With three goals in the game’s opening 20:43, Boston College scored early and often, and put the consolation game of the 50th Beanpot Tournament out of reach for the Harvard Crimson. Two different Eagles, Tony Voce and Ales Dolinar, had two points apiece as BC cruised to a 4-0 final.
“We came out with some good energy right away and got a couple of goals,” said Ben Eaves, who scored the game’s second goal. “Harvard came at us pretty hard, but we kept on doing the little things.”
The game was evenly played everywhere but on the scoreboard. Shots favored the Eagles, but only narrowly, 26-22. The two teams were tied with 16 shots after two periods, despite a 3-0 lead for the Eagles.
“I give credit to BC,” said Crimson coach Mark Mazzoleni. “I thought, coming out tonight, we had to get a fast start against them. We keep putting ourselves in a hole right away and have to play catch up. That’s a difficult task.”
It took less than half a period for BC to get on the scoreboard. After a successful penalty kill that kept Harvard without a shot for two minutes, Ty Hennes sprung Voce on a breakaway. Voce went in alone, and slid the puck past Harvard netminder Will Crothers.
“When you look at our overall scoring across the board,” said Mazzoleni, “we haven’t had anyone really step it up, the way Voce has, to really carry BC through the absence of Ben Eaves.”
Eaves, who enjoyed his first night back after a prolonged rib injury with a goal and two assists on Friday against Maine, continued his strong play in this game by scoring the game’s second goal.
“Johnny Adams made a nice play, and chipped it out to Tony Voce,” said Eaves. “Tony flipped the puck out, and it was a race between me and the Harvard defenseman. I got kinda lucky and chipped it by him. I came in on the two-on-one, and [defenseman Ryan Murphy] went flying to the net and took out the defenseman. I waited as long as I could and almost ran out of room, but I cut to the middle and stuffed it in.”
Less than a minute into the second period, BC struck again when D’Arpino scored a third goal, and it seemed as though the rout was on. But despite numerous chances for both teams, there was no further scoring until the waning moments of the third period, when BC got a power-play goal from Bill Cass to seal the victory.
“We had some chaces; their goaltender played well,” said Mazzoleni. “But you could see the difference in the first period, the chances that they had, they finished very, very well. And when we did have chances, we didn’t capitalize on them.”
Boston College coach Jerry York was happy to be playing with four healthy lines. “Tonight was just a good, solid effort,” he said. “I think when we are healthy, we’ve got an excellent hockey team.”
The return of Eaves was a shot in the arm for the Eagles, who suffered from a 1-7-0 streak during the final eight games before Eaves’ return.
“Those five weeks were the toughest five weeks of school for me,” said Eaves. “It’s tough to sit out those games. When the team struggles, you wish you could be out there. Hopefully, we all grew from the experience and we got a couple of guys back and we’re looking to make a stretch run.”
The stretch run begins for Boston College with a home-and-home series with Merrimack next weekend. Harvard hopes to get back on track, traveling to Clarkson and St. Lawrence next weekend.
