Boston College Wins 1st Hockey East Tournament Game Over Vermont, 4-2

Boston College men’s teams did not get shut out on Friday after all.

On Friday night at Conte Forum, the 2-seed Boston College Eagles defeated the 7-seed Vermont Catamounts in the first game of their 2013 Hockey East Quarterfinal series, 4-2. It is the third-straight game the Eagles and Catamounts have played against one another, and BC can go for the best-of-three sweep on Saturday night.

The story for the Eagles has been somewhat of a familiar one in the last few months, particularly early in the game. Boston College took three penalties in the first period and gave Vermont several opportunities on the power play, but it was the Eagles who ended up scoring the frame’s only goal. Brooks Dyroff netted just his second score of the season from a tough angle on the side of the net to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead at 14:47 (Doherty, Wey).

More penalties were forthcoming for Boston College in the second and third periods, but so were goals. At 9:13 of the middle period, the Eagles doubled their lead as freshman defenseman Mike Matheson scored on the power play (Mullane). Nearly four minutes later at 13:04, Cam Spiro picked up his second goal of the season, and it turned out to be the game-winner (Silk).

Vermont got back into the game with a score at 4:56 of the third period; that came off of the stick of Ben Albertson, also his second goal of the season (Bruneteau, Pattyn). The contest truly became scary for the defending champion Eagles at 12:37, when Vermont’s Matt White scored an unassisted shorthanded goal to make it a 3-2 game. This came after an Eagle turnover led to a breakaway opportunity. BC seemed to be reeling a bit, but once the Catamounts net was empty, Johnny Gaudreau potted an easy goal to seal an Eagle victory at 18:58 (Brown).

Boston College did not play a crisp game by any stretch but it was good enough to beat Vermont. In sum, the Eagles took eight penalties; Steven Whitney had three in the final period by himself. The Eagles won in part because Vermont went 0-for-7 on the power play, whereas BC took advantage of one of their four chances.

Still, despite some good individual efforts and plays, it was far from a flawless performance and there is a great deal of room for improvement if the Eagles plan to advance. They will get a chance to do that on Saturday night at 7pm.