Boston College-Brown Final: Power Play Rises As Eagles Claim 4-1 Win

Boston College-Brown Final: #15 Boston College hockey started its second half right with a 4-1 win over Brown in the Ledyard Classic.

The victory puts the Eagles into double digits in the win column; the team now sits at 10-7-1 on the season. Boston College has won three games in a row and is unbeaten in their last four, dating back to December.

Backup goalie Brad Barone, who played in the place of Thatcher Demko, earned his first-ever win in-net for Boston College.

Boston College-Brown Final: Game Synopsis

Boston College, playing without some of their key faces, looked to get the game off to a fast start with themselves out front, and that is precisely what they did. Just over four minutes into the game, freshman forward Zach Sanford got credit for his third score of the year to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

There was originally a bit of discussion as to whether the goal would go to Sanford or Adam Gilmour, but ultimately Sanford put the Eagles on top.

Only moments later at the 7:15 mark, Brown’s captain, Matt Lorito, found a way to beat Eagles backup goalie Brad Barone to level the score.

Just as the first period was coming to an end, Ryan Fitzgerald tapped the puck into the open net, putting the Eagles ahead once more with just 16 seconds remaining until intermission. The score ended a streak of nine games in a row without a goal for Fitzgerald, who was at one point Boston College’s scoring leader. The goal was, however, his team-leading 8th of the season.

The second period proved to be light on action for the Eagles, who were outshot 10-4 in those 20 minutes but kept Brown off the scoreboard. They were forced to kill four penalties over the course of the second, greatly limiting themselves offensively in terms of time on the clock.

With the coming of the third period, the rusty Eagles finally woke up offensively. Assisted by two Brown penalties near the midpoint of the final frame, Boston College’s moribund power play struck gold twice. First, Adam Gilmour made the Bears pay on a 5-on-3 to put the Eagles ahead, 3-1 at 8:01. 81 seconds later, Austin Cangelosi scored his first-ever power play goal with Boston College to give his team a 4-1 advantage.

Boston College-Brown Final: Goal Chart

Boston College-Brown Final: The Stats

The Eagles finally got production out of their power play on Friday, going 2-for-6. The penalty kill was a perfect 5-for-5.

Barone made 22 saves to earn his first win, while Brown’s Tim Ernst made 18 saves in defeat. Brown outshot the Eagles, 23-22.

Ryan Fitzgerald notched a three-point night (1-2-3), while Teddy Doherty, Adam Gilmour, and Austin Cangelosi all had two.

Boston College-Brown Final: Hot Takes

Boston College Eagles

Boston College was down several key players during the game, yet still should have probably put out a better performance than what they did, at least during the first two periods. For a team that has one of the lowest scoring totals in college hockey, and one of the highest goals against averages, a ranked team should probably do away with Brown in short order. It was closer than it should have been most of the way, but the better team woke up and found a way to win.

Rust is a possible factor, but whatever appeared to exist was mostly gone by game’s end.

Nevertheless, the scoreboard is all that matters, and Boston College came away with a win. Not every game a team plays is going to be airtight from start to finish. Boston College could not afford to lose to such a weak opponent, and they kept their win streak going.

Boston College-Brown Final: Next Up

The Eagles return to action tomorrow in the Ledyard Classic, playing the host team, Dartmouth, at 7pm.