Boston College 2, Massachusetts 2: Minutemen Catch Eagles for Tie
By Joe Micik
Andrew B. Fielding-USA TODAY Sports
On Friday night at Conte Forum, the #7 Boston College Eagles and the Massachusetts Minutemen tied, 2-2, in their second men’s hockey meeting in as many nights.
With the draw, the Eagles narrowly missed out on sweeping the Minutemen following a win on the front end of their home-and-home in Amherst on Thursday. As such, a five-game win streak has officially ended, moving their record to 7-2-2 (4-0-1) on the season. Boston College currently has nine points in Hockey East conference play out of a possible ten.
Goal Sequence
[UMASS]
Ray Pigozzi
(13:15 1st; Gracel, Sheary): UMASS 1, BC 0
[BC]
Ryan Fitzgerald
(14:42 1st; Hayes, Linell): BC 1, UMASS 1
[BC]
Austin Cangelosi
(17:37 1st; Gaudreau, Arnold): BC 2, UMASS 1
[UMASS] Branden Gracel (18:34 3rd; Hanley, Sheary; PP): BC 2, UMASS 2
Johnny Gaudreau’s assist in the first period made him the first Eagle to reach 20 points this season. The junior forward has registered at least one point in all but one of his eleven games played.
With 2:34 remaining in regulation, Eagles freshman Steve Santini delivered a blow to Steven Guzzo, resulting in a five-minute major and a disqualification. As it was his second ejection, Santini will be served with an automatic two-game suspension. His penalty led to the tying goal for the Minutemen with over a minute to play in the third period.
In overtime, the Eagles killed off the remainder of the major penalty and Quinn Smith hit the post in a bid for the game-winner, but neither team was able to claim a second Hockey East point on Friday night.
Brian Billett, the winner in last night’s contest, made 32 saves, while the Minutemen’s Mac Haight saved 26. Shots on goal were 34-28 in favor of Massachusetts. The Minutemen has seven power play opportunities from another penalty box-heavy night for the Eagles, converting on only the major which ultimately gave them the tie. Boston College went 0-for-3 on the power play.
The result is fairly disappointing for the Eagles as they had a very real chance at another win, but essentially gave away a point after a bad penalty. Optimistically for Boston College, they were still able to salvage one of those points.
The Eagles will not play a home game for two weeks; their next contest is on Wednesday night at Harvard.