Powell’s third period goal caps a weekend sweep
Captain Eamon Powell scored a beautiful goal on senior night and the Boston College Eagles defeated UNH 1-0 to complete a weekend sweep. Jacob Fowler was perfect in net and the Eagles did just enough to win for the second time this weekend, clinching the Hockey East regular season title in the process. It wasn’t a particularly pretty game to watch, but that makes it eight wins in a row for the Eagles and 12 straight in Hockey East play with just one weekend of games left on the slate.
The teams played a scoreless first period, with both sides generating a handful of decent scoring chances for the opposing goalie to deal with. Jacob Fowler was probably the best player for the Eagles in the opening 20 minutes, coming up big with a save on a breakaway immediately after a BC power play had expired before making a few tough stops on a New Hampshire penalty shortly thereafter. Will Smith probably had the two best chances for BC, including one off of a great indirect pass from Eamon Powell that he bounced off the boards behind the UNH net, but he was turned aside on both to keep it a scoreless game headed in to the second.
The second period brought more of the same, with BC struggling to put any kind of sustained offensive pressure on UNH while mostly holding up in their own end. The Eagles spent a lot of time in their defensive zone, but they blocked a lot of shots and managed to avoid giving up a ton of scoring chances while Fowler was able to clean up everything that the Wildcats did get on net. Still, it wasn’t the most inspiring opening 40 minutes from BC, and the Eagles were fortunate that it was still a 0-0 score heading into the third period.
Eamon Powell finally broke the deadlock with a beautiful goal just under seven and a half minutes into the third period to give BC a 1-0 lead. The senior captain hit Ryan Leonard with a pass at the offensive blue line before taking a pass back to set up a 2-on-1 rush. Powell did the rest himself, making a nice move to get the puck on his backhand before elevating it and beating the goalie for the only goal of the night. From there, the Eagles put on a clinic in protecting a lead for the remaining 12 minutes, keeping UNH to the outside and not allowing them to get any kind of good look on net. The Wildcats pulled their goalie with a bit over two minutes to play, but even that didn’t result in any kind of great scoring chances, and a few clears by BC was enough to clinch the 1-0 win.
With the win, the Eagles clinched the Hockey East regular season title and the #1 seed heading into Hockey East Tournament play. It certainly hasn’t been pretty the past few games but there’s a lot to be said for a team that can consistently grind out these kind of positive results even when they don’t have their A game. BC will close out the regular season with one more game on Saturday when they travel to play Merrimack before postseason play gets underway with the Hockey East Tournament and beyond.