Mattila, Eagles keep pace in HE
Junior center Julius Mattila scored early in the third period to help Boston College upset seventh-ranked Providence, 4-2, last night in front of an enthusiastic Kelley Rink crowd of 6,176.
The victory enabled the Eagles (7-9-2, 7-1-2) to maintain a first place tie in the Hockey East standings with No. 2 UMass.
The teams entered off divergent paths with Providence riding an eight-game (5-0-3) unbeaten streak while BC was on a threegame slide that included a loss at Notre Dame and a sweep at Arizona State, which extended its nonconference woes from November 2016.
“Too long,’’ said BC coach Jerry York when asked to probe the cause behind the nonleague ills. “My wife asked me that same question. I think a game is a game. They’re all basically the same now with the RPI and the Pairwise. I don’t have any reason for it. Generally, if you play well within the game you win.’’
BC wasted little time taking charge as right winger Logan Hutsko stole the puck in the left corner and passed out front where junior David Cotton deposited a backhander for his 12th goal of the season. The tally came 12 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Cotton, Hutsko and Mattila have combined to notch 49 of the 104 points registered by the Eagles this season.
“We’ve been in a goal-scoring drought so to get a goal on the first shift helped our mental attitude,’’ York said.
Mattila agreed. “That was huge,” he said. “The game plan was to start off on the right foot.’’
BC held sway for almost 12 minutes as the Friars were clearly back on their heels. The momentum swung quickly and in a big way, however.
Providence (12-5-4, 6-3-1) forced a turnover and traded passes entering the the BC zone. Red-hot center Josh Wilkins accepted a return pass from stellar freshman Jack Dugan and beat Eagles goalie Joe Woll (28 saves) with a bullet wrist shot at 12:59. The goal, Wilkins’ seventh, extended his points streak to 11 games, a span in which the Raleigh, N.C., native has produced 5-1217 totals.
PC upped the margin at 18:06 after Hingham right winger Jay O’Brien stole the puck in the neutral zone, raced up ice before switching to the backhand and beating Woll. The unassisted marker was the second goal of the season for the Philadelphia Flyers draft pick.
BC pulled even at 2:57 of the second period with a shorthanded goal by enior defenseman Michael Kim, who unleashed blast from the right point for his first goal of the season. Cotton, who made the initial pass, and Mattila earned assists.
“We’ve been stressing that in practice. Certainly, we’d like to get more one-timers,’’ said York.
There was drama at the 14:23 mark of the second when Kim and Cotton picked up separate boarding minors to hand the Friars a 5-on-3 advantage for a full two minutes. During the power play, O’Brien and fellow freshman Tyce Thompson both hit the left post with shots.
“We’ve been rolling pretty good but tonight I don’t think we played to our identity. We wanted to make plays when we didn’t have space. I thought we played slow and we didn’t get pucks to the net,’’ said Friars coach Nate Leaman. “We hit two posts. We have to get back to our identity. Credit BC. They played well.’’
The clubs were skating 4-on-4 early in the third period when Julius Mattila rifled a 35-foot-blast past Friars netminder Hayden Hawkey at 1:28. Drawing assists were Casey Fitzgerald and Julius’ twin, Jesper Mattila. It gave Julius seven goals on the season while North Reading’s Fitzgerald picked up his 75th career point.
The Friars lifted Hawkey (19 saves) with two minutes left but the ploy backfired when BC’s Chris Brown found the empty net at 18:36.