The Boston College men’s hockey team defeated New Hampshire 5-2 on Friday night to bring an end to their brief two-gam losing streak. Dean Letourneau had a two goal night and BC played a strong 60 minute game to get the weekend series started off on the right foot. The Eagles got goals from four different players as they moved to 12-8-1 on the season and 8-5-0 in Hockey East play.
The Eagles got off to a great start when their top line put together an extended shift in the offensive zone right off of the opening
puck drop. They had a few good looks on net during that shift before Andre Gasseau opened the scoring with a deflection off of an Aram Minnetian shot from the point for his third goal of the season to give BC a lead less than two minutes into the game. New Hampshire tied things up almost immediately, however, making it a 1-1 game with a power play goal from in close just a little over a minute after Gasseau’s tally. BC took the lead back with a power play goal of their own just a few minutes after that when Dean Letourneau continued his stellar sophomore season with a goal off of a one-timer in the slot thanks to a great pass by James Hagens. They had some chances to extend their lead as the period went on, including a big chance from Oscar Hemming, who almost had his first collegiate goal on a power play chance in the last minute of the period. They weren’t able to get anything else to go, however, and they had to settle for a 2-1 lead after the opening 20 minutes.
New Hampshire was able to tie the game up once again just about four and a half minutes into the second period when a rebound off of a shot from the point found its way onto the stick of a UNH forward in the slot who then fired a quick shot that beat Louka Cloutier to make it a 2-2 game. BC took the lead back once again about halfway through the period when Jake Sondreal drove to the net and took a perfect pass from Letourneau that he was able to put home into a wide open net. That was all in terms of scoring in the second period, as the the two teams both had some decent looks at net and BC had to kill a late penalty to keep their 3-2 lead in tact heading into the final period.
BC was finally able to stretch out their lead early on in the third period thanks to a brilliant individual effort from James Hagens. Right after the Eagles had completed another penalty kill, Hagens was able to strip a UNH defenseman of the puck when they were headed up ice to create a 2-on-1 chance going the other way. Hagens did it all himself, firing a quick shot that beat the UNH goalie through the five-hole to give BC their first two-goal lead of the night. That turned out to be all they needed, as the Eagles were able to play a strong defensive period and really limit UNH to just a few shots and not many real scoring chances as they closed out the game. Dean Letourneau closed things out for good with a late empty net goal and BC took this game by a 5-2 score.
This was a nice bounce back win after dropping two games against Providence last weekend and one that BC definitely needed to win to get their season back on the right track. They looked mostly in control for most of the night and their big name players came through on the scoresheet to lead the team to victory. They’ll look to do the same thing again tomorrow night when they’ll travel to New Hampshire to try and finish off the sweep of this weekend home-and-home series .
