CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Jack McBain tipped a left-wing one-timer from Jack St. Ivany on the power play just 28 seconds into the third period and Boston College defeated ninth-ranked and first-place UMass 2-1 on Senior Night at Kelley Rink.
Graduate student Eric Dop stopped 25 of the 26 UMass shots he faced, including a right pad save in the final 10 seconds to help seal the victory.
Boston College (13-17-5, 8-12-3 HEA) locked up the No. 8 seed in the Hockey East Opening Round and will host No. 9 seed New Hampshire next Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Garrett Wait opened the scoring for Massachusetts (19-11-2, 14-7-2 HEA) at 16:52 of the first period, finishing a feed from Bobby Trivigno at the right post.
Sophomore Trevor Kuntar netted his ninth goal of the year, which tied the game at 1-1 late in the second period after a wall battle was won by Liam Izyk.
BC carried a power play into the third period and took its first lead when McBain deflected a left-wing shot from St. Ivany at the right post. Drew Helleson collected the second assist on the play.
Shortly after the go-ahead goal, Dop made an important right pad save on Cal Kiefiuk during a partial breakaway. Dop made another key right pad stop in the closing seconds of regulation with UMass netminder Matt Murray pulled for an extra skater.
Boston College took only one penalty on the night and killed off the lone Minuteman power play chance.
The teams close the weekend series and the regular season on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on NESNplus at the Mullins Center in Amherst.
