Boston College entered its dwelling and residential weekend sequence with No. 11 UMass with three aims.
Secure a sweep, keep its No. 1 nationwide rating, and transfer into first-place in Hockey East with 5 to play within the common season. BC checked all of the bins with a hardscrabble 6-4 victory over the Minutemen throughout a Sunday matinee at Conte Forum.
BC freshman proper wing Ryan Leonard of Amherst netted the hat trick for BC. Leonard had two targets within the Eagles 5-1 win at UMass on Friday evening for 5 within the sequence and 21 on the season.
“Sometime you have those moments and obviously your teammates notice and try to get me the puck,” mentioned Leonard. “This weekend was a kind of weekends the place I used to be simply feeling it and all people has these moments.
The Eagles (23-5-1, 15-3-1) recovered from their non-league 4-3 loss to BU within the opening spherical of the Beanpot on Feb. 5 with 4 straight victories over New Hampshire, Harvard, and the 2 towards UMass. The Minutemen dropped to 16-9-3 total, 9-7-2 in Hockey East and are liable to falling exterior the NCAA match bubble.
“We are keeping a short focus one game at a time,” mentioned BC coach Greg Brown. “We know we want to be playing our best hockey at the end of the year and that’s about our next opponent and what we need to do to get a win.”
UMass broke a 3-3 impasse on a aim by freshman Dans Locmelis at 7:56 of the third. Defenseman Samuli Niinisaari arrange Locmelis for a redirect that slipped by BC goaltender Jacob Flower for his seventh of the season.
UMass had two skaters within the field when Leonard tied the sport on a wrist shot from the low slot that beat UMass goalie Michael Hrabal (40 saves) at 10:03 for his second of the sport. BC was nonetheless on the facility play when Leonard secured the hat trick at 11:01. BC middle Cutter Gauthier notched his twenty sixth of the season into an open internet with 1:45 to play.
“Tough way to lose a game,” mentioned UMass coach Greg Carvel.
BC went up 1-0 at 6:44 on a powerful collaboration by the Eagles’ second line, which is made up of freshmen 2023 NHL first spherical draft picks. Center Will Smith (three first assists) received the puck to Gabe Perreault, who relayed it to Leonard on the backside of the precise circle. Leonard ripped a wrister that beat Hrabal stick facet.
BC went up 2-0 on the facility play at 19:12. Perreault collected a Smith rebound and flicked it contained in the close to publish from a nasty angle for his 14th of the season.
“Will sees the ice but the whole line scans the ice well,” mentioned Brown. “They have a feel for it if you watch them closely. You see them looking over their shoulders and if they do get the puck, they know what is next.”
UMass took over the sport with three unanswered targets within the second to go up, 3-2. Sophomore middle Kenny Connors took a feed from Cam O’Neill, sliced by way of the precise circle, and beat Fowler with a wrist shot stick facet for his sixth.
Connors arrange freshman left wing Aydar Suniev for the primary of two at 11:31. The Calgary Flames draft choose from Kazan, Russia, put the Minutemen forward with a nifty setup by Lucas Mercuri at 12:00. BC tied the sport 3-3 on a seeing eye knuckleball shot by graduate BU switch Jamie Armstrong at 15:17.
Source: www.bostonherald.com