With its two biggest offensive sparkplugs and head coach Greg Brown off in Minnesota to represent the United States in the World Junior Hockey Championship, a shorthanded No. 12 Boston College men’s hockey was left with a hefty task: taking down the reigning national champs.
Two of the Eagles’ top-five goal scorers in James Hagens and Teddy Stiga were unavailable, leaving associate head coach Mike Ayers to make some major changes to the lines.
The absence of the stars opened doors for others, though, and first-liners Dean Letourneau and Ryan Conmy answered the call.
“Given the circumstances, I think a lot of guys stepped up and did a good job,” Ayers said.
It wasn’t enough to overcome No. 5 Western Michigan (11–6–0, 6–4–0 NCHC) in the semifinal of the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off, however, and the Eagles (10–6–1, 7–3–0 Hockey East) fell 5–3 on Sunday night in Milwaukee, Wisc.
Letourneau’s late third-period goal, combined with two points each from Conmy and Michael Hagens, showed promise for a first line that had never played together, but the Broncos seemed to answer every response.
“This loss, it stings,” Ayers said. “We were hoping to pull one out, but at the same time I think we kind of beat ourselves a little bit tonight.”
Western Michigan began the scoring just over six minutes into the first frame, when a pass to Will Whitelaw below the circles gave him space to slap the puck between Louka Cloutier’s 5-hole for a 1–0 lead.
Cloutier faced just five shots in the first period, and the freshman goaltender finished with 21 saves on 26 shots throughout the night.
Oscar Hemming, a freshman from Finland who joined BC just this week, played in his first game as an Eagle, delivering an end-to-end rush and nearly sneaking in BC’s first goal of the game. Without some key players, Hemming quickly made a name for himself.
“We’re excited about [Oscar],” Ayers said. “I think the players were really excited to see him do what he did out there, too, so he’ll be a great addition to our team.”
The Eagles did not get on the board until more than halfway through the second period. Aram Minnetian netted his first of the season after picking up a loose puck, cutting into the slot, and firing a shot top left.
Unfortunately for BC, the junior defenseman’s score cut into a three-goal deficit, as the Broncos had already scored two of their own in the second period.
Will Moore found himself with a breakaway opportunity early in the second period—a makeup for his earlier tip-in goal that was overturned after challenge—but goaltender Hampton Slukynsky pushed it wide to deny the freshman’s take at a tie game.
The Broncos quickly turned it around, and Liam Valente came streaking into open ice between two BC defenders and rifled a snapshot past Cloutier’s glove.
Less than 11 minutes later, Western Michigan worked the puck around on the power play and found an open Whitelaw for his second score of the night. Cloutier had no chance, as a perfect centering feed from Ty Henricks to Whitelaw ended in a one-timer that gave the Broncos a 3–0 lead.
After Minnetian’s goal, the Broncos were close to entering the final period with the most dangerous lead in hockey. Western Michigan did not end its dominant second period there, however.
Zach Wisdom caught Cloutier low to the ice, popping his water bottle with a snipe from the right face-off dot and giving the Broncos a 4–1 lead with 1:29 left in the frame.
Hope still remained for a lacking BC bench. Just 15 seconds into the third period, Conmy wrapped his body around on a rebound and shoved home the Eagles’ second goal of the night and his seventh of the season.
The Eagles had a prime opportunity to move further towards a tie game, as Western Michigan was called for too many men on the ice with 4:28 to play. Ayers called a timeout and had his squad reset for the biggest four minutes of the game.
Letourneau cracked the double-digit goal mark on the season with 1:41 left in the game by shelving a shot right in front of Slukynsky, but it was simply too little too late. A mishap after Cloutier was pulled had Letourneau send a blunderous pass all the way down the ice and into his own net, and the Broncos capped off their tournament semifinal win with a 5–3 victory.