The ninth ranked Boston College Eagles defeated No. 3 New Hampshire Friday Night, 4-1, spoiling Senior Night at the Whittemore Center. Boston College improved to 21-11-1, 17-8-1 in Hockey East while New Hampshire fell to 23-8-2, 18-6-2 in league play.
Nathan Gerbe scored twice for BC and goaltender Cory Schneider had 31 saves on the night. The scoring didn’t start until near the end of the first period. Boston College would start it off at 16:04 when junior Matt Greene scored off a Benn Ferriero rebound for his fourth goal of the season to make a 1-0 game.
UNH’s Jerry Pollastrone had the chance to score on a breakaway but Schneider made the save on the bid. BC would increase it’s lead to 2-0 when they were on the man advantage late in the first. Nathan Gerbe got his first goal of the night after goalie Kevin Regan faced a flurry of shots, but was unable to stop Gerbe’s. Brock Bradford and Brian Boyle were credited with the assists.
In the second period the Wildcats would try and dig themselves out of a two goal deficit. Junior Matt Fornataro would have his shot go off the post seven minutes into the period. Midway through the second frame Trevor Smith and Jerry Pollastrone would set up Chris Murray to score his eighth goal of the season and make it a one goal game. That would be the only goal scored in the period.
The third period had two goals scored, both empty nets by Boston College. New Hampshire called a timeout with 1:04 left and then decided to pull Regan. Just seven seconds later Gerbe would get his second of the game. Regan stayed on the bench and the face off returned to the Boston College end. BC won the faceoff and Ferriero would get the goal to seal the win and make it a 4-1 final.
“I thought the difference tonight was we got terrific goaltending from Cory Schneider and our special teams was successful. We had one goal and we killed a penalty late in the period. They had the puck really moving very well but we were in good passing lines and we had a great block from Mike Brennan,” said BC head coach Jerry York.
“Obviously we are disappointed with our loss and I thought we had our chances and it was a 2-1 hockey game and we obviously couldn’t get it tied up. Told the team at least we got back battling and if there’s any consolation to the game we take something positive out of it. We gotta get down there tomorrow and get a spilt,” UNH’s Dick Umile said.
The hockey east playoffs are beginning to shape up after some of tonight’s games. Last Saturday New Hampshire clinched the number one spot in the playoffs and with tonight’s win Boston College is now the number two seed.
Providence was able to receive the 8th spot after beating Merrimack 7-2. They will travel up to Durham to face UNH in a best of three game series next week. Boston College will host Northeastern in a three game series as well.
UNH and Boston College will face off tomorrow night at Conte Forum. Game time is 7 p.m.
