It was a night where little things meant a lot. For Denver, those little things became big, as did the score as the No. 1 Pioneers routed No. 19 Boston College, 6-1, at Kelley Rink.
The “little things” were abundant for Denver in execution. They struck three times on the power play. They scored two goals directly from offensive zone faceoffs. They drove the net and made live miserable for BC netminder Joe Woll.
“I thought that was our best performance of the year,” said Denver coach Jim Montgomery, whose club came into Boston and swept the weekend following a 4-3 win over Boston University on Friday. “Especially offensively, we showed skill tonight, we made a lot of plays and we were really good at managing the puck.”
The effort, said Montgomery was a stark contrast to Friday’s win, which required a Troy Terry goal in the closing seconds. On Saturday, this Pioneers team was ready for business, ready for battle, and certainly ready to keep up their effort for 60 minutes.
“We didn’t think our details and our habits were great [on Friday],” said Montgomery. “That’s what we talked about.
“We executed great on everything. From our goaltender out, our communication was the best I’ve seen all year in terms of talking and puck support.”
It didn’t hurt that Denver was able to grab a 3-0 lead through two periods. Dylan Gambrell and Henrik Borgström both scored on the power play, while Blake Hillman rifled a shot directly off a faceoff to earn the three-goal cushion.
While Boston College might have felt like it had life when Christopher Brown redirected a Casey Fitzgerald shot early in the third, Denver had little problem putting the game away.
Borgström and Hillman each added a second goal sandwiched around a Tyson McLellan tally.
The 6-1 loss for the Eagles was the worst home defeat since a 2014 playoff loss to Notre Dame, 7-2. It brings BC’s record to 1-5-1 on the young season, the slowest start for this perennial power since 1933.
York, though, knows him team ran into a national power on Saturday and tried to find some positives.
“Our first period was outstanding for us,” said BC coach Jerry York. “We matched them stride for stride. The difference was they continued to do it through the second and third period.
“We have certain standards we try to meet — we try to win special teams, we try to control the faceoff dot, they were more physical than we were. A lot of our checkmarks, there’s usually 10 we try to get, Denver won a lot of those checkmarks. If you win eight of them, you have a good chance to win a hockey game. We probably won three of them tonight.”
Hockey East roundup
No. 10 Minnesota Duluth 2, Maine 0
Parker Mackay’s goal in the opening period and Riley Tufte’s marker late in the second period were all the offense the visiting Bulldogs needed as they skated to a 2-0 win over host Maine.
Hunter Shepard earned the shutout with 26 saves.
Combined with other scores on Friday and Saturday, the NCHC went a perfect 6-0-0 against Hockey East opponents on the weekend.
No. 11 Providence 3, No. 6 Boston University 0
Second period goals by Vidal Sukumaran, Erik Foley, and Brandon Duhaime accounted for all the scoring as Providence blanked visiting Boston University, 3-0.
Hayden Hawkey made 22 saves to earn the shutout for the Friars, who improve to 5-2-0. Boston University drops below .500 with a 3-4-1 mark.
No. 14 New Hampshire 4, Vermont 4, (OT)
Matt O’Donnell scored two third-period goals, including the tying goal with 35 seconds remaining in regulation to help the host Catamounts overcome a two-goal deficit and earn a 4-4 tie against New Hampshire at Gutterson Fieldhouse.
New Hampshire built leads of 2-1 and 4-2 thanks in part to a 2-for-6 performance on the power play, but it was O’Donnell’s late power-play tally that stole the tie for Vermont.
Both goaltenders finished with inflated save totals, as Vermont’s Stefanos Lekkas stopped 29 and UNH’s Danny Tirone saved 41.
No. 20 Northeastern 5, No. 17 UMass Lowell 4 (OT)
Patrick Schule’s goal 2:10 in overtime gave the host Huskies a 5-4 victory, completing the weekend sweep of the River Hawks.
In a back-and-forth game featuring seven lead changes, Lowell forced overtime with a Ryan Dmowski extra-attacker power-play goal with 1:36 remaining in regulation. That was the only power-play tally in a game that featured 12 power plays and four five-on-three advantages for the Huskies.
Five different Huskies scored goals on Saturday, including Adam Gaudette, who finished the weekend the four goals.
Miami 7, Connecticut 1
Miami scored five third-period goals, including two from Louie Belpedio to break open the game and cruise to a 7-1 win over the visiting Huskies.
The win earns the RedHawks the weekend sweep at home. Ryan Larkin stopped just 17 UConn shots to earn the victory.
Merrimack 5, Massachusetts 3
A second-period goal by Ryan Cook and third-period tallies by Tyler Irvine and Jace Hennig broke open a 2-2 game and propelled host Merrimack to a 5-3 victory over Massachusetts at Lawler Rink.
Hennig finished the game with two goals, while UMass defenseman Mario Ferraro added two markers of his own in defeat.
The win is Merrimack’s first on the young season.
