CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — This is not the flashy, speedy Boston College team of the past. But this group of Eagles can be just as explosive.
Three goals in a 4:25 span propelled No. 17 Boston College to a 4-2 victory over New Hampshire in front of 4,589 at Conte Forum on Saturday.
While UNH built on Friday’s effective backcheck and shot-blocking early on Saturday, the Wildcats succumbed to a barrage from the Eagles early in the second period, with goals from Teddy Doherty and Austin Cangelosi just 16 seconds apart to ignite the BC offense and give the Eagles the lead for good.
“It just happened so fast, to be quite honest, which [BC] can do. Before we knew it, we were behind 2-1,” Wildcats coach Dick Umile said. “I don’t think we were nervous, but all of a sudden it turned around very quickly.”
Despite dominant puck possession from the Eagles in the first period, UNH jumped into the lead early, taking advantage of back-to-back penalties from Eagles first-liners Zach Sanford and Ryan Fitzgerald.
The Wildcats made them pay on the ensuing five-on-three power play, with John Furgele walking in with a wrist shot to pick up his second goal of the year.
“We had a little more jump, especially in the first period,” BC coach Jerry York said. “We came out right off the hop very solid in the first period. I thought we controlled the period but all of a sudden we were down 1-0.”
Outshooting UNH 12-8 in the opening 20 minutes but trailing on the scoreboard, BC stepped on the accelerator, posting seven shots in as many minutes to begin the second period.
Eventually, the first goal came for BC with a Teddy Doherty snipe from the top of the left circle, followed just 16 seconds later with Austin Cangelosi gliding through UNH’s defense, making one juke and stuffing the puck through Adam Clark (29 saves) to give the Eagles the lead.
After Umile called timeout, UNH climbed back with a strong finish to the second period. Matt Willows took advantage of a soft clearing try and wired his sixth goal of the season from the slot, cutting the gap to 3-2.
But the effort did little to change the deficit. BC again outpossessed UNH in the third period, winning races to loose pucks and winning battles along the boards.
UNH had one last gasp effort at finding the tying goal after Chris Calnan got whistled for tripping in the final four minutes of regulation.
A series of high-quality chances on the ensuing power play were turned aside, however, as the Eagles withstood the pressure, springing Calnan out of the box on a head-man pass to bury an empty-net goal.
“It’s interesting, the dynamics of a home-and-away series,” York said. “Not a heck of a lot of difference over six periods and an OT period — a one-goal difference between the two teams. We had a really solid PK with three minutes left in the game, otherwise we’re looking at another draw.”
And yet all it took was that one non-empty net goal to tilt the series in the Eagles’ favor. BC snagged three points on the weekend and emerged out of the bottom half of the Hockey East standings (level with sixth-place Merrimack on nine points) before the winter break.
Meanwhile, UNH remains stuck with just one conference win, a 5-3 victory over Northeastern in mid-November, and won’t get another chance for another until it hosts Providence on Jan. 13.
