Eagles hold on for a late win in Hockey East Quarterfinals
The Boston College men’s hockey team knocked off UConn 5-4 in the quarterfinals of the Hockey East tournament, avoiding a third period collapse to advance to the semifinals. The Eagles got goals from four different players and looked on the way to a comfortable win after two periods, but needed a late goal from Jack Malone to come away with the result they wanted.
The Eagles jumped out to a lead just over two minutes into the game on a goal from Jacob Bengtsson. BC’s third line put together a great shift of forechecking and won some battles down low before Bengtsson took a shot from the point that found its way through for his third goal of the season. Jack Malone doubled the lead just a few shifts later, scoring his first goal in over a month to make it a 2-0 lead. Malone’s first shot on a two-on-one rush was saved, but the puck squeaked through the UConn goalie and into the crease behind him, and Malone was the first person to it, burying it for his 10th goal of the season. Jacob Fowler made a few nice stops in the shifts immediately following Malone’s goal before Drew Fortescue made it 3-0, jumping on a loose puck and firing it home after a nice passing play between Malone and Oskar Jellvik to set up the scoring chance. UConn got a goal back less than a minute later to cut into BC’s lead and get themselves back into a game that was in danger of getting away from them early. The Eagles held on to their two-goal lead for the rest of the period, however, and took a 3-1 lead into the second period.
After the electric action to start the game, the second period looked a lot different, with both teams failing to create much in terms of scoring chances. The Eagles had an early power play that didn’t amount to much and a handful of half chances throughout the period and did a good job at keeping UConn to the outside in their own zone, but it looked like it would be a scoreless period until late. With under 30 seconds to go in the period, UConn was called for a too-many men on the ice penalty, and BC made them play. After a key faceoff win, Eamon Powell fired a wrist shot from the point, which Ryan Leonard was able to redirect from in front for his 26th goal of the season to give BC a 4-1 lead after two periods of play.
UConn got right back in the game early in the third, scoring a quick goal on a passing play from below the goal line before adding another less than a minute later on a shot from the slot to beat Fowler to make it a 4-3 game just over a minute into the period. Fowler came up with a few big saves in the next few shifts, but UConn eventually tied things up with a power play goal that barely crossed the goal line before Fowler could swipe it away. UConn continued to control most of the play after tying it up, but it was Jack Malone who got on the board next, scoring his second goal of the nice with a gorgeous redirection of a pass from Andre Gasseau to give BC the lead back. They had some chances to extend their lead shortly thereafter, including a full 1:56 of a five-on-three advantage but they were unable to convert. They had to sweat things out late as a result, with UConn pulling their goalie and Jamie Armstrong taking a penalty shortly thereafter to give the Huskies a six-on-four advantage, but the Eagles were able to hold off a late push to avoid overtime and win this one 5-4.
That makes it ten wins in a row for the Eagles, who will certainly take the result despite how the third period looked at time. It certainly wasn’t the prettiest of games down the stretch, but with the win, BC has now made it to the Hockey East semifinals where they will be looking to win their first Hockey East Tournament since 2012. They’ll have a chance to make it to the finals when they take on UMass on Friday night, with BU and Maine playing in the other semifinal game.