CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — No. 5 Boston University rallied with four goals in the third period to defeat third-ranked Boston College 5-3.
BC held a 2-1 lead, but the Terriers scored a succession of “greasy” goals to topple their archrivals in front of a capacity crowd.
Evan Rodrigues scored twice, including the game-winner, the grease de résistance.
Mike Moran began the comeback two minutes into the period, shooting from behind the net and banking it in off BC goaltender Thatcher Demko. After the Eagles scored a potentially backbreaking shorthanded goal off a turnover by Brandon Hickey that gave Ryan Fitzgerald a breakaway and his second goal of the game, BU again rallied.
Jack Eichel, the freshman who has taken Hockey East by storm, won an offensive zone faceoff, then charged the net where he deflected in a shot from Hickey.
Rodrigues’s game-winner came at 14:14, two minutes after Eichel’s strike. Rodrigues carried behind the net, left to right, then from along the goal line backhanded a shot that caromed off Demko’s stick, a defenseman’s skate, and into the net.
“I didn’t really have a play there,” Rodrigues said. “I just brought it around the net and figured why not throw it in front. You never know who’s going to be there. Danny [O’Regan] and Jack [Eichel] were both driving the net, so I just threw it out there, it hit a skate, and found the corner of the net.”
Considering that it was the second BU goal in barely more than 12 minutes scored from either behind or along the end line, the Terriers might have gotten more than their share of puck luck. BU coach David Quinn, however, felt it was deserved.
“You get dirty goals by working and working and working, and that’s what happened,” he said. “We got rewarded for our hard work. Both teams are very talented. A lucky bounce helps, and we were able to get a lucky bounce or two. But I think we made our lucky bounces.”
The comeback extended BU’s enviable record in the closing 20 minutes. In their six games, the Terriers have outscored their opponents 14-1 in the third period.
“Our third period has been great all year,” Quinn said. “We’re in great shape, we don’t get fazed by the situation, [and] we haven’t faced insurmountable leads. Give a lot of credit to our leadership, too.”
Not to be overlooked was the play of BU’s penalty kill unit, which kept the Eagles off the board during the second period when they enjoyed three power plays.
The win was Quinn’s first over the Eagles as BU’s head coach. BC swept the Terriers in their three meetings last year.
Quinn was forced to shuffle his lineup and play only three lines after first-line left winger Ahti Oksanen went down with an injury due to a mid-ice collision in the first period. The extent of his injury is not yet known. Perhaps fortuitously, Rodrigues moved onto the line with Eichel and O’Regan.
Boston College has now lost three straight after a string of four consecutive wins. BC coach Jerry York, however, felt his team played well and just came out on the wrong end of the puck luck.
“It’s the best our team has played in the few number of games we’ve played here,” he said. “We battled hard and created some good offense with cycles. There wasn’t much difference in the two teams, but hats off to BU for their comeback win.”
An electric atmosphere, buoyed by a record student attendance, crackled throughout the arena from before the first puck dropped until BU quieted the crowd late at game’s end. The two archrivals and perennial powerhouses were meeting as co-residents of the top five national rankings for the first time since the 2012 Beanpot final.
The scoreless first period served as primarily a feeling-out time for the two teams. But at 2:10 of the second, the BC crowd got what it came for as Chris Calnan put BC on the board, backhanding his own rebound in from the doorstep.
The Eagles almost cashed in less than a minute later on the power play when Ryan Fitzgerald clanged iron on a shot from the left faceoff dot.
Instead, BU evened the score at 12:17 off a BC turnover at its own blue line. Rodrigues cut in from the right, faked a shot from the slot, continued across right-to-left, and beat Demko with a backhand into the empty side.
Four minutes later, BC retook the lead. Matt O’Connor stymied Alex Tuch on a breakaway, but seconds later Fitzgerald skated in from the right blue line and, given the opportunity to walk all the way in, roofed it for a 2-1 lead.
That set the stage for BU’s “greasy” third period, capped by Rodrigues’s game-winner and an insurance, empty-net goal by Nikolas Olsson.
