CHESTNUT HILL – Denver’s unnerving hex over Boston College men’s hockey was extended to four games.
The No. 7 Pioneers (3-1-1) placed seven different skaters on the scoresheet in a 7-3 victory over the No. 9 Eagles (2-2-1) on Friday night at Conte Forum.
BC will now begin Hockey East play against Northeastern on Oct. 30, while Denver plays at NU on Saturday night.
“As we expected, we played against a very good hockey team tonight,” said BC head coach Greg Brown. “They played with maturity, and they don’t beat themselves. They know how to manage the game as well as having great skill and playing at a great tempo.
“There were stretches where we showed we could play that way, but then there were too many self-inflicted wounds. You can do that against a team of that quality.”
The Pioneers won the previous three encounters, beginning with a 4-3 regular season victory at Conte on Oct. 21, 2023. Denver followed with a 2-0 win over BC in the 2024 NCAA Division 1 championship game at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
Denver maintained its dominance in the NCAA tournament with a 3-1 victory in the Manchester Regional final on March 30 at SNHU Arena. Denver leads the series 23-16 and is the winningest NCAA program with 10 national championships.
“There is a lot of mutual respect, I think,” said Denver coach David Carle. “It starts there for their staff and how they do things with an excellent team and program, and all of these games have been tight.
“You could see and feel the intensity, and last year the regional game was probably the most physical game we’ve ever had with them. Tonight, it wasn’t quite that, but there was still some emotion in the game, and the building was excellent. They are on the schedule next year, and they are coming out to Denver for two, so we will continue to play them.”
Denver broke the game open in the second with three unanswered goals to take a 5-2 lead. Freshman defenseman Eric Jamieson took a drop pass in the high slot and one-timed the puck by BC goalie Louka Cloutier on the stick side at 5:02.
Junior left wing Sam Harris forced a turnover in the right circle and fired a wrist shot to the far post at 6:32 for his third.
The Pioneers took a three-goal lead when freshman right wing Brendan McMorrow’s wrister from the left circle found the near post for the first point of his college career.
BC cut the lead to 5-3 at 17:03 when Bruins 2025 first-round draft pick James Hagens unleashed a wrist rocket from between the circles that beat Denver goalie Quentin Miller on the glove side for his third of the season.
Denver went up 6-3 at 10:14 of the third when sophomore left wing Jake Fisher flipped home a rebound in the BC crease for his third of the season. Brown lifted Cloutier with four minutes to play. Senior left wing Rieger Lorenz scored an empty-netter at 17:50.
“There were some breakdowns and some very good shots,” said Brown. “It didn’t seem like there were any soft goals; they earned their goals, and we just have to tighten up and not give that many chances.”
The first period was a wide-open, north-south affair with sufficient scoring to stimulate the noise level inside the rink.
The Eagles took a 1-0 lead on a nifty collaboration between left wing Will Moore and center Andrea Gasseau in transition at 9:01 of the first. Moore, a second-round Boston Bruins draft pick in 2025, made a rush up the right flank and delivered a tape-to-tape pass to Gasseau in the low slot.
Gasseau flicked the disc past Miller for his first of the season.
“He (Moore) sees things very quickly,” said Brown. “His skills are excellent, but I think the thing that really stands out as his strength is his anticipation.”
Denver tied the game when center Clarke Caswell won a faceoff in the BC end and sent the draw back to the appropriately named Boston Buchberger at the left point.
Buchberger sent the puck along the blue line to Eric Pohlkamp on the right point. Pohlkamp closed to the top of the circle and fired a wrister that beat Cloutier for his fourth of the season.
The Pioneers went up 2-1 when right wing Kristian Epperson’s wrist shot from the left circle beat Cloutier through the 5-hole at 17:26.
BC tied the game on a wrist shot from the left dot by sophomore winger Jake Sondreal that beat Miller to the near post at 18:55. The tally was Sondreal’s second of the season.
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