The Boston College men’s hockey team took home their second win in two non conference games this weekend on Sunday afternoon, knocking off Harvard 4-1. The Eagles didn’t come out firing like they have at times this season, instead using three third period goals to take down the Crimson and win their fourth game in a row.
The Eagles were not able to match their red hot first period from Friday night against Notre Dame, and instead the two teams played a mostly uneventful first 20 minutes of hockey. BC did have to kill off a Harvard power play that has been very successful early on but neither team really generated much in terms of scoring chances, with one of BC’s best looks coming on their fourth line’s first shift of the game. They did a good job keeping Harvard quiet too, however, and the two teams remained scoreless after one.
The second period was more of the same for about 18 minutes, with both teams still struggling to create much offense. It did look like BC had a goal early on when Gabe Perreault tipped home a slap pass from Cutter Gauthier on a power play chance, but the refs took the goal off of the board due to a goaltender’s interference call against Jack Malone. The Eagles finally managed to break the scoreless deadlock with just over 90 seconds left in the period, cashing in after a few back-to-back shifts of solid forechecking. Charlie Leddy jumped on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot on net that Ryan Leonard was able to redirect in to continue his hot play of late to give BC a 1-0 lead. The lead lasted for all of 21 seconds, however, as Harvard managed to score on a shot through a screen on the very next shift to tie the score heading into the third period.
Cutter Gauthier gave BC a 2-1 lead with his 12th goal of the season midway through the third period after a great passing play. Andre Gasseau made a great play on the forecheck to win a puck battle on the boards and turned out to the middle of the ice with some space. He sent a cross ice pass over to Oskar Jellvik, who had a lot of net to shoot at if he wanted to. Instead, Jellvik sent the puck back across the ice to Gauthier, who fired it into the mostly empty net to give BC the lead once again. Colby Ambrosio finally got his first of the season a few minutes later to make it a 3-1 game, though he most likely pictured scoring a bit of a nicer goal in his head to break his scoring drought. Ambrosio was sprung on a breakaway a few shifts after Gauthier’s goal and looked like he’d have a great look on net, but he was hauled down from behind before he could get a shot off. Ambrosio hit the Harvard goalie while he was sliding and knocked the net off of its moorings, but the loose puck had crossed the goal line before. The refs originally called no goal on the play, but they reversed their call after a review to give Ambrosio his first goal of the season.
Ryan Leonard put things away late in the third period, firing home a rebound off of a shot from Lukas Gustafsson who had just come out of the penalty box to start an odd man rush.
This definitely wasn’t as dominating a performance from BC as their Friday night demolishing of Notre Dame, but it’s hard to be upset looking at the final scoreline. With the win, the Eagles have improved to 11-2-1 on the year and look every bit the contender that we were hoping to see back before the season started. They’ll have a chance to improve on that record even more next weekend, when they take on a Northeastern team that is still looking for it’s first Hockey East win in a home-and-home series.