Eagles drop the first game of the weekend series
The Boston College men’s hockey team lost to Northeastern 5-3 on Friday night in the first of two games between the two teams this weekend. The Eagles came out sluggish and fell behind early before fighting their way back into the game, but they were unable to overcome two late Northeastern goals as they fell to 11-3-1 on the season.
BC got two quick power play chances at the start of the game, but both came up empty and it was Northeastern who got on the board first, scoring on a wrist shot from the top of the Eagles just before the halfway point of the period. They doubled their lead just a few minutes later, scoring a wraparound goal after BC failed to clear a loose puck and Jacob Fowler was sprawled out on the ice after a play in close. The Eagles did kill a penalty a few minutes later and had a 2-on-1 chance immediately after, but they came up empty on that an Northeastern scored their third goal of the game with 3:44 left in the period after some ugly defensive zone coverage lead to a wide open Northeastern shot from the slot to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead heading into intermission.
BC continued to struggle at the start of the second period, failing to generate much of anything on offense while also relying on Fowler to make a few big saves to keep the game from getting even more out of hand. They did finally get on the board thanks to the penalty kill of all things. Mike Posma turned in an unbelievable shift on the PK and was rewarded with a tap in goal after Andrew Gasseau was turned aside on a breakaway chance. Gasseau collected the rebound below the goal line and slid it out to a wide open Posma who had the full empty net to shoot at for his second goal of the season. Ryan Leonard made it 3-2 just a few shifts later, scoring a power play goal on a rebound after BC finally managed to get some extended zone time with the man advantage. The Eagles tied things up with under a minute left in the period with another power play goal, this time from Eamon Powell. Powell ripped a bullet of a wrist shot into the top corner from the right circle after walking down from the point and the two teams were tied at three heading into the third.
The game stayed tied for a while in the third, with both teams creating a few chances but nothing that was super dangerous. That changed with about eight minutes to go, when Northeastern was able to generate a few scoring chances that required Fowler to make some difficult saves. He was able to keep the puck out of the net for a while, but Northeastern eventually capitalized off of a two-on-one rush that came after a bad pinch from BC at the offensive blue line to give the Huskies a late 4-3 lead. That ended up being the game winning goal, as BC was unable to score late. They did have a few decent looks on net and eventually got set up with the extra attacker when Fowler was pulled, but Northeastern scored an empty netter make it 5-3 and put the game to bed.
All in all, even with the big push at the end of the second period, this was an ugly game from BC. The Eagles really didn’t do much of anything at even strength and even when they got themselves back into the game after falling behind early, they never looked like they were close to pulling ahead. The loss spoils what was a great out of conference weekend last week and brings an end to a four-game winning streak. BC will have a chance to right the ship tomorrow night when they take on Northeastern and wrap up this home-and-home series.