Boston College Men’s Hockey Falls to Vermont 6-1

The Boston College men’s hockey team lost an ugly one on Friday night, falling to Vermont 6-1 to snap a four game winning streak. The Eagles fell behind early and were never able to catch up in this one, as the Catamounts were the better team by a considerable margin over the full 60 minutes. It was probably BC’s worst showing of the season and one that they’ll immediately need to rebound from when they play in the Beanpot final on Monday night.

Vermont got out to a lead just 80 seconds into the first period, scoring on an odd-man rush turned breakaway after a rough turnover by Aram Minnetian in the neutral zone. They doubled their lead just around the nine minute mark of the period when Louka Cloutier seemingly just missed what looked like a fairly simple wrist shot from the boards on a delayed penalty. BC did bounce back with a nice penalty kill right after allowing the second goal and had some power play time of their own late in the period. They were unable to cut into Vermont’s lead, however, despite controlling the puck generating a handful of pretty dangerous scoring chances and went into the first intermission trailing by two goals.

The Eagles made the most of about a minute of carryover power play time to start the second period with James Hagens continuing his recent streak of strong play with his 16th goal of the season. Hagens was able to redirect a Lukas Gustafsson shot from the point into the back of the net to make it a 2-1 game just about 45 seconds into the period. It looked like Vermont had regained their two-goal lead a few minutes later after a goal on what appeared to be a nice passing play, but a quick review took it off of the board for a pretty clear kicking motion. BC’s reprieve didn’t last for long, though, as the Catamounts were able to convert on a power play chance just a few minutes later to make it a 3-1 game after two periods of play.

They made it a 4-1 game and ended pretty much any hope of a BC comeback about two and a half minutes into the third period. A breakdown in coverage off of a Vermont rush left a Catamount wide open right above Cloutier’s crease for a one timer into a wide open net to make it a three-goal game. They made it 5-1 with a shorthanded goal not too long after that after another rough turnover, this time from Teddy Stiga and turned it into a laugher a few minutes later with a goal to make it a 6-1 final.

On the heels of a big win against BU last week and a Beanpot victory over Harvard on Monday, this might have been BC’s worst performance of the season. It was a genuinely ugly performance basically from the opening faceoff and outside of a few minutes early in the second period, they never really looked like they were going to get into this game. It’s a bummer because they had been playing some good hockey and it felt like they could go on a bit of a run, but instead they laid a bit of an egg. They’ll have a chance to bounce back almost right away when they play BU once again on Monday night, this time in the Beanpot final.