DURHAM, N.H. – Boston College continued its recent dominance over New Hampshire on its way to a 3-2 triumph Friday night at the Whittemore Center.
The victory Boston College improved to 17-2-4 over over its last 23 meetings with the Wildcats. Friday night marked the 150th game between the two programs.
Boston College is 6-0 over its last six games, all of which were against Hockey East foes.
Junior captain Michael Kim scored twice and sophomore goaltender Joseph Woll made an improbable save to lead the Eagles (7-5-1, 7-1-0 Hockey East) to the road win.
With about 5:35 left, it looked as if Wildcats junior left wing Ara Nazarian was going to tie the game at 3-3. The puck bounced off the glass right out to Nazarian in the slot. With Woll (23 saves) out of position, Nazarian ripped a shot toward goal but Woll reacted quickly enough to make a diving glove save.
Eagles coach Jerry York was sure Nazarian’s shot was going to find the back of the net.
“I don’t know how [Woll] caught it,” York said. “An outcome of a game hinges on different things like that – a crazy bounce, an unbelievable save.”
Woll also made a pad save on a shorthanded breakaway shot from Brendan van Riemsdyk with 3:02 remaining in the second period to prevent No. 11 New Hampshire from breaking a 2-2 tie. The Eagles killed off two penalties and held New Hampshire (6-4-1, 3-3-1 Hockey East) scoreless on a 25-second five-on-three advantage in the third period to preserve their lead.
“We obviously had a lot of chances, a couple power plays, but I think it comes down to scoring goals and [BC] scored more than us tonight,” Nazarian said.
New Hampshire has scored just three goals over its last three games.
“We’ve been struggling scoring goals here,” Wildcats coach Dick Umile said. “The guys are playing hard. I’m not disappointed in the effort. I’m just disappointed in the outcome.”
Kim scored both the game-tying and game-winning goals. The defenseman knotted the game at 2-2 with a power-play goal 9:31 into the second period. Kim broke the tie 8:21 into the third frame when he put home a rebound goal.
“Michael is a junior captain for us and he’s played very, very well,” York said. “He’s got a rocket of a shot….It’s nice to have a defenseman score goals.”
New Hampshire junior right wing Chris Miller opened the game’s scoring 4:30 into the contest. David Cotton registered the equalizer for the Eagles with his goal 1:49 into the second period.
Wildcats freshman Eric MacAdams broke a 1-1 tie with his first collegiate goal, which came 7:30 into the middle frame. The right wing collected the puck in his own zone following a shot wide of net by the Eagles, skated down the ice and shot around a diving BC player from the slot.
Wildcats senior goaltender Danny Tirone made 26 saves in the loss, including the 3,000th of his career. Tirone and Kevin Regan, who played for New Hampshire from 2004-08, are the only two goalies in program history to reach 3,000 career saves.
Boston College lost five of its first seven games of the season but York said the team has gained confidence during its current winning streak.
“I often tell our players that you either win or you learn,” York said. “And earlier in the season, we played some games that we didn’t win but we learned from them and we got better. Then we kind of caught fire a little bit and now we’re playing very confident when the game is tied late in the game. That’s an awfully nice attribute to have.”
Hockey East Roundup
No. 12 Northeastern 2, Vermont 1
Northeastern received goals from unlikely sources en route to the comeback win.
Sophomore defenseman Jeremy Davies scored the game-winning goal with 2:12 left, marking his second goal of the season. Classmate and fellow defenseman Ryan Shea scored his first goal of the season with 8:10 remaining to tie the game.
The triumph moved the Huskies to 5-1-0 in Hockey East for the first time since the 1985-86 season.
Vermont freshman Alex Esposito scored his first collegiate goal 1:14 into the second period to open the game’s scoring.
Cayden Primeau made 20 saves for the Huskies. Stefanos Lekkas made 25 stops for Vermont.
No. 10 Providence 2, Merrimack 1
Two goals from Josh Wilkins and a career-high 40 saves from junior goalie Hayden Hawkey powered Providence to the win.
Wilkins scored the game-winning goal 10:57 into the final period. The sophomore’s power-play goal 17:22 into the middle frame created a 1-1 deadlock.
Ludvig Larsson’s power-play goal that came 5:47 into the contest gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead entering the first intermission.
Hawkey made 18 saves in the first period and nine more in second before stopping 13 Warriors shots in the third. Craig Pantano made 22 saves for Merrimack.
UMass Lowell 5, Connecticut 2
John Edwardh and Ryan Dmowski both scored twice to lead UMass Lowell to the home win.
Connecticut cut the River Hawks’ lead to 2-1 when Spencer Naas scored 1:23 into the middle stanza. UMass Lowell responded with goals from Edwardh and Dmowski to take a 4-1 advantage into the second intermission. Dmowski’s second tally, which came with 2:40 left, capped the game’s scoring.
Edwardh and Charlie Levesque scored 32 seconds apart in the opening period to give UMass Lowell a 2-0 advantage. Edwardh scored on the power play at 5:01. Levesque followed up by tallying his first goal of the season off assists from Dmowski and Tyler Mueller.
Max Kalter scored a shorthanded goal 2:40 into the third period for the Huskies.
Christoffer Hernberg made 23 saves for UMass Lowell. Adam Huska made 19 stops for the Huskies.
Maine 5, No. 18 Boston University 2
The Black Bears scored five of the game’s last six goals on their way to the triumph.
Maine struck with goals from Canon Pieper and Brendan Robbins over the first 7:06 of the second period to take a 3-1 lead. The Terriers cut Maine’s lead to 3-2 before the second intermission but Patrick Holway and Patrick Shea added goals of their own in the third period to ensure a Black Bears win.
Maine’s Brady Keeper tied the game at 1-1 with his power-play goal 10:20 into the opening period.
BU freshmen Kasper Kotkansalo and Logan Cockerill both scored their first collegiate goals in the setback.
Jeremy Swayman made 40 saves for the Black Bears. Max Prawdzik made 23 stops for BU.
