The Boston College men’s hockey team used a big third period from Will Vote to defeat Lake Superior State in the consolation game of the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off tournament on Monday night by a score
of 4-3. Vote scored two goals in the final period to lead BC to a comeback win as they managed to salvage a split of the past two games after falling to Western Michigan on Sunday. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins for BC, who were still missing James Hagens, Teddy Stiga, and Luka Radivojevic, but they were able to get the job done and pick up an important result.
Boston College jumped out to a lead after just more than 14 minutes of play as Dean Letourneau continued his recent goal scoring streak. The sophomore jumped off of the bench and received a pass just inside of the blue line before walking down to the top of the circle and firing a perfect shot for his 11th goal of the season to give BC a 1-0 lead. Will Moore doubled things up just over a minute later, redirecting a perfect pass from Oscar Hemming to make it a 2-0 game after one period of play. Hemming’s assist gave him his first collegiate point after joining the Eagles over the winter break and Moore’s goal was his third of the season and first since way back in early November against Vermont.
BC continued to have the puck for large stretches of the second period, but they were not able to extend their lead any more and Lake Superior State made them pay. Lake Superior got a goal back early in the period to make it a 2-1 game and it looked like they had tied things up later in the period before they had a goal waved off with just over three minutes left on the clock. The Eagles were able to keep them off the board for the remainder of the period and hold on to their one-goal lead heading into the third, but they wouldn’t keep that lead for much longer.
Lake Superior scored two quick goals to start the third period, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead within five minutes of play resuming. BC didn’t satay down for long, however, as they were able to tie things up just 33 seconds after falling behind. Oscar Hemming picked up his second assist of the day after making a nice play to keep possession of the puck after entering the offensive zone and finding a wide open Will Vote with a nice pass. Vote had all the time in the world to turn and pick his spot, which was just under the crossbar for his fourth goal of the season. He scored his fifth of the season just a few minutes later to give BC their lead back, firing home a one-timer from the low slot after a nice pass from Aram Minnetian from below the goal line to make it a 4-3 game. It looked like the Eagles were going to manage a fairly routine win from there, with Lake Superior not able to generate much in the time immediately following Vote’s go ahead goal, but things got interesting late when BC took two penalties in quick succession and Lake Superior pulled their goalie, setting up an extended six-on-three sequence. BC’s trio of Jake Sondreal, Aram Minnetian, and Lukas Gustafsson along with Jan Korec in net were able to take care of business and allow BC to escape with a 4-3 win.
This one wasn’t quite as easy as it looked like it would be in the first period, but the Eagles managed to bounce back after a tough loss yesterday and pick up a win that they definitely needed. It certainly wasn’t the cleanest set of two games from BC, but considering that they were down some of their most important names, you could certainly do worse than a split. The team is now off for a while once again, with their next game being an exhibition against Stonehill on January 9. They’ll return to regular season action a week after that, when they take on Providence in a home-and-home series as Hockey East play resumes.
