AMHERST – After sweeping UConn the weekend before in a home-and-home set, No. 11/10 UMass looked to continue its winning ways when it faced off with its most formidable foe of the season: No. 1 Boston College
Unfortunately for the Minutemen, however, they did not come out on the right side of this game falling to the Eagles by a score of 5-1 following two-goal games from Ryan Leonard and Cutter Gauthier.
“It wasn’t our best game, but I thought we played well enough,” UMass head coach Greg Carvel said. “(They got) two fluke goals against a really high-flying offensive team. You know they’re going to get a fair number of grade a (chances), and I thought we got our fair share of grade a (chances), we just didn’t put ours in (the net). It’s unfortunate. It’s a game we could have had, but I guess the puck just wasn’t bouncing our way tonight.”
Boston College struck first on a goal 15 minutes into the first period off the stick of a streaking Gauthier. Oskar Jellvik hit Gauthier with a pass, and Gauthier took a wrist shot that beat goaltender Michael Hrabal over his shoulder.
Hrabal finished with 20 saves on 24 shots on goal in the loss for UMass.
“I feel bad for (Hrabal),” Carvel said. “(He had) those two fluke goals, he had to make some big saves for us. He’s the least of my concerns right now.”
Gauthier’s opening frame goal remained the games only tally until the 6:32 marker in the second period, when Lucas Mercuri, got to the front of the net and made it count, on the power play no less.
With three seconds left on the man-advantage, Mercuri took a feed from Cole O’Hara and slipped it past Eagles netminder Jacob Fowler down low, tying the game at one goal apiece and sending the sellout crowd in attendance into a frenzy.
“(O’Hara) made a nice play, and (Samuli Niinisaari) made a nice play back to (O’Hara), and then it was lucky enough to find the back of the net,” Mercuri said. “(I’m) just glad it squeaked in.”
Before talking about the goal in detail, Carvel mentioned that he was just glad that the Minutemen even got a power play.
“I thought we deserved more than one power play through two periods,” Carvel said. “In an even game, four to one, you guys all said it was even, it felt even, I felt like we deserved a few more power plays.”
Just over two minutes later, however, Gauthier took matters into his own hands and gave the visitors the lead again as he took a shot that beat Hrabal’s glove, ricocheted off the post, off the freshman’s elbow and into the back of the net.
From there it was all Eagles the rest of the way.
The first two came from Ryan Leonard. The first tally came on the power play with him coming in on a feed by Eamon Powell. The goal also broke a streak of 15 consecutive successful kills for the hosts.
Leonard took a pass from Smith in the middle of the slot and wristed it past Hrabal with ease, making it 3-1 Boston College with just over two and a half minutes to play in the period.
Leonard’s second goal put the nail in the coffin, and it came on an even strength play late in the third period when he took a feed from Will Smith at the right circle and wristed it past Hrabal on the glove side, making 4-1 in favor of the visitors.
The final goal came with 24 seconds left on the clock when Andre Gasseau scored his ninth goal of the season, potting an empty net goal and officially sending the droves of Minutemen and Eagles’ faithful to the exits.
Both teams are back in action on Sunday at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, puck drop is at 1 p.m.
