boston – The top-seeded Boston College men’s hockey team came away with an 8-1 victory over the fifth-seeded University of Massachusetts in the Hockey East semifinals Friday night at TD Garden. The Eagles advanced to Saturday's championship to face the winner of Boston College and Maine State.
Boston College (30-5-1), led by four players with three or more points, overcame a temporary deficit by scoring eight unanswered goals.
At 6:33 into the game, Lucas Mercuri found the back of the net, giving the University of Massachusetts the lead. BC immediately started the power play after that, and the freshmen ryan leonard (Amherst, Mass.) scored an early tying goal. 2nd grade cutter gautier (Scottsdale, Ariz.) held the zone at the right point and passed to the freshman. Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.) took a shot on the left side, but the shot hit the pad and Leonard backhanded it into the open net.
In their first game in four weeks, the new students Gabe Perrault (Hinsdale, Ill.) gave the Eagles their first lead of the day with a second-period score. 2nd year defenseman charlie lady (Fairfield, Conn.)'s shot was deflected by Leonard and fell to Perreault, who with a player on his back fired the shot behind the goalie. The Eagles doubled their lead to 3-1 when Gauthier stole the puck on a one-on-one and gave the puck to the sophomore. Andre Gasseau (Garden Grove, California) Please provide your score.
Boston College entered the second intermission with a four-point lead, and Smith and Gauthier added goals 46 seconds apart to push the score to 5-1. Smith scored with a tip in front of the net, and Gauthier spun and fired home his NCAA-leading 33rd goal of the season.
Scoring
First place 6:33 UM Lucas Mercury (Ryan Lautenbach, Scott Morrow)
First place 8:02 B.C. ryan leonard (Will Smith, cutter gautier) – PP
The second 4:41 BC Gabe Perrault (Leonard, charlie lady)
The second 6:43 BC Andre Gasseau (Gauthier, Oscar Gervik)
The second 16:03 BC Smith (Leonard, Perrault)
The second 16:49 BC Gauthier (Gathau, Gervik)
3rd place 3:01 BC Aram Minnetian (jack malone, Aidan Fleschuk)
3rd place 5:04 BC Perrault (Smith)
game memo
- BC is 78-37-2 all-time in the Hockey East Tournament and 110-1 against UMass in the playoffs.
- BC reached 30 wins for the first time since winning 33 games in the 2011-12 season. The Eagles' last national championship.
- BC has won 11 straight games. It is the first Hockey East team to go 10 or more games undefeated and the first since UMass' 14-game streak heading into the 2021 national championship.
- This season, BC is 6-3-1 when the opponent takes the lead.
- Leonard scored his 27th goal of the season, tied for the second-most by a BC freshman along with Chuck Kobasiux (2000-2001) and Richie Smith (1972-73).
- Gauthier recorded his 15th multi-point game and fifth multiple assists of the season.
- Smith recorded his 21st multi-point game of the season and 10th with multiple assists.
- Smith increased his season point total to 61, which is only one behind Brian Gionta (1997-98) and the second-most by a freshman in BC in a single season. He is the first BC player to score more than 60 points in a season since Johnny Gaudreau's 80 points in 2013-14.
next
Boston College will play the winner of No. 2 seed BU and No. 3 University of Maine at TD Garden on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. on NESN.
