The Boston College men’s hockey team took down Denver in a shootout on Saturday night to salvage their weekend series with the Pioneers. The Eagles fell behind by two goals in the second period but continued to battle and fought back to get a result against a team that has given them fits over the past several seasons.
BC had a great chance to jump out to an early lead after Denver was assessed a major penalty following a bad hit on Teddy Stiga, but the Eagles were not able to convert on the ensuing
five minute power play despite creating a few decent chances. They killed of a penalty of their own a bit later in the period and continued to spend a good amount of time in the offensive zone, but they weren’t able to break through as the two teams settled for a scoreless first period.
It remained scoreless for the first few minutes of the second perid as well, but BC was still not able to convert on any of their chances and Denver eventually made them pay. Louka Cloutier was beaten from a sharp angle where he didn’t quite hold his post just over five minutes into the period for the opening goal of the night. Cloutier came up big in the ensuing shifts with a few big saves to keep it a one-goal game for a while, but Denver eventually doubled their lead on a shot from the top of the circle the Cloutier got a big piece of but couldn’t quite keep out of the net. BC challenged the goal for potential goalie interference, but it was upheld after a quick review. The Eagles got one back late in the second on a heck of a goal from Matias Vanhanen that’s just easier to show than describe.
Vanhanen’s second of the season made it a one-goal game heading into the third period.
Denver put together a masterclass on defense for about 19 minutes in the thrid period, giving BC barely any space and limiting all of their chances to looks from the outside. The Eagles made the most of the one chance they did get late, however, when Teddy Stiga slammed home a rebound from right in front of the net with about 45 seconds left on the clock and the goalie pulled to tie the game and force overtime.
The two teams played a pretty entertaining overtime period but neither was able to find the back of the net so a shootout was required to settle things. Dean Letourneau scored in the second round and Louka Cloutier was perfect in net and the Eagles came away with bragging right on Saturday night.
While this technically goes into the books as a 2-2 tie, this was an impressive showing from BC against a really strong Denver team. The Eagles played two impressive games over the course of the weekend and it was good to see them come away with at least a tie and avoid dropping their third game in a row. Hockey East play gets underway next week as BC will host Northeastern on Friday and Saturday night as they look to get conference play started on the right foot.
