The Boston College men’s hockey team defeated New Hampshire 4-1 in their first game of a home-and-home series on Friday night, moving one step closer to clinching the Hockey East regular season title. The Eagles were thin at forward on the night, with Oskar Jellvik and Brady Berard missing the game and it got even worse when Teddy Stiga came out of the game after the first period, but they managed to find a way to get things done and start the weekend off on the right foot.
It was a pretty slow start to the game in the first period, with neither team able to generate much in terms of scoring chances even with an early power play look for UNH. Will Traeger rang a puck off the crossbar and just missed out on his first collegiate goal later on in the period, but it was New Hampshire who got on the board first, scoring on a shot from the point that got through a lot of traffic in front of Jacob Fowler with just 1:45 left on the clock. It was a pretty ugly period on the whole from BC, who clearly felt the absence of Oskar Jellvik and Brady Berard in their forward group as they went into the second period trailing by a goal.
The Eagles came out a lot stronger in the second period, possessing the puck better and spending most of the first few shifts in the offensive zone. They ended up drawing back-to-back penalties and while they came up empty on their first chance, they were finally able to get on the board on their second opportunity Andre Gasseau remained red hot when he fired home a one-timer from the top of the circles after a great pass from Gabe Perreault for his 14th goal of the season. He added his 15th of the year just a few minutes later, when he took a quick pass from Will Vote and found himself on a two-on-one. Gasseau decided to do things himself and he ripped a perfect wrist shot into the net for his second of the night.
Shortly after Gasseau’s second goal, UNH goalie Jared Whale was involved in a really bad collision with one of his teammates right next to his own net. Whale went down and did not appear to be moving as he remained on the ice for a long time after the collision. He was eventually stretchered off he ice as the teams were sent to their locker rooms with 4:51 left on the clock. Nothing that happened on the ice tonight matters nearly as much as Whale’s long term health and well being and we are all hoping for a positive update for Jared to be able to recover as quickly as possible.
The remaining 4:51 passed pretty uneventfully when play eventually did resume before the two teams played the third period. When the third period did finally start, Andre Gasseau ended what could have been a special night a bit early, when he took a major penalty and got himself ejected just under a minute in. BC was able to kill off all five minutes of the pealty, thanks to some great work by the penalty killers and a few big stops from Fowler to keep them in the lead. Connor Joyce made the most of the momentum BC gained from the kill, when he took a pass from Gabe Perreault and fired a perfect shot into the net to give BC a 3-1 lead. From there, BC really didn’t allow UNH to get any kind of offense going and played a basically perfect defensive period while defensing a lead. New Hampshire tried to make a late push by pulling their goalie with three minutes left on the clock, but Ryan Leonard fired home a wrist shot from his own blue line for his 28th goal of the season to give BC a 4-1 win.
This was a good win for the Eagles, especially considering what they were missing up front. It remains to be seen just how serious Stiga’s injury is and how soon Berard will draw back into the lineup, but for one night at least, they were able to take care of business and keep their winning streak going. The Eagles have just two regular season games left and they’ll have a chance to clinch Hockey East tomorrow night if Maine drops points in their game against Vermont while BC travels to New Hampshire to finish up this weekend series and goes for the sweep.