The Boston College men’s hockey team continued their red hot start to the season with two more wins over the weekend, knocking off Maine on Friday and Sunday by scores of 3-2 and 3-0 respectively. The Eagles have had an extremely difficult schedule to start the season, with seven of their first eight games coming against highly ranked teams that could all be pushing for an NCAA Tournament bid in a few months, but BC has come out of their gauntlet with a 7-1 record, a 27-10 goal differential, and a whole bunch of good vibes. There was a lot that the Eagles did well this past weekend, so let’s talk about some of what stood out the most from these last two games.
FRIDAY NIGHT’S COMEBACK WIN AN EXCITING REMINDER
Friday night’s 3-2 win was one of the best college hockey game’s that I’ve seen in a while. Even thought it took a long time for either team to get on the board, it felt like the action was pretty much constant at both ends. The two goalies came up with some big saves and it felt like both teams were just playing really good hockey pretty much right from the opening faceoff. Maine obviously did eventually get the scoring started with a goal late in the second period before they doubled their lead seven minutes into the third and all of a sudden, BC was chasing a two-goal deficit.
And then, over the course of just a few minutes, the Eagles reminded everyone what makes them so dangerous. They scored three goals in the final 10 minutes of regulation including twice in the final three minutes to completely flip the script and come away with a 3-2 win. Ryan Leonard put home the game winner with just over 90 seconds left to play and what was looking like a massive result for Maine became BC’s best win of the early season.
This is what made Boston College such a dangerous team last year: the ability to score goals in bunches and either turn close games into blowouts or to get themselves back into games. They can put up goals out of nowhere, they can string difficult, creative passes together and generate something out of nothing. Just take a look at the power play goal that sparked Friday’s comeback
Tic-tac-toe and we’re back in this!
Watch on NESN and ESPN+ (https://t.co/1NGj4APAT7) pic.twitter.com/c99m2eO53T
— BC Men’s Hockey (@BC_MHockey) November 9, 2024
This play start when Gabe Perreault picks up the puck with 9:40 on the clock. His back is to the net, he’s skating towards the blue line. Five seconds and two passes later, the puck is in the back of the net. When this team is rolling, things happen fast.
TWO VETERANS COME UP CLUTCH
Oskar Jellvik’s absence this weekend left a big hole in BC’s lineup. The junior forward has been a mainstay in the team’s top six pretty for the last two seasons and without him centering the second line, the Eagles needed someone to step up in both games so they could get their Hockey East season started on the right foot.
First up was Mike Posma. Posma has been great at his role in his time at BC and he’s had a very nice start to the season playing fourth line minutes and being a fantastic part of the penalty kill. Whenever he’s been asked to play up in the lineup, however, he hasn’t had the most success. Posma just hasn’t ever scored enough to stick long term on the team’s third line – his season best points total was the 10 he scored as a sophomore and he had just two goals and six assists in 41 games last season. On Friday night, however, he delivered what might have been the best game of his BC career.
Posma was tasked with centering the team’s third line in Jellvik’s absence, playing between two true freshmen in Jake Sondreal and Dean Letourneau, both of whom are still searching for their first collegiate goals. And on Friday night, Posma was absolutely everywhere for the Eagles. He was consistently generating scoring chances in the offensive zone and tested Maine’s goalie throughout the game. Posma came into Friday night’s game with just seven shots on goal for the season but ended up having four attempts on the night, good for second most on the team. And of course, he managed to tie things up late in the third period with his first goal of the season.
Meanwhile, Andre Gasseau managed to shake off what had been a bit of a slow start for the junior forward over the weekend. The long time linemate of Jellvik was had just one goal and two assists through six games, but he came through in a big way for the Eagles when he needed them most. Playing on a makeshift second line with Teddy Stiga and Will Vote, Gasseau had himself a three-goal weekend, scoring the team’s first goal to start the comeback on Friday night before adding two third-period goals on Sunday afternoon to help complete the sweep.
Injuries are a part of the game and every team is going to face them, so it’s incredibly important for guys to be able to step up and play bigger roles when they’re needed. Mike Posma isn’t going to be the scoring chance generating machine that he was on Friday night every game and Andre Gasseau won’t have three-goal weekends all the time, but they both came through when BC really needed them and it resulted in two huge wins. Great weekends from two important veterans on this team.
A QUICK JACOB FOWLER CHECK IN
Fowler has been on another planet to start this season. Eight games played, just ten goals allowed, only allowed more than two goals in a game once so far and a .950 save percentage. He stopped what felt like five or six different breakaways against Maine in the two games from this past weekend and even though BC’s team defense was the bigger story on Sunday afternoon, Fowler’s 26 saves were enough to earn him his third shutout of the season. On a team that has had a lot of different players impress at the start of the season, Fowler has absolutely been one of the biggest stars.