On Saturday night, the Boston College men’s hockey team traveled up to Durham to face off against the New Hampshire Wildcats for the second game of the weekend series. The Eagles comfortably took care of business with a 5-2 win at Conte on Friday night in an important bounce back game after getting swept by Providence to start the semester.
After having control of the pace of much of the game on Friday, UNH came out of the gates on Saturday with a lot of urgency. They were beating Eagles to the puck and making zone entries with much more success and got some early shot opportunities that could’ve converted. BC goalie Louka Cloutier stepped up and made a lot of timely saves, including in a chaotic scene in front of the net that saw him lay on his back more than once. Before the period was over, BC went on a late powerplay and Will Vote converted a patient shot from the corner to take a 1-0 lead.
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It was Voter again to start the second period. On a long pass from Lukas Gustafsson, Will Vote angled a shot from the right side of the net just by the Wildcat goalie. BC’s 2-0 lead was bolstered by a renewed offensive push that kept UNH on its back foot for much of the second period. A breakaway chance appeared to have converted for UNH, with a catfish on the ice, but it was called back for offsides and the Eagles carried their 2-0 lead into the final frame.
A penalty for too many men put BC on the penalty kill midway through the final period, and things got extra dicey when an Eagle lost their stick, but UNH couldn’t convert on their prime chance. Boston College stepped on the gas after that, jumping at pucks in the neutral zone and maintaining possessions better than they had managed all night. It was finally capped off by yet another goal by Will Vote, giving him his first career hat trick and the Eagles a 3-0 lead with under five minutes remaining in regulation.
UNH was gifted a final powerplay with about three minutes remaining, but Wildcats coach Mike Souza baffling decided to leave his goalie in the net instead of trying to take a 6-on-4 advantage. Time ran out without another score and BC secured the home-and-home series sweep with a 3-0 shutout in Durham. Next up on the schedule is a one-off game at Agganis against BU on Friday night, the final game for BC before the Beanpot begins on February 2nd against Harvard.
