BC 4, UML 2: Eagles Hold Off River Hawks to Stay Perfect in Hockey East

It wasn’t pretty, and it definitely wasn’t the best game BC has played so far this year, but it ended the way most of the others did: with a win. Boston College got out of the Tsongas Center with a 4-2 win over UMass-Lowell on Friday night, raising their record to 6-1 (4-0) while the River Hawks have fallen to 2-2 (0-1). Norm Bazin, in his first home game as UML coach, faced a tough task in the #1 team in the country and did not get a win.

All but one of the goals in the game were scored in the second period. The first saw plenty of action, but no scores. Parker Milner stopped 13 UML shots, while Doug Carr only had to turn away five Boston College shots. The second, however, was much livelier.

The Eagles scored first at the 3:18 mark of the second period on Paul Carey’s second goal of the season (Dumoulin and Hayes assist) during a power play. Boston College’s lead doubled only 66 seconds later thanks to Steven Whitney, who took a nasty hit only a few minutes before (Alber and Mullane assist). BC’s 2-0 lead did not last, though, as the River Hawks got on the board at 8:02 on a Michael Budd goal (Vallorani and Eiserman assist).

UMass-Lowell tied the game at 2-2 at 15:57 in the period, thanks to Matt Ferreira’s third goal of the season (Pendenza and Vallorani assist). Like Boston College’s first lead, however, this tie also did not last, as freshman sensation John Gaudreau made his fourth goal of the season the game-winner at 18:42 (Cross and Whitney assist).

There are not live stats available for the third period at this writing, but the most important statistic is that no goals were scored when it mattered. The Eagles scored on an empty netter by Barry Almeida to make it 4-2 with a little over a minute to go, while Parker Milner was able to make his third-period lead hold up for the Eagles’ sixth win of the season.

Parker Milner (apparently) had 31 saves, which would mean the River Hawks got 33 shots on goal. Without knowing Boston College’s precise number, I can tell you that it’s not as high. UMass-Lowell had a number of chances in this game, with some extended periods of pressure on the BC goal, but give Milner credit as he held up and locked down BC’s win. Give UML credit as well, as they played an aggressive game and kept the Eagles on their toes all night.

These two teams will head down to Boston tomorrow night to complete their home-and-home weekend.