CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Following a holiday known for its lackadaisical, gluttonous nature, it seemed fitting that No. 2 Boston College would need a wakeup call from a deep slumber.
The Eagles got that wake-up call, in the form of two quick RIT goals midway through the first period. Following the two quick goals, the Eagles awoke from their deep slumber, and posted six straight goals en route to a 6-2 rout of the hapless Tigers.
The first period began at a special 4:00 Saturday matinee start at Kelley Rink and both teams appeared to have difficulty establishing a proper rhythm early.
The sloppiness and disorganization bred a scoring opening for RIT.
Abbot Girduckis rifled a shot past Thatcher Demko’s glove side shoulder to give RIT the lead. A little over a minute later, from the same spot in the face off circle, Erik Brown knuckled a puck past Demko, and the Eagles faced a two-goal deficit early.
Naturally, given the Eagles offensive prowess, the game was not comfortably in RITs grasp.
“No, [I was not comfortable with the lead],” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said. “Just watching their starts, they’ve taken off in some of their games early and have kind of glided to the end. Our start was going to be important.”
Given the Eagles difficult start, the thought of calling a timeout to stop the RIT momentum crossed BC coach Jerry York’s mind.
“I thought [about] that, but the puck dropped and off we went,” York said. “Sometimes a delayed coach’s reaction is the best thing.”
With the Eagles offense unfettered by a prolonged stoppage, BC answered 1:10 after the Brown goal.
Following Chris Calnan’s injury sustained during a game against New Hampshire (revealed to be a dislocated shoulder after the game versus RIT), York brought Christopher Brown up from the fourth line up to the first line to play with Miles Wood and Austin Cangelosi for the matchup against Connecticut Tuesday evening.
York kept the lineup Saturday afternoon and his confidence in Brown paid off.
Brown fired a shot that hit the crossbar and fell into the net. Brown’s goal began a onslaught of six unanswered goals by the BC attack. Brown’s goal was followed by goals from Scott Savage and Ryan Fitzgerald, flipping advantage the Eagles’ way going into the locker room.
The tone of the second period was set early. Alex Tuch put a one-time feed from Zach Sanford past Mike Rotolo 5:33 into the second period, giving the Eagles their fourth unanswered goal. Ian McCoshen added to the period’s goal total with a rocket from the blue line to increase the lead to 5-1
From the McCoshen goal, the game became contentious. In the waning moments of the second, a skirmish ensued in the RIT end. It would be the first of a few skirmishes in the second half of the game. The Eagles took their 5-1 lead into intermission.
The third period came around, and the chippiness continued. The two teams were assessed a combined 14 penalty minutes in the third period. One RIT penalty, namely one assessed to Alexander Kuqali, resulted in a BC goal from Casey Fitzgerald. The goal was the Eagles’ second power play goal of the afternoon. The goal also gave BC junior Matthew Gaudreau his third point of the night. He continued an eight-game point streak.
“Matty surprised all of us,” York said. “He came with [his brother] Johnny. He was going to be a Gaudreau, but he was certainly not going to be a key player for us. All of a sudden, it is his third year and he’s become a key player for us. Even smaller than Johnny, but he’s tough as a two dollar steak.”
York revealed in the press conference that Brendan Silk, who was injured on his first shift against Army, has nerve damage in his injured shoulder. York estimated that Silk will be out for two more months.
