CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Boston College faced a major test on Saturday afternoon against Hockey East rival Connecticut. And thanks to sophomore netminder Ryan Edquist, along with some opportunistic scoring, the Eagles passed with flying colors.
Without the services of top goaltender Joseph Woll and forward Aapeli Rasanen, both representing their countries at the World Junior Championship in Buffalo, New York, the Eagles found some greasy goals, solid special teams and, most importantly, got a 23-save shutout from Edquist, the first of his career, to knock off UConn, 2-0, in front of 5,555 at Kelley Rink.
The biggest story was certainly Edquist, who a year ago when he replaced Woll during the same span posted a loss and a tie at the Three Rivers Classic in Pittsburgh. This time, the sophomore was at the top of his game, continuing what has been a solid season despite limited action.
“It’s exciting [to get the opportunity],” said Edquist giving the nod to his classmate and goaltending partner Woll, who he said there is a healthy competition between. “You try to stay focused. You only get your opportunities here and there; you want to take advantage of it.”
Edquist, in typical goaltender fashion, laid most of the praise on the skaters in front of him, who limited the visiting Huskies to just 23 shots on net.
“A lot of the shots were from outside the house; it made it a little easier to have time to track the pucks,” said Edquist. “There were a lot of blocked shots. [UConn] had a couple of good rush plays and the ‘D’ sold out. There were some big blocks there.
“That always makes playing goalie easier. You appreciate that.”
UConn put some good pressure on the Eagles early in the opening period, but it was a failed power play after BC’s Zach Walker was sent off for tripping at 9:20 followed by BC’s ability to convert with a David Cotton power-play goal that Connecticut coach Mike Cavanaugh felt was a turning point.
“I thought the game started well, then we got the power play and we lost a little momentum,” said Cavanaugh. “Then they scored the power-play goal and I thought that was the difference in the first period.”
It also became a major difference maker in the game given that neither team scored in the middle stanza, and it wasn’t until BC’s Ron Grecco tallied with 9:08 left that either team sniffed much offensively.
Indeed, the early failure with the man advantage was important, but maybe nothing turned the game as much as a 52 second five-on-three power play midway through the game for the Huskies that generated only one solid chance — that being a breakaway for BC’s Graham McPhee that was stopped by UConn’s Adam Huska in the middle of the power play.
“We waited too long to get into our set [on the five-on-three],” said Cavanaugh. “We waited too long to move the puck around and didn’t make their defenders do anything. We were too stationary for the start of the five-on-three.
“The thing with a power play, a great power play might be 20 percent, so you’re going to fail four out of five times, but the thing you can’t let a power play do is lose momentum.”
For the Boston College offense, coach Jerry York felt his team was opportunistic. Neither team was overly successful taking the puck to the net in the game, but both times the Eagles got to that sacred area, they converted.
“Those plays aren’t easy to make,” said York. “The other teams are good. I thought David Cotton really took the puck to the net hard on the first power-play goal. And Grecco was right there banging at loose puck.
“The old adage in hockey that most goals are going to be scored from less than three feet certainly was true tonight.”
