Boston College skated circles around Massachusetts Saturday night in Amherst, jumping to a 5-0 lead after two periods before a sloppy finale sent them home 7-4 victors.
The performance by the visiting Eagles was typical of Boston College teams in the past, showing plenty of speed, a rapid transition game, and effective backchecking, impressive for a team with nine freshman starters, six sophomores, and just five seniors (no juniors). The Eagles got goals from J.D. Dudek, Jesper Mattila, Ryan Fitzgerald, and two each from Austin Cangelosi and Colin White.
“This is the best of all the games we have played so far,” said associate coach Greg Brown, subbing for an ailing Jerry York. “We used the pace and we kept the tempo high. We kept the pace when in their zone a lot more than we have in previous games.”
“Boston College is really a very skilled team,” UMass coach Greg Carvel said. “We allowed them to make plays and we couldn’t slow down their transitions. They also defend well.”
Brown had praise for his young players. “We might not have an All-American in the bunch,” he said of his youngsters, “but they all are very skilled and play well together. They are almost interchangeable with each other.”
UMass winger Austin Plevy said his team came out for the third period, facing the 5-0 deficit, but “trying to win the third period. We were hoping to take a positive note home from this game. As for the first two periods, you just can’t give up so many chances because a team like BC will bury them.”
As for his team’s future (now 2-4 on the season), coach Carvel said, “We have to make every game a learning experience. We have to learn something from every one of our 34 games. We tend to turn the puck over quite a lot. We have to be smarter with the puck. We have to identify our strengths and weaknesses and learn what we have to do for our next game.”
The third period got a little sloppy and UMass took advantage of BC penalties to make the score somewhat respectable. Plevy got UMass on the board with a power-play strike at 2:15, and Patrick Lee made it 5-2 with a four-on-four goal at 8:11. After White and Caneglosi each got their second goals of the night to make it 7-2, Ryan Badger got a power-play goal at 14:09, and Kurt Keats ended with scoring at 17:25.
Hockey East roundup
Merrimack at New Hampshire
Patrick Grasso had four goals and Tyler Kelleher had a goal and two assists as UNH cruised to a 6-2 win over Merrimack.
Maine at Colgate
Colgate scored twice in the final five minutes of the third period to edge Maine, 5-3, in Hamilton, N.Y. The game was tied at three before Willie Brooks scored on a power play at 16:55 for Colgate. Jake Kulevich supplied the clincher at 19:31.
No. 5 Massachusetts-Lowell 4, at Omaha 2
Joh Edwardh scored with 4:18 to go in the final period as Mass.-Lowell beat Omaha 4-2 to split the weekend series in Omaha. Joe Gambardella scored an empty netter to ice the victory had two assist for the visiting River Hawks.
