Reliving Boston College's Season One Game (and One Moment) at a Time: Second Half
Photo by BCEagles.com
On Saturday, we recapped the first half of the 2019-20 BC hockey season with a memorable moment from each game. Today we turn our attention to the second half.
January 4 vs. Vermont: Greco’ hat trick - Ron Greco’s career-high in goals was five, yet he finished with a collegiate hat trick. Greco had just one goal combined in the 2018 and 2019 calendar years, but he sure started 2020 off on the right foot. He scored a goal in each period of BC’s 8-3 victory as the Eagles extended their winning streak to 10.
January 10 vs. UMass: Newhook’s goal - The Minutemen snapped BC’s winning streak with a 3-1 victory in this top 10 matchup. BC poured 42 shots on goal, but Filip Lindberg was tall to the task. The team’s lone goal came in the first, when Newhook chased down a loose puck and split two defensemen before tucking the puck through Lindberg’s legs. This was the first of Newhook’s 13 second-half goals.
January 11 at UMass: Boldy breaks the drought - BC bounced back to salvage the home-and-home split with a dominant 6-3 victory in Amherst. After ceding the first goal for the second-straight night, the Eagles exploded for four-straight goals. But the most important goal was surely Matt Boldy’s marker, the team’s fifth of the night, late in the second. The freshman had just four points coming into the game but got the monkey off his back with this goal and surged in the second half, finishing the season with 26 points.
January 17 at UMass Lowell: Early deficit - I was so pumped to watch this game. But before I even had a chance to blink, it was 2-0 River Hawks. The caught-off-guard Eagles surrendered a pair of goals in the first 1:11 of the game and were mostly flat for the remainder of the period. In the second, BC clawed back even with a pair of quick goals of their own, and Hutsko scored the eventual winner early in the third to cap the comeback.
January 18 vs. Boston University: Hafley’s speech - This was a really exciting back-and-forth game. The teams traded goals throughout the evening, but BC always stayed one step ahead of BU, and Julius Mattila scored the eventual winner when his pass to Hutsko deflected off the back of a defender. For all the action on the ice, Jeff Hafley’s speech at the end of the first stole the show. Relive it below.
January 24 vs. Maine: No icing? - This one had all the makings of a trap game. The weekend against Maine came sandwiched between the Battle of Comm. Ave. and another road trip to Amherst. It was easy to envision a slip-up coming against Maine and Bruins prospect Jeremy Swayman. BC actually led 2-0 in this one, but Maine scored three in the middle period to take the lead. Hutsko forced overtime with a late goal, but Tim Doherty won it in overtime for the Black Bears. Maine sent a puck in deep, and Luke McInnis and Eduards Tralmaks gave chase. McInnis appeared to pull up, because he was expecting an icing call, but no whistle was blown and Tralmaks came away with the puck. He skated behind the goal and fed Doherty out front for the win.
January 25 vs. Maine: No slash? - Another night against Maine, another overtime game and another questionable no-call in overtime. This time, in the final minute of the extra frame, Maine entered the attacking zone, and Patrick Shea established possession after he appeared to chop Jesper Mattila’s stick out of his hands. With Mattila unable to play the puck, it made its way onto Doherty’s stick. He sent a back-hand pass back to Shea, who put the puck in before Knight could slide across the crease.
January 31 at UMass: Newhook’s baseball swing - BC took the season series with a 3-0 victory over UMass in the rubber match. At the time, the game was for first place in Hockey East and had huge playoff implications. Knight recorded his fifth and final shutout of the season, a 30-save performance. All three of BC’s goals came in the second. Newhook scored the first of the three when he swung and knocked a puck out of mid-air and into the net.
February 3 vs. Boston University: Cotton’s late goal - This game was well-worth the price of admission, but it was immensely disappointing. BC led 3-1 with 10 minutes left in regulation, yet the Eagles found themselves trailing 4-3 just nine minutes later. With the goalie pulled and on a man advantage, BC set up in the offensive zone. Julius Mattila fed the puck down low to David Cotton. BC’s captain sent the puck in front to Newhook who tapped it back to Cotton, and Cotton finished top shelf. In hindsight, BC lost this Beanpot semifinals game, and I lost about an hour and a half of sleep just to see BU celebrate the same way they would have had Cotton not scored. On the bright side, for Pairwise purposes, Cotton’s goal gave BC the tie instead of the loss.
February 7 vs. UMass Lowell: Newhook’s goal and celly - Newhook got the scoring going in this game with one of his three short-handed goals. He entered the zone in the waning seconds of the penalty kill. With very little real estate to work with, he used the River Hawks defenseman as a screen for Tyler Wall and snapped the puck over Wall’s glove shoulder. I’ve talked in other articles about Newhook’s energy, particularly his excitement when he scores, and this goal was no different. He didn’t appear to have an celebration initially; instead he skated past the goal to the student section and almost threw himself through the glass.
That Post-Goal Celly (Photo By BC Hockey Twitter)
February 10 vs. Harvard: Two shot-handed goals - This game wasn’t on TV, but I do remember getting a score update just about every time I checked my phone, as the Eagles pounded Harvard 7-2. It’s worth noting that BC scored two short-handed goals in the game, one by Newhook and the other by Jack McBain.
February 14 at Merrimack: Knight comes up big in the game’s final moments - I caught the beginning and end of this one in between studying for a midterm, but, from what I saw, the game was a whole lot harder than it needed to be. Facing a mediocre Merrimack team, BC was outplayed in the first. In the second, the Eagles turned things around, and they carried that momentum into the third. Late in the game, with BC ahead 3-2, Merrimack had a couple grade-A scoring chances, but Knight was tall to the task, and the Eagles held on for the win.
February 15 vs. Merrimack: The freshman line lights up Merrimack - The newly-formed line line of Boldy, Newhook and Mike Hardman accounted for 10 points in BC’s 6-2 victory over Merrimack. The only goal the line didn’t record a point on was Hutsko’s unassisted goal in the second period. Boldy and Newhook each scored two goals in the game.
February 20 at Northeastern: Julius’ first goal - BC got off to a pretty slow start in this game. It’s not that they played poorly, Northeastern’s defense just clamped down in the first. The Eagles got 10 shots on goal in the first, but they had few real scoring chances early on. Trailing 1-0 late in the first, BC managed to build some momentum when Julius Mattila took a drop pass from Cotton and shot the puck through Craig Pantano’s legs. The Eagles added two more in a second period where BC outshot NU 18-6. Northeastern pulled within one in the third, but BC held on for the win.
February 21 vs. Northeastern: Finkelstein’s spin-o-rama - This game was fun! In a 10-1 victory, there are a whole lot of highlights, but I’m going to go with Ben Finkelstein’s spinning backhand to give BC the 9-1 lead. Finkelstein entered the zone with McInnis, oddly with the defensemen leading the rush. Finkelstein twirled and threw the puck in front, not intending for it to be on goal, but the puck deflected off a defenseman and in.
February 27 vs. Merrimack: A wild second period - On the surface, this was your run-of-the-mill, good-team-dominating-bad-team type of game. But there were some memorable moments. In the second, Connor Moore took a brutal knee-on-knee hit from Liam Walsh. Initially, no penalty was assessed, but Walsh was given a game misconduct upon further review. As the referees were reviewing, Moore made his way down the tunnel, collapsed from the pain and laid on the tunnel floor for a good three or four minutes. That ejection wasn’t the end for Walsh, however. We sit near the scratches up in the stands. During the intermission, a player came up in sweats to sit with them; it was Walsh. Midway through the third, we saw some security guards pointing up our way, and one came over to talk to the scratches. Then Walsh got up, exasperated, and left. We talked to the scratches to figure out what went down, and apparently the rule is that ejected players have to sit on the bus. You learn something new every day.
February 29 at Boston University: Moore’s goal - Even if he didn’t score in this game, the fact that Moore even suited up would’ve been the highlight of this game. If you watched the Merrimack game, you’d have thought Moore’s collegiate career was over with the hit he took. Yet, here he was 48 hours later, helping BC clinch the Hockey East regular season crown with his second goal of the season in a 4-1 win over BU.
March 6 vs. New Hampshire: Two quick goals - I was in the Fort Myers airport waiting for my flight back to Boston to board and turned the game on my laptop around, say 7:05. It was already 2-0 BC. Good thing they scored the two quick ones, because the Eagles wouldn’t score the rest of the night, but they held on for the 2-1 win.
March 7 at New Hampshire: Overturned OT goal - Again BC scored two early goals, but UNH took the 3-2 lead after outshooting the Eagles 25-6. A late goal by Rasanen sent the game to overtime. With 30 seconds left in the extra frame, Eric MacAdams got around the BC defense and sent one in on Knight. The BC goalie made the initial save, but MacAdams hammered in the rebound. As the Wildcats celebrated, the referees reviewed the goal and determined that MacAdams interfered with Knight, negating the goal. BC salvaged the tie, a bonus for Pairwise purposes. I’m sure no one expected this to be the final game of the season, but then life got in the way, as the Coronavirus outbreak prematurely put an end to the campaign. Regardless, there’s no denying it was a memorable season.