Notre Dame 2, Boston College 1: Unbeaten Streak Broken at 19

#1 Boston College Eagles hockey experienced something on Saturday that they had not in over three months: losing.

On senior day at Kelley Rink, the Eagles fell to the #14 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 2-1 in overtime. With the loss, Boston College’s unbeaten streak is broken at 19 games and their record falls to 25-5-4 (16-2-2) on the season as they will now prepare to host their Hockey East quarterfinal.

One streak which did continue was Johnny Gaudreau’s points streak. The junior forward scored Boston College’s only goal on a tremendous play, extending his mark to 29 games in a row with at least a point. With points in two more games, he will tie Paul Kariya’s conference record of 31.

The Eagles got trapped into playing Notre Dame’s slower defensive game, and credit to the Irish, it worked. Boston College is now winless in consecutive games and have been slowed down by the goaltending and defenses of their top opponents, UMass-Lowell and Notre Dame. There were only certain flare-ups of the offensive pressure, but for the most part, Boston College was either chasing the puck or were the ones themselves under pressure.

Freshman goalie Thatcher Demko had a respectable outing, though the game-winning goal deflected off of his stick and he could not find it. That was a hard play to have to stomach when he had a good game otherwise.

Boston College was long overdue to get a reality check. They have worked very hard to get to this point, but now they need to focus on what is to come as the postseason is about to begin. The pressure of the win streak being gone might be construed as a good thing, though regardless of whether the Eagles had won or lost, their real season begins very soon and they must prepare accordingly.

The Eagles will now wait to see the lowest seed that advances out of the Hockey East Tournament first round.