looked uncharacteristically sloppy with the puck for long stretches. BU had a number of dangerous scoring chances throughout the middle period, but Fowler was up to the task every time, stopping another 8 shots. The Eagles did have a few chances, including a 2-on-0 rush that they managed to not score on for the second night in a row, but they seemed to be on the back foot for most of the period, and had to be relieved to take their 1-0 lead into the third period of play.
The Eagles must have cleaned everything up during the second intermission, however, because they came out and played a fantastic third period while defending a one-goal lead. BU wasn’t able to get any kind of sustained pressure and the shots that they did manage to put on Fowler were easy enough for him to deal with. And just like Friday night’s game, it was Ryan Leonard who put things away late in the period with an empty net goal to give BC a 2-0 win and finish off a weekend sweep.
That makes it six wins in a row for the Eagles, who have been on a really nice streak after dropping their opening game of the second half of the season. With their sweep of BU, they are now at the top of the standings in a ridiculously competitive Hockey East as we start to get deeper and deeper into trophy season. That was also Jacob Fowler’s sixth shutout of the season in just his 22nd game – it has truly been a remarkable season so far for the netminder. BC moves to 18-4-1 on the season with the win and will host a surging UMass Lowell next week for a single game with the Beanpot looming on the following Monday.
Heck of a weekend for the Eagles, it’s always great to come away with two wins from rivalry weekend!