BC good enough
Holds off UNH, gets UML in semis
Lofty rankings and favorable seedings have diminished value in the hockey mayhem of March.
Boston College opened a 3-0 first period lead and battled to preserve a 3-2 victory over New Hampshire in Hockey East quarterfinal play on Sunday at Kelley Rink.
The Eagles (17-4-1) were the Hockey East regular season champion, top seed in the tournament and ranked No. 1 in the country by USCHO and USA Today.
UNH (6-14-3) was the No. 9 seed, but the two teams split in the regular season with each winning in overtime on the opponents’ ice. The rubber match proved to be the third one-goal game.
“The top seed doesn’t get you to advance in the tournament, you’ve got to earn it and that’s what we did to get a win tonight,” said BC coach Jerry York. “Historically, wins in playoffs are just hard.
“To advance is the objective and not very often do you get easy games in playoffs. There is a razor’s edge in winning and losing in the playoffs and historically against the Wildcats, the games are extremely close.”
New Hampshire goalie Mike Robinson recovered from a shaky start to record 32 saves while stonewalling the Eagles in the final two periods. BC sophomore Spencer Knight, the Hockey East Goalie of the Year, registered 31 saves.
Playing four-on-four, BC took a 1-0 lead at 5:35 of the first. Matt Boldy won a puck battle and fired it off the end boards to streaking Alex Newhook in the left circle. Newhook closed in and tucked the puck between Robinson’s pads for his fifth of the season.
BC went up 2-0 at 7:30 on a net presence play by Mike Hardman. Freshman defenseman Eamon Powell unleashed a slapper from the right point that Robinson stopped but could not contain. Hardman got the rebound and poked it in stick side for his ninth.
The Eagles made it 3-0 on a bang-bang goal at 8:25. Freshman Colby Ambrosio got the puck below the circle and dished to Nikita Nesterenko in the low slot. The freshman one-timed a slapper past Robinson for his eighth of the season.
“He’s a very good player and he had an exceptional year for us as a freshman,” said York.
The Wildcats found their hockey religion between periods and brought the game to BC with a vengeance. UNH cut the lead to 3-1 when Kohei Sato found Eric MacAdams at the top of the right circle. The senior from Salem, Mass., fired a wrist shot through a screen that trickled past Knight at 6:32 for his fifth of the season.
UNH cut the lead to 3-2 at 8:56 when Cam Gendron prevented a clearing at the blue line. MacAdams won a puck battle along the half wall and fed defenseman Luke Reid up top. Reid fired a long slapper that beat Knight glove side for his third of the season. UNH outshot BC 15-11 in the second.
“For all practical purposes we score three goals and now we are going to test New Hampshire’s will and they came right back at us,” said York. “They made it a 3-2 game in the second and kept it together the whole third period.”
BC will host UMass Lowell on Wednesday in the semifinals. The River Hawks upset No. 2 seed Boston University, 2-1. BC beat UML twice in the regular season.
“They went into Walter Brown and got a win over the two seed in our league so that’s pretty impressive,” said York. “They hadn’t played a lot of games early with the COVID, but recently they are a pretty tough out and our league is really balanced.”
UMass, a 4-1 winner over Northeastern, will host Providence, which routed UConn 6-1, in the other semifinal on Wednesday.