The Boston College men’s hockey team got a last minute goal from Oscar Hemming and bounced back after a rough showing on Friday night to defeat Merrimack and salvage a split of their weekend series with a 4-2 win. Hemming scored his first goal since joining BC at the start of the semester with just over 30 seconds left on the clock to give the Eagles a huge come from behind win.
Merrimack opened the scoring just about seven minutes into the first period, scoring on a nice passing play after winning a puck battle along the boards. BC had a lot of the puck for the rest of the first and had plenty of chances to tie things up and they were finally able to do so in the dying seconds of the period. Aram Minnetian managed to jump on a loose puck in the slot after a bit of a scramble in front of Merrimack’s net and fired it into the top corner with only 3.6 seconds left on the clock for his second goal of the season to make it a 1-1 game heading into intermission.
Advertisement
Merrimack regained their lead with a power play goal about halfway through the second period, scoring on a one-timer from the point that Louka Cloutier wasn’t able to stop. The Eagles had a great chance to tie things up a few minutes later when Merrimack took two penalties in quick succession to give BC an extended 5-on-3 power play. For the second straight night, however, the power play struggled to generate a whole lot and they were not able to come through on the two-man advantage. They got another power play chance late in the period and finally managed to convert thanks to a brilliant individual effort from James Hagens. Late in the power play, Hagens picked up the puck in the defensive zone and started a rush up ice. He got by a Merrimack defenseman at the offensive blue line to set up an odd man rush in close. He tried to make a pass to Will Vote driving to the net and the puck took a bounce off of a defenseman’s skate and went into the back of the net to make it a 2-2 game after two periods.
The game seemed destined for overtime throughout the third period, with neither team able to generate much at all in terms of quality chances. The Eagles were able to make the most of the one big chance they did get, however, with Oscar Hemming picking up his first collegiate goal at the perfect time. Hemming managed to jump on a rebound off of a Luka Radivojevic shot from the point and fire it into the back of the net, giving BC their first lead of the night with just 36 seconds left in regulation. Merrimack pulled their goalie on the ensuing faceoff, but Brady Berard fired the puck into the empty net from his own zone with just a few seconds left on the clock to give BC a 4-2 win.
This was a big one for the Eagles. As things currently sit, they’re right on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament and a loss tonight probably would have had them on the outside looking in. Instead, they showed gutted out a huge win and salvaged a split of the weekend series in a truly exhilarating way. They have another massive weekend series next weekend, when they have a home-and-home series with a UConn team that also has their eyes set on the NCAA Tournament.
