CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Any coach loves when his team can score goals in bunches. On Friday, that’s exactly what No. 3 Minnesota did.
An opportunistic Gophers team twice produced two-goal outbursts in skating past No. 12 Boston College, 6-2, on Friday night at BC’s Kelley Rink.
The first Minnesota outburst came with the Eagles trailing, 1-0, and less than 90 seconds after BC had its best chance of the middle frame to even the game. Alex Tuch’s bid from the slot was turned away by Minnesota netminder Adam Wilcox (24 saves) and the juicy rebound was nicely cleared by the Gophers’ defense at 16:12.
A shift later, this time in the Minnesota offensive zone, third-line center Vinni Lettieri forced a turnover along the left boards, walked to the slot, and fired a high shot far side on BC netminder Thatcher Demko (24 saves), giving the Gophers a 2-0 lead.
With BC scrambling off the ensuing faceoff, Minnesota struck again when Justin Kloos fed hard-charging defenseman Ben Marshall, who put all of his weight into a one-timer over Demko’s glove with 1:38 remaining in the period.
Given the way the Minnesota defense had played through the game to that point, you wouldn’t blame many of the 6,748 in attendance if they believed that shot all but placed a nail in the BC coffin.
As a team on Friday, the Gophers limited the Eagles to just 15 shots through the first two periods, few from the grade ‘A’ area of the ice. Similarly, the BC power play struggled to establish the zone and maintain any riding time.
However, BC didn’t quit, and early in the third scored twice in a span of 2:32 to pull within a goal. Tuch got BC on the board by burying a turnover by Minnesota’s Jack Glover at 3:33. Then a quick redirect short side by Destry Straight at 6:05 gave the Eagles faithful some hope.
“I thought we were in good shape going into the third; we hadn’t been hemmed in and we kept [BC] to the perimeter,” said Minnesota coach Don Lucia. “We had the big turnover and it’s 3-1 and those boards are so lively and a quick bounce off the board and they made it 3-2.
“I thought about a timeout, but I thought we were playing pretty well.”
It didn’t take too long for that solid play to show on the score sheet, as the Gophers second offensive outburst put the game away. Jake Bischoff caught Demko off balance with a high shot at 9:43. Then Lettieri buried his second goal of the game, again walking off the sidewall and roofing a high shot.
It was the inability to not have an answer and, conversely, allow Minnesota quick back-to-back goals in the game that frustrated Eagles coach Jerry York.
“[Minnesota] made some pretty good plays, but certainly the next goal is an important goal,” said York. “When they score we like to rebound on the next play.”
Connor Reilly scored into an empty net for Minnesota with 36 seconds remaining.
In a tight-checking first period, Minnesota scored the lone goal. Kloos took a pass from Sam Warning and split the seam between the BC defense, walking in alone on Demko. Though the sophomore netminder stoned Kloos, Warning buried the rebound at 16:57 of the first for the 1-0 lead.
BC had just six shots in the first period, a trend that continued for the first 40 minutes as BC struggled to establish the zone against the Gophers.
“Minnesota forechecked extremely well,” said York. “We had a difficult time getting clean breakouts. We just have to do a better job on it. Tonight we were exposed on [breakouts].”
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Eagles (7-6-0). BC returns to Hockey East play on Saturday, traveling to No. 20 Providence.
For the Gophers, the victory is a nice start to a two-game road swing through Beantown. Minnesota (8-3-0) heads down the road on Saturday night to take on Northeastern at Matthews Arena.
