Penalties, Turnovers Plague Boston College Men’s Hockey in Season-Opening Loss to Alaska

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Racking up eight penalties in a single game, including four in the third period alone, makes it awfully hard to win hockey games at the NCAA level, and that’s exactly what Boston College men’s hockey did in its season-opening home loss to the Alaska Nanooks (1-2).

It wasn’t just penalties that resulted in the upset loss for the No. 11 Eagles (0-1), which they dropped 3-2.

Untimely turnovers were also a killer, and keeping space in front of the net clean was a clear issue at times.

Additionally, Alaska netminder Tyler Shea was superb for the visitors and totaled 28 saves, including some crucial stops in the last frame that allowed the Nanooks to sustain their third-period momentum.

“First, Alaska played a very sound, smart game — a very patient game,” BC head coach Greg Brown said after the loss. “They did a good job clogging the middle in the neutral zone, clogging the middle in front of the net, and we got impatient at times and made some mistakes you can’t make when it’s going to be a low-scoring, tight game.”

BC got going immediately thanks to a tic-tac-toe goal on the power play from Teddy Stiga.

The Eagles obtained their first man advantage of the night just 16 seconds into the initial frame, and they scored with 17 seconds left of it after going coast to coast as a unit and finishing the job via the junior assistant captain’s tap-in goal.

Stiga was injured for a decent portion of his sophomore campaign after a rookie year in which he received Hockey East All-Freshman Team honors, but he looked way more like the player he was in his first season on the Heights Friday night.

After the goal, however, the Eagles had trouble taking care of the puck through the neutral zone and began to make undisciplined decisions. Alaska did not hesitate to swing the momentum in its favor.

The goal the Nanooks scored in the first period saw freshman defenseman Quinn Beauchesne, who totaled three penalties by himself, get bullied in front of the net by Sam Elliott, who was able to redirect a loose rebound through BC goaltender Louka Cloutier and knot the score up at 1-1.

It was partially a moment where experience at the college level matters, and it may take some time for BC’s young roster, which has 11 freshmen on it, to realize their assignments pertaining to blocking pucks from entering the middle of the defensive zone.

“You hope we can avoid [hiccups because of youth],” Brown said. “We talk about really playing a sound game, but of course, when you have as many first-year players, freshmen, as we do, you’re going to have some. … You hope you live with a bunch of small mistakes and you survive them rather than making the one or two big mistakes.”

Unfortunately for Brown, it did not quite pan out that way, as Alaska surged into the lead after a scoreless second period with 15:10 left in the third on Davis Borozinskis’ tip-in goal from just above the crease.

Again, the lack of defensive reinforcement in front of the net gave Nathan Rickey’s shot from the point the lane that it needed to shoot off the blade of Borozinskis’ stick, which then bounced into the top half of the net over Cloutier.

Just under six minutes later, Borozinskis capitalized on freshman defenseman Carson Woodall’s turnover at BC’s blue line, which led to a 2-on-0 breakaway for the Nanooks and the game-winning goal.

“You have to learn from that,” Brown said. “You know, a lot of times it’s not what you get, but what you give up, and we give up the two costly mistakes. So we have to manage it. We have to understand that sometimes simple play is better than trying for the great play, and you really have to stay patient. There were just little cracks where we gave up chances for that.”

The silver lining for BC was seeing Dean Letourneau, who finished last year with the second-most points in Hockey East on 22 goals and 17 assists, smash in a one-timer goal with about six minutes left in regulation to cut the Eagles’ deficit to one.

The pass from the point by sophomore defenseman Luka Radivojevic was even more impressive than Letourneau’s sweet finish.

Nevertheless, with just over three minutes left, BC managed to put three players in the penalty box, practically eliminating its chances of tying the game.

“There were two that we didn’t need to take,” Brown said. “So yeah, it’s critical, especially when you’re behind and you’re chasing the game, you got to be able to avoid those.”

Follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Tiktok for the latest Boston College news.