BOSTON — No. 17 Boston College men’s hockey has slowed down, taken deep breaths, and begun to undergo its end-of-the-season process step by step. It was put on the chopping block before the Hockey East tournament even began, as four straight losses to close out the regular season significantly slimmed BC’s chances at an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
The entirety of Saturday night’s game followed BC’s step-by-step theme. But with every foot forward, No. 13 Connecticut trailed right behind.
The Eagles (20–15–1, 13–11–0 Hockey East) failure to gather a two-goal lead proved the deciding factor, as the Huskies’ (20–11–5, 13–9–3) secured a 4–3 win in overtime, setting themselves up for a date with Merrimack tomorrow night in TD Garden.
“They’ve done a lot of good things,” Brown said about this year’s seniors. “Brought a lot of winning to this program, and very thankful for what they’ve given to us. We’ll miss them, but we move forward.”
The first period was a slow start to the process. The teams combined for five penalties, but neither could net a goal and the game headed into the first intermission still scoreless.
Just 39 seconds out of the locker room, though, and with BC on the power play, that changed. James Hagens was the tic, Andre Gasseau was the tac, and Dean Letourneau was the toe in a pretty passing sequence that gave BC the first lead of the night at 1–0.
“We just had to pray against that power play,” UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “That goal that Letourneau scored, I mean there was literally an inch to put that pass.”
That advantage was taken away from the Eagles 53 seconds later, though, as Trey Scott seemed to dump a shot into Cloutier’s lap, but snuck into the net and gave UConn the equalizer just 1:32 into the second period.
It didn’t take long for BC to answer once again. The next call to the box—a holding on Tom Messineo—gave way for Letourneau to pot his second goal of the night after Lukas Gustafsson’s shot caused a scrum in front of the net.
“I don’t know what the next step is,” Brown said. “I know [Letourneau] can keep going. Everyone can. No one’s a complete project, not when you’re this young.”
It did not take long for UConn to respond, either.
About three minutes after the Eagles’ second score, Mike Murtagh’s feed from Gretzky’s Office went right into Ethan Whitcomb’s wheelhouse, and he slapped it past Cloutier to make it 2–2.
For the next 20 minutes of play until the next goal, neither team generated the highest quality of chances, but every shot put on net had the opposing fans hold their breaths, no matter how easy of a save it was for each goaltender.
Both Tyler Muszelik and Cloutier proved their worth to their respective teams, combining for 50 saves in BC’s loss.
When the Huskies finally did strike—after plenty of chewed fingernails and scratchy throats for fans in the Garden—the arena erupted as Mike Murtagh scored to give UConn its first lead of the night with 7:32 remaining in the game.
BC quickly turned it back around to a tie game and ignited its own student section, though. Ryan Conmy raced to a loose puck in the middle of the zone, wound his stick back, and fired the puck past Muszelik with 5:47 to play.
Neither team scored again in regulation, and the game headed into overtime. BC’s seniors went into the locker room unaware it would be their last ice cut, or their last listen to Brown’s pre-period prep while wearing the maroon and gold.
“Really appreciative of our seniors,” Brown said. “They came back when they had options, and put in a good a lot of effort. We played for four trophies, they were able to win three of them and have a close game against Denver for the fourth one.”
Tristan Fraser picked up a sprawling puck near the middle of the circles 1:18 into the overtime period, then spun around and fired a shot that ricocheted off multiple players before finding its way into the back of the net, advancing the Huskies to the championship game.
“I thought we did a fantastic job bouncing back and having a really good game against Maine,” Brown said. “But like I said, this league is really tough. Every game is a battle. If you miss a couple chances and they don’t, you’re not going to win that game.”
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