Eagles sweep their weekend series
The Boston College men’s hockey team completed a weekend sweep of Merrimack on Sunday afternoon, blowing out their Hockey East foes 6-2. The Eagles controlled this game from the very beginning and never looked back after taking the lead, getting goals from five different players in a dominant performance to cap off their home-and-home series.
The Eagles got things going quickly in this one, scoring just 35 seconds into the game. It was the third line that started the game on Sunday and they made their presence felt immediately, with a few nice plays at the blue line leading to a great scoring chance for Jamie Armstrong from right out in front. Armstrong was turned aside, but Aidan Hreschuk was able to jam the rebound home for his first goal of the season to give BC a 1-0 lead. The third line stayed hot and made it 2-0 just a few minutes later, when Jack Malone fired a perfect wrist shot from the left circle for his fifth of the season. BC then killed off a Merrimack power play before continuing their hot start to the game, with Gabe Perreault giving them a three-goal lead with a gorgeous move on a breakaway that started with some great passing between the all freshman line. Things settled down a bit from there and Jacob Fowler had to make a few saves as the period went on, but the Eagles still went into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.
BC had a few chances to really put the game away early in the second period, including a 31 second five-on-three opportunity that Merrimack was able to kill off despite some good looks on net from the Eagles. The Warriors got a goal back a few minutes after that extended kill, scoring a bad angle goal from below the goal line by banking it off of Jacob Fowler to make it a 3-1 game. Jack Malone got that goal back with his second goal of the day, however, after four penalties taken back-to-back had the two teams playing at three-on-three. Malone ended up with the puck on a two-on-one rush and fired another perfect shot just under the crossbar to restore BC’s three-goal lead after two periods of play.
Will Smith put the game to bed early on in the third period, scoring on a one-timer into a mostly empty net after a great passing play from Perreault and Ryan Leonard to set him up in the left circle. Andre Gasseau made it 6-1 a little over halfway through the third when he jammed home a rebound after Cutter Gauthier had a great chance from in close that was turned aside. Merrimack tacked on a power play goal late in the period to make it 6-2, but that was as close as they would get and BC came away from this game with a blowout win.
This game was settled pretty early on thanks to BC’s fast start, but it was nice to see them not let Merrimack get back into the game, particularly in the second period when the Warriors came out with a bit of a push. With the win, the Eagles are now 16-4-1 on the season and 9-3-1 in Hockey East play. The biggest weekend of the regular season is coming up, however, with a home-and-home series against BU starting up on Friday night.