BOSTON — It was a blowout, pure and simple.
But officially, Boston College’s 8-1 win over Massachusetts in the Hockey East semifinals at TD Garden will be recorded as a come-from-behind victory for the Eagles, who actually trailed for a brief stint in the first period.
For BC coach Greg Brown, UMass’s opening goal at 6:33 of the opening frame set the tone for the rest of his team’s night, and in a good way.
“One of the very best parts of our game was when we gave up that first goal,” Brown said. “Bench energy was terrific. Guys stayed really positive. Not one person hung their head. (There) wasn’t any kind of desperation.”
BC responded with a four-goal outburst in the second period to clinch its first trip to the Hockey East championship game in five years.
Gabe Perreault and Andre Gasseau scored just over two minutes apart to open the middle frame to break a 1-1 deadlock. The Eagles scored twice more in the second and added three in the third to cruise to their 11th straight win on Friday night at TD Garden.
The Eagles, top seed in Hockey East and the No. 1 team in the USCHO.com men’s D-I poll, will face either No. 2 Boston University or No. 3 Maine in Saturday’s championship (7 p.m., NESN and ESPN-plus).
BC will make its first appearance in the conference final since 2019, when it lost 3-2 to Northeastern. The Eagles seek their first Hockey East championship since 2012, when it beat Maine 4-1 and went on to win the NCAA championship.
Will Smith and Cutter Gauthier lit the lamp for the Eagles (30-5-1, 21-3-1) 46 seconds apart in the second period to give BC a commanding 5-1 lead entering the final frame. In all, BC got scoring from 11 different players.
“That was just hard work there on the forecheck,” Smith said about his goal at 16:03 of the second. “We got a lucky bounce there. (Gauthier’s) goal was huge for momentum.”
UMass opened the scoring at 6:33 of the first period when Lucas Mercuri took a centering feed from Ryan Lautenbach on the right wing and fired a wrister past BC goalie Jacob Fowler (27 saves). BC erased that lead less than two minutes later when Ryan Leonard scored on a power play, his 27th of the season.
Any chance No. 5 UMass (No. 13 USCHO) had of asserting itself fizzled late in the first period when it failed to convert on a five-minute power play, awarded when BC’s Mike Posma was sent to the box for a major contact-to-the-head penalty at 14:34. The Minutemen took 12 shots during the major but were unable to crack Fowler’s code.
Gabe goes five-hole for his second on the day 😮💨
📺 @NESN-Plus
💻 https://t.co/5s2DsDrbpC pic.twitter.com/C41IPRkxZR— BC Men's Hockey (@BC_MHockey) March 22, 2024
“That could have helped us out,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “We moved it around pretty well but all in all, it was pretty unfortunate for us tonight.”
UMass (20-13-3, 12-11-2), which was seeking its third Hockey East tournament title in four seasons, now must wait to see if it will qualify for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Minutemen entered the weekend 12th in the PairWise, the rating system used to determine tournament qualification. A ratings analysis before Friday’s semifinal put UMass as a 79 percent chance to make the 16-team NCAA field, which will be announced Sunday night.
“It will come right down to the wire,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “If we make it, great. If we don’t, we have only ourselves to blame.”
UMass provided the tournament’s only upset so far when it upended No. 4 Providence 3-1 in the semifinals.
Boston College put an exclamation point on their evening with two more tallies to open the third period, with Aram Minnetian scoring 3:00 in and Perreault notching his second of the night at 5:04. Gauthier made it 8-1 with a power-play goal at 17:29, his second of the night and league-leading 27th Hockey East goal of the season (34th overall).
The Eagles are assured of the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, regardless of how the rest of the Hockey East tournament unfolds.
“Those eight goals don’t come from super highlight reel plays,” Gauthier said. “They come from little details, like winning puck battles and making smart plays. I thought we did that for a full 60 minutes tonight.”
