The Boston College men’s hockey team dropped their opening game of the weekend to Merrimack, falling on the road XXXX. The Eagles got out to an early lead and looked good for most of the first period, but they weren’t able to keep up their strong play and eventually let Merrimack pretty much take over and dictate the pace. Special teams really let the team down at points as BC dropped their second consecutive Hockey East game at a point of the season where they really need to start stacking wins.
James Hagens got the Eagles on the board first just a bit over the halfway mark of the opening period with a one-timed shot off of a gorgeous no look pass from Andre Gasseau from below the goal line. Dean Letourneau made it a 2-0 game just a few minutes later with a shorthanded goal after a nice play in the neutral zone by Teddy Stiga forced a turnover. Letourneau fired a a perfect wrist shot from the top of the circles into the top corner of the net to give BC a two-goal lead. It looked like they would take that lead into intermission as well, but a late Merrimack power play goal made it a 2-1 game after 20 minutes of play.
BC started the second period with a long 5-on-3 power play after Merrimack took two penalties right at the end of the first period, but they were unable to capitalize despite controlling the puck and having a number of good looks on net. They had another power play chance just a few minutes later that went even worse, with Merrimack scoring a shorthanded goal of their own to tie things up at two. That was it for the scoring in the second period. BC was able to kill off a Merrimack power play and create some good chances while at even strength, but they went into the final 20 minutes tied at two.
Merrimack controlled play for decent stretches at the start of the third period and finally took their first lead of the night exactly halfway through the period, scoring on a rebound from right in front of Louka Cloutier’s crease. They made it 4-2 less thana minute later on a breakaway goal off of a great lofted pass from their own defensive zone. The Eagles struggled to get much offense going after falling behind by two and even though they pulled Cloutier with almost five minutes left to play, they were unable to get any kind of comeback going and fell by a 4-2 final.
It looked like BC had a chance to run away with this one early, but Merrimack was able to get back into this game and really took over in the third period. It’s an ugly loss for the Eagles, who had a chance to build some real momentum after a big win against BU on Monday night. They’ll need to turn things around and bounce back quick, as they’ll host Merrimack for the second game of this weekend series tomorrow night.
