Boston College Men’s Hockey Defeats Notre Dame 5-3

The Boston Colleg men’s hockey team knocked off Notre Dame on Friday afternoon, defeating the Fighting Irish 5-3. James Hagens had a hat trick, Dean Letourneau continued his strong sophomore season, and the Eagles used a four-goal second period to bounce back after being shutout by Maine last Saturday to get back in the win column as the first half of the season nears an end.

BC started the game with a few good shifts and had a decent early scoring chance off of the stick of James Hagens, but it was Notre Dame that opened the scoring when they put home a rebound on their first power play chance of the game just about three and a half minutes into the first period. That was it for the scoring in the opening period, even though BC had a ton of the puck and dominated the shot battle. Will Vote and Teddy Stiga both had shots ring off of the post and a number of different Eagles had good looks on net, but they were unable to get the tying goal and went into the first intermission trailing 1-0.

Boston College continued to control play at the start of the second period and consistently generate scoring chances, and after a few of the bigger names on the team were turned aside, the Eagles got their tying goal from an unlikely source. After a solid forecheck forced a turnover in the offensive zone, Will Skahan managed to get to a loose puck just below the blue line and step into a slapshot that beat Notre Dame goalie Nicholas Kempf through the five-hole for the big defensive defenseman’s first goal of the season. Notre Dame got their lead back just a few minutes later, but BC tied things up again on the following shift, when Nolan Joyce found a wide open Dean Letourneau in front with a pass from the blue line. Letourneau took his time and fired the puck into the top corner for his sixth goal of the season to make it a 2-2 game. James Hagens gave BC their first lead of the game late in the period, scoring on a backhanded attempt while falling down after a bit of an ugly odd-man rush attempt from himself, Letourneau, and Ryan Conmy. Notre Dame challenged the goal for potential goaltender interference, but the call stood after a lengthy review. BC killed a power play shortly after taking their lead and it looked like that might be it for the period, but Hagens wasn’t quite done yet. He put together a fantastic shift in the offensive zone that ended with him firing a low shot from in close that beat Kempf with just 12 seconds left in the period for his second goal of the night to give BC a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.

Notre Dame got back into the game early on in the third period, scoring on a shot from the point the found its way through some traffic in front of Louka Cloutier. James Hagens responded once again a few minutes later for BC, however, taking it himself on a two-on-one rush an ripping a shot into the top corner to complete his first career college hat trick. The Eagles did a good job of limiting Notre Dame’s chances for the rest of the game, killing off a penalty and spending most of their time in the offensive zone to keep their two-goal lead in tact. Notre Dame pulled their goalie late to try to generate some offense, but they were unable to do so and BC took this one by a 5-3 score.

This was a really strong performance from BC for basically the full 60 minutes, even if they fell behind early and trailed for a decent chunk of the game. They dominated the shots and scoring chances battle and this could have been a more flattering score line if not for a strong showing from Notre Dame’s goalie, particularly in the first period. It was a nice bounce back all around after a bit of a flat showing in their second game against Maine and sets the team up to have a strong close to their first half of the season. They’ll close out that first half next weekend with a home-and-home series against a UMass Lowell team that is currently near the bottom of the Hockey East standings.