BC 6, Vermont 1: Eagles Crush Lowly Catamounts
By Joe Micik
It was about as lopsided as the score, if not more so.
On Friday night, the #5 Boston College Eagles played on NBC Sports Network for the first time and showed America what they can do, beating up the last-place Vermont Catamounts in Burlington, 6-1. It is BC’s fourth win in a row, bringing them to 18-10-1 on the season and giving them a wave of momentum to ride into Monday’s Beanpot final against Boston University.
The first goal of the game was a career first for one Quinn Smith, notching NCAA goal #1 in his Eagles tenure at 6:21 in the first period to give Boston College a 1-0 lead (Dumoulin and Linell assisted). The Eagles had a number of other scoring chances in the period, but converted on none while killing off two Vermont power plays in succession.
This contest completely got away from the scoring-deficient Catamounts in the second period. Brooks Herrington of Vermont took a penalty (cross checking) early in the period that seemed to be weak, and not long after that, a very excited HT Lenz unleashed a vicious hit on Barry Almeida. Lenz was served with a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct, giving BC a 5-on-3 of a little over a minute, plus the extended power play.
Chris Kreider made sure that the first one counted, getting an assist as Kevin Hayes found the net for his sixth goal of the year, doubling the BC lead at 2-0 (Mullane also assisted). With that power play then over, the Eagles still had several minutes on the Lenz major, and Kreider did himself one better by beating Vermont goalie Rob Madore to increase the BC lead to 3-0 at 10:07 (Mullane and Gaudreau assisted).
After both penalties expired, Boston College was not yet done with the period — more specifically, John Gaudreau was not. With a little under three minutes to go in the second, the freshman sensation scored his 12th goal of the season to put BC up 4-0 and get the rout underway (Alber and Mullane assisted). Two and a half minutes after that, Johnny Gaudreau was heard from again, scoring his second goal of the game to put BC ahead 5-0 (Carey and Hayes assisted).
Into the third period, Steven Whitney was called for contact to the head and got rung up by the officials with a five-minute major and a game misconduct, which was decried by the NBC Sports announcers as a “make-up call.” Whatever the case may be, Vermont took advantage of it in scoring their only goal of the game at 7:56 thanks to Colin Markison’s sixth of the year (Stalberg and Reynolds assisted). That was all they got out of the major penalty, but Chris Kreider snatched that goal back at 15:28, putting the Eagles ahead 6-1 (Sit and Hayes assisted).
Four Eagles had three points on the evening: Kreider (2g/1a), Gaudreau (2g/1a), Hayes (1g/2a), and Mullane (3a). Boston College was excellent on the power play, going two of three, though keeping in mind that Vermont’s sub-70% penalty kill is awful (following this game, it is at 64.2%, and to say that’s horrendous would be kind). Meanwhile, BC’s kill, ranked seventh in the nation coming into the game, stopped UVM four out of five times.
This is about the time of year when the Eagles typically get hot, and fans are seeing it unfold before their eyes. These last two games in particular, though not against the best competition, were thorough thrashings. Boston College beat Northeastern and Vermont by a combined score of 13-2, which should give them confidence going forward into their next game, and you all know what that is.