Boston Univ. 4, Boston College 2: #1 Eagles Fall Flat at Agganis

All good things must come to an end, and for the Boston College men’s hockey team, it was their ten-game win streak.

On Friday night at Agganis Arena, the #9 Boston University Terriers handed the #1 Eagles their second loss of the season, 4-2. Boston College falls to 10-2 and Coach Jerry York has been stopped on his first attempt to tie the all-time wins record set by Ron Mason.

From early on, it seemed evident that Boston College didn’t have their A-game. The Terriers kept the Eagles from getting into a good rhythm for virtually the entire contest, and Boston College generated few flurries of activity down around the crease. There was plenty of passing, but BU’s goalie, Matt O’Connor, remained hot when those passes became shots on goal.

On the other end of the ice, Parker Milner certainly made some nice saves in his own right, but did not have the kind of game that O’Connor did. The Terriers put some good pressure on Milner, who still collected 30 saves despite allowing three goals in the loss. O’Connor allowed two goals but saved 35 en route to BU’s eighth win of the season.

For Boston College, this is a tip-your-cap sort of case, even despite the fact that Boston University is a hated rival. Some days, you get the bear, and some days, the bear gets you — Friday night at Agganis Arena was the latter for the Eagles, who were simply outplayed by the home team. From the BC perspective, it’s a major disappointment losing to Boston University, particularly on a night that could have been special for a venerable coach, but they are allowed to lose every now and then, especially early in the season. The good news for BC is that they have a chance at payback on Saturday.

The scoring summary was as follows:

(BU) 9:04 2nd: Garrett Noonan (assists Nieto, Rodrigues)
(BU) 16:04 2nd: Evan Rodrigues (assists O’Regan, Nieto)
(BC) 16:42 2nd: Pat Mullane (assists Gaudreau, Whitney)
(BU) 1:46 3rd: Matt Grzelcyk (assists Megan, Cisse)
(BU) 18:21 3rd: Wade Megan (assists Hohmann, Escobedo) – shorthanded empty-netter
(BC) 19:36 3rd: Johnny Gaudreau (assists Whitney, Matheson) – power play, extra attacker

These same two teams face off again on Saturday night at Conte Forum.