AMHERST, Mass. - No. 7 University of Massachusetts hockey out-shot No. 2 Boston College, 33-22, but the Eagles made the most of their opportunities to skate past the Minutemen, 6-3, at the Mullins Center on Saturday night in a non-league meeting between the teams. The loss leaves UMass at 1-2-1 to start the year, while BC improves to 2-0-0.
"I thought, very similar to last night that we gave up a lot of goals, but I don't think we gave up a lot of chances," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel, "It's not anything against our goaltender. The chances they got were high-end and they're a skilled team. We knew that was going to happen. When they get good scoring chances, then it's going to be in the back of the net. I thought for stretches we played well, we had a lot of time in the offensive zone, found ways to keep clawing back into the game, but then we had breakdowns and Boston College made sure we paid for it pretty quickly."
With minimal opportunities for either side in the early going, Boston College broke through for the opening tally at the 13:55 mark of the first period. Patrick Giles and Drew Helleson fed Marc McLaughlin who scored on a rush up the ice for the Eagles.
UMass managed to equalize in short order as sophomore Jerry Harding found freshman Ryan Sullivan from behind the net and Sullivan tapped the puck over to senior Philip Lagunov who knocked it home at the doorstep at 15:36. The helpers marked the first points for Harding and Sullivan's collegiate careers.
BC regained the lead before the intermission, though. Helleson converted on the Eagles' only power play chance of the night from Matt Boldy and Logan Hutsko at the 18:21 mark, snapping a streak of 16 straight successful kills for the Minutemen to begin the season.
Just 90 seconds into the second period, Boston College pushed its lead to two as Colby Ambrosio put a rebound from Mike Hardman past netminder Filip Lindberg.
Freshman Oliver MacDonald brought UMass back to within one at the 10:56 mark with a strike from the top of the right faceoff circle off a feed from senior Jake Gaudet and redshirt senior Carson Gicewicz.
However, the Eagles countered at 12:44 with McLaughlin's shot from the perimeter that found its way through traffic past Lindberg with Trevor Kuntar and Giles earning the assists.
Midway through the third, Gaudet brought the Minutemen back to within a goal once more, skying the puck over Spencer Knight at the net front from senior Oliver Chau and Gicewicz at 7:54.
BC regained its two-goal cushion for the third time with Hardman's one-timer from Boldy and Knight, 13:11 into the third and Nikita Nesterenko added the empty net goal at 19:49.
UMass out-shot the Eagles, 33-23 in the contest. The Minutemen were 0-for-2 on the power play and BC went 1-for-1. Lindberg finished the night with 17 stops and Knight made 30 saves for Boston College.
