The season is officially underway for the Boston College men’s hockey team, and there is already plenty to talk about. The Eagles split their first season of the series last weekend, winning Friday night’s opener against Michigan State 3-0 before the Spartans bounced back with a 4-3 win of their own on Saturday. There’s a long way to go this season and it’s too soon to anything too definitive about this year’s team, but here’s some of what stood out over the first two games of the year
WILL VOTE COMES OUT FIRING
Will Vote had a bit of a tough freshman season last year. He skated in 20 games for the Eagles, almost entirely as a member of the team’s third line, but only scored one goal before he got hurt during a game in January and missed the rest of the season. And then it just kind of felt like he was forgotten about a little bit. The team was playing well and scoring a ton and so Vote’s freshman year came and went without a whole lot of discussion around it.
Well, he sure made a statement in his return to game action last weekend. Vote scored the first two goals of the season for the Eagles on Friday night, leading the team to a 3-0 win while once again skating in a third line role, this time with two freshman on his line in Dean Letourneau and Jake Sondreal. It was a nice moment for Vote after some of the struggles he faced as a freshman, and the fact that it helped BC win their season opener is even sweeter
BC’s forward lineup is strong this season, but not entirely without question marks. The team’s third line came into this season with a total of 20 games played and one goal scored at the college level. Vote is going to be an important player this year in his third line role, and his line is going to need to click for the Eagles to reach their ceiling as a team. Friday night was a great first impression and hopefully a sign of things to come as the season continues.
AN EARLY LOOK AT THE FORWARD LINES
Last season, head coach Greg Brown had four first round picks at forward, and for pretty much the entire season, he kept three of them together. Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault, and Will Smith were inseparable on the ice until Perreault had to miss a few games late in the season with an injury and while they were together, there wasn’t a better line in the country.
Will Smith is obviously gone now but the Eagles another highly touted freshman in James Hagens, who is currently projected to be one of the first picks in the next NHL Draft. But Brown did not choose to start the season with Hagens between Perreault in Leonard. Instead, the two dynamic wingers played with junior Oskar Jellvik while Hagens centered a line with Andre Gasseau and fellow freshman Teddy Stiga.
At least, that was the case for the first five and a half periods of the weekend. With the Eagles chasing a goal down the stretch of Saturday’s game, Brown switched things up and did put Hagens, Perreault, and Leonard together for their last handful of shifts. The trio wasn’t able to find a tying goal, but they did look dangerous together and created a handful of scoring chances down the stretch.
It makes some sense to try to keep the forward lines balanced at the start of the season, and it’s not like BC had a hard time scoring with the lines that they ran out there. Leonard and Perrault had a goal and an assist over the weekend, Jellvik had a goal and three points of his own, and Hagens started his career at BC with an assist in each of his first two games. The big names produced for the Eagles, but a full time line of Hagens, Perreault, and Leonard feels like it might almost be inevitable, at least for a few games. But again, that’s what this part of the season is for – trying some different things out and figuring out what combinations work the best.
A MIXED BAG IN THE DEFENSIVE END
Friday night and Saturday night were two different stories for the Eagles in their defensive zone. BC gave up very little in terms of scoring chances in their season opener, and Jacob Fowler was able to clean up the few that they did allow. Saturday night wasn’t quite as clean however, particularly in the second period when Michigan State was able to score three goals and erase two different one-goal leads. There were some ugly turnovers in some bad areas on the ice and Fowler wasn’t quite as sharp as the night before.
BC’s defense should be a strength on the whole this year, but there’s some early season rust that they’ll need to shake off before they really start rolling. It was a bit frustrating to watch on Saturday, but it certainly shouldn’t be a concern as of yet, especially after what we saw them do in the season opener. Worth keeping an eye on for sure, but nothing to be overly worried about after just two games.