The Boston College men’s hockey team lost to Providence for the second night in a row, falling 4-3 as the Friars completed their weekend sweep. The Eagles fell behind early on and didn’t show a whole lot
of life throughout the game and have now dropped three out of their last four games. The team’s power play did look good as it accounted for all three of their goals, but the offense as a whole struggled to generate much at all at even strength just one night after putting up nearly 50 shots against the same opponent.
Providence jumped out to an early lead in the first period, scoring just about three and a half minutes into the game after a scramble in front of the net left Louka Cloutier down on the ice and unable to make a save on a shot from the slot. The Friars had some chances to double their lead in the shifts immediately following their goal, but ended up taking a major penalty on a really bad hit against Drew Fortescue. BC was able to take advantage about halfway through their five-minute power play, when Andre Gasseau managed to redirect a James Hagens shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the season and first since returning from injury. Providence retook the lead a few minutes later with a power play goal of their own and they added a third goal later in the period just after BC came up short on another man advantage. It was overall a pretty ugly opening 20 minutes for the Eagles, and they went into intermission facing a two-goal deficit.
The Friars extended their lead just about eight minutes into the second period, scoring on a rebound off of an odd-man rush after a bad BC turnover at the attacking blue line. BC did challenge it for potential goalie interference, but it stood after a quick review to keep it a 4-1 game. It really didn’t look like the Eagles were going to be able to get back into the game for a while, as they weren’t able to get much of anything going on offense, but late in the period they found themselves with a five-on-three power play and they were able to convert. Ryan Conmy hit an absolute bomb of a one-timer from the face-off circle for his eighth goal of the season and cut the deficit back to two heading into the third.
The score stayed 4-2 for most of the third period and it looked like Providence was going to walk away with a comfortable win, but the BC managed to get back into the game once again after Providence took yet another major penalty, this time for a bad hit against Teddy Stiga. The Eagles scored off of the ensuing faceoff, when Luka Radivojevic stepped into a slapshot off of a rebound for his first collegiate goal to make it a 4-3 game. They had a few minutes left to try and find a tying goal after that, but even they weren’t able to create a real chance even after pulling their goalie and eventually took a penalty of their own that ended any real chance of a comeback.
There’s honestly not a whole lot of positivity from this one. On Friday night, BC played a pretty fantastic game but made a few big mistakes and paid for it. On Saturday, however, they just didn’t have anything remotely close to their A game. They went long stretches without generating much at all and were just kind of chasing the game for pretty much the entire time. It’s a big loss too, as BC and Providence were close in both the Hockey East standings and when it comes to the NCAA Tournament picture. It was a bad weekend results wise and one that BC will need to immediately put behind them as their season continues. They’ll take on New Hampshire in a home-and-home series next weekend where they’ll look to get back on the right track.
