BC 2, Merrimack 1: Carey’s Late Goal Gives Eagles 7th-Straight Win

Boston College enjoyed winning Jerry York’s 900th game so much on Friday night that they celebrated by beating the same team on Saturday night.

In North Andover, Massachusetts, #4 Boston College men’s ice hockey defeated the Merrimack Warriors, 2-1. BC is now 21-10-1 and have won seven games in a row.

In a game with several coinciding penalties, it took about ten minutes for the first goal of the game. After Merrimack’s Kyle Singleton went to the box on a hit from behind, Brian Dumoulin stepped up with just over a minute gone on the man-advantage and gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead at 10:44 (Kreider and Gaudreau assisted).

Parker Milner held up well for most of the evening, but he was beat once: that score by the Warriors came off of the stick of Jesse Todd, his 11th goal of the season, at 8:56 in the second (Flanigan and Kolomatis assisted).

Outside of that, both goalies faced pressure but scoring was very limited — that is, until late in the third period. Paul Carey, who had a goal on Friday night against the Warriors, put the game-winner past Joe Cannata to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead at 14:29 (Shea and Gaudreau assisted). The goal was Carey’s 11th of the year. Neither team found the net again, and the BC win was preserved.

John Gaudreau, who is making a serious case for Hockey East Rookie of the Year, notched another two points in BC’s victory. As well as he and Carey, Dumoulin, Shea, and Kreider also found their way into the box score as the Eagles with points.

Parker Milner stopped 30 of Merrimack’s 31 shots; Joe Cannata saved 26 of 28. Since returning to Milner as the goalie, Boston College has not lost, and Milner now sports a 17-5 record as the net-minder this season.

Boston College went 1-for-5 on the man-advantage, while Merrimack went just 0-for-1. In total, sixteen penalties were called during the game, but five BC penalties were concurrent with five Merrimack penalties, resulting in just six power play opportunities.

With Minnesota-Duluth going 1-0-1 and BU having a 1-1 weekend, the Eagles could move up as high as #2 in the next wave of rankings on Monday.

Next weekend, Boston College hockey will return to action with a home-and-home series against Providence.