BC overpowers BU to win Hockey East
The championship game of the 2024 Hockey East men’s tournament Saturday night came down to special teams.
No. 1 Boston College was nearly flawless against No. 2 Boston University at TD Garden, converting its first four opportunities with the man advantage, while also killing off the first four penalties it faced, to roll to a 6-2 win against its longtime rivals and capture its 12th conference tournament title, most in the league.
“Special teams were obviously a big part of it,” said BC coach Greg Brown after his squad clinched its first conference tourney title in 12 years. “Both our power play and penalty kill had a very good night . . . All in all, it was a very solid effort by our guys. We beat a very good team.”
Lexington native Will Smith scored four goals, the first two in the first period on the power play, to stake the Eagles to a 2-0 lead. He added an assist on BC’s third goal to give him an NCAA-best 67 points (23 goals, 44 assists) and take home tournament MVP honors.
BC (31-5-1) will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed, and will find out its next opponent and destination Sunday evening when the brackets are announced. The Eagles are expected to be in Providence.
Even with the loss, BU (26-9-2) will still be the second overall seed and will be placed as the No. 1 seed in a different regional. Maine (23-11-2) and UMass (20-13-3) will also be representing Hockey East in the NCAAs.
Smith’s first goal came when he sent the puck to the front of the net, where Gabe Perreault was battling BU defenseman Cade Webber for position. The puck never reached Perreault though, instead deflecting off BU captain Case McCarthy’s skate and past Mathieu Caron (23 saves) for the score.
“Those are always nice when you get a little lucky bounce there,” said Smith. “We wanted to throw stuff on net. “I was looking for Gabe backdoor and it went in and got everything started, and it was nice.”
Smith had his second of the night less than three minutes later at 8:37. With Lane Hutson in the box for tripping, Perreault sent a cross-ice pass to Smith, who beat Caron far side with a blast from the right circle. BC led 2-0 after the first, with BU holding a 12-8 shot advantage but unable to convert on two power play chances of its own.
“Clearly we didn’t get it done on the penalty kill,” said BU coach Jay Pandolfo. “We couldn’t figure it out, so that was really, I guess the biggest difference in the game, when you give up four powerplay goals. I thought at times five-on-five we played pretty well.”
BU would finally score 4:24 into the second when freshman Gavin McCarthy sent in a wrister from the point that beat Jacob Fowler (34 saves) glove side. It was the first collegiate goal for McCarthy.
The intensity picked up toward the end of the second period, with BU appearing to have several chances to even the score when Nick Zabaneh sent the puck to Dylan Peterson, who dropped it back for Zabaneh as he cut to the net, but the seedy senior was denied by Fowler. Peterson had another opportunity on the rebound, but Fowler was in position for the save.
The Eagles would turn the tables one minute later when BU senior Luke Tuch was whistled for board. Sophomore Cutter Gauthier one timed a feed from Perreault for his nation-leading 35th goal at 18:46 for the 3-1 lead.
The Eagles pulled away in the third, scoring the first two goals as the lead ballooned to 5-1. Smith had a great opportunity for a hat trick at 6:32 when he got to a rebound after Ryan Leonard drove to the net, but Caron’s reflexes allowed him to make the glove save.
Just 14 seconds later though, hats came cascading onto the ice after Leonard again carried the puck to the front of the net before dishing it off to an open Smith, who flicked it past Caron for the 4-1 lead.
Perreault added a power play goal at 11:32 to give BC the four-goal edge.
After Macklin Celebrini scored at 14:45 of the third period for the Terriers only power-play goal in five attempts, Smith capped the scoring with an empty-netter at 18:04 to account for the final margin.