On Thursday night, the BC men’s hockey team faced off against their state rival UMass Minutemen in Amherst. After getting swept by BU last weekend, BC came into this game trying to preserve any sense of momentum heading into the postseason. UMass, meanwhile, sits just outside the NCAA tournament bubble and is jockeying for Hockey East tournament seeding.
Boston College was very strong to open the game, but like usual found trouble actually converting offense into goals. They outshot UMass 10-2 in the first frame, but came up with 0 goals to show for it. Minutemen goalie Michael Hrabal was impressive, but the Eagles also just weren’t converting on good positioning. A slew of late penalties stalled out the BC offense as the period concluded. So it wasn’t surprising when UMass’s Cam O’Neill scored four minutes into the second period and flipped the game on its head.
Advertisement
Play was much more even after that, with Hrabal continuing to stop all of BC’s shots and Cloutier doing a solid job for the Eagles on their end also. It was UMass’s turn to take a slew of penalties in the third period, with one powerplay finally resulting in a James Hagens goal to tie up the game. But it was very short-lived when Owen Murray came down the other end on a 2-on-1 to make it a 2-1 game less than a minute later.
The Eagles forwards were able to generate shots as they tried to equalize in the final few minutes, but nothing that felt truly deadly. The clock petered out as UMass stiffened up their defense and rode the 2-1 score all the way til the end. It was BC’s third loss in a row at the most inopportune time as they fight for a spot in the NCAA tournament. They are down to #15 in NPI after tonight, right on the bubble’s danger zone. Next up is senior day against Northeastern on Saturday, followed by the Hockey East tournament next week.
