This weekend showed off some great clutch performances
It was a wild weekend in Boston College sports despite only a few games being played. The men’s hockey and basketball teams especially impressed over the weekend by coming up with a resilient performance to close out an important game.
BC Men’s Hockey Defeats #9 Providence
Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images
It was a rough third period on Saturday night. I sat in the stands of Conte Forum in horror as I watched the BC men’s hockey team blow a 2-0 lead against Providence to go down 3-2 with just about 12 minutes left. The team looked like they had basically given up after scoring those two goals, as they were careless with the puck and were not crashing the boards like they should have been, allowing Providence to out-hustle them and put together several offensive possessions without BC really seeing many scoring chances.
But Cutter Gauthier would have none of it. On the very next possession after PC’s third goal, Gauthier skated down the ice and set up a shot from his office, rocketing in a goal to tie the game right back up. And from there BC completely turned it around. They started crashing the boards hard, fighting for loose pucks, and making smart passes. The team from the first half of the game had returned and their skill was too much for Providence to handle, eventually riding two Oskar Jellvik goals to a 5-4 victory.
What I saw from them on Saturday night was very promising for a young team. Despite things starting to fall apart, their leadership showed up to get them back in the game and the team responded to the pressure really well. It requires that kind of mental fortitude to win big games, and they are starting to show that they can be a serious threat in the postseason against any kind of opponent.
BC Men’s Basketball Holds On Against St. John’s
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Now here’s a game where BC was playing a more skilled opponent, but clutched their way through a tough second half. It was a tight game the entire way on Sunday evening, with BC only getting to a lead of 6 points at one point in the first half and St. John’s jumping out to a 10-point lead early in the second half. But the Eagles offense helped them get right back in it, and they rode that offense down the stretch to a win against a formidable Big East foe. With five different Eagles scoring double-digit points and nobody on BC scoring more than 14, it was a true team effort to take down the Red Storm.
The real heroics came in towards the end of the game when BC went on a 7-0 scoring run, including a huge clutch three-pointer by Chas Kelley III, that eventually gave the Eagles enough space to come out with the victory. Despite plenty of turnovers and some struggles from the free throw line, Earl Grant’s squad shored up their defense in clutch time and found a way to win. Those are the kinds of gritty performances BC will need to make their way through a crowded ACC and into a postseason tournament.