Reliving Boston College’s Season One Game (and One Moment) at a Time: First Half
Photo By BCEagles.com
It has been over a week since the Covid-19 cut BC’s season short. It still hasn’t fully set in that the season is over, but it is. At least next season is already starting off on the right foot, with the announcement that Alex Newhook would be returning for his sophomore season.
With no more games to look forward to, I thought it’d be a good idea to reminisce about the season that was. So here is my most memorable moment (not necessarily my favorite moment) from each game during BC’s 2019-20 season.
October 11 vs. Wisconsin: Newhook gets his head taken off - This is why I said these weren’t necessarily my favorite memories from the season, just the ones that stuck out from each game. In the second period, Newhook was going for a loose puck. Right as he got the puck on his stick, Ty Emberson lit him up at center ice with a bone-crunching hit. The hit was hard enough to knock Newhook’s helmet off, and Emberson was assessed a game misconduct for contact to the head. The freshman flipped his hair back and slowly made his way to the bench. I remember this moment more in the context of the season as a whole, since Newhook developed into one of the nation’s best over the course of his year.
October 13 at Colgate: All those penalties - Unfortunately, this game wasn’t televised and I couldn’t get the radio stream, so I didn’t get to see a single second of this one. But one thing I noticed from the box score is that Colgate somehow managed to take two game misconducts in the final five minutes of the game. Oh, and on a lighter note, Spencer Knight got his first collegiate shutout.
October 18 at Denver: McInnis’ major - This turned out to be BC’s first real test of the season; at the time, Denver was undefeated and No. 1 in the nation. The Eagles hung tough, but the difference came when BC was tasked with killing a Luke McInnis major. The call didn’t seem deserving of a major, but that’s neither here nor there. The Pioneers put 10 shots on Knight and snuck one by him when Cole Guttman hammered home a loose puck. Denver tacked on two empty-net goals to come away with a 3-0 victory.
October 19 at Denver: Three goals in three minutes - It was a tale of two games in Denver. Friday night was a goaltender duel, and Saturday was a shootout. This game was probably the only time all season that Knight made me nervous. He gave up six goals, including three in the first 4:06 of the second. Knight rebounded from this early clunker and only surrendered more than three goals twice following this game.
October 25 vs. Providence: Moore gets crushed (a lot) - Speaking of game where Knight gave up more than three goals, it’s easy to forget he posted back-to-back games where he gave up six. I don’t put this one on him, however. Providence was an elite scoring team early in the season, and they scored a few in this game that any goalie would have a tough time stopping. This was the first time the two teams played since BC upset Providence in a hotly-contested first round of the 2019 Hockey East Tournament, so I was interested to see if any bad blood would spill over early on. I don’t know if this classifies, but Connor Moore took few questionable hits to the numbers in the first period of the game, two of which resulted in boarding penalties.
November 1 at New Hampshire: Crookshank’s OT winner - This loss had me thinking BC was in for a third-straight season of failing to live up to expectations. It turns out that UNH ended up building a decent resume as a spoiler during the season, but in November they were a team that figured to be eighth or ninth best in the conference. Following the game, BC sat at 2-4 and 0-2 in conference. Neither team recorded a goal in the first 60, but Angus Crookshank broke the tie mid-way through the extra frame when he redirected a slapper from the point past Knight.
November 2 at Providence: New lines, new beginnings - The previous night’s game was a low, but this game marked a turning point in BC’s season. Coach York shuffled the lines, putting together the trio of Newhook, Mike Hardman and Aapeli Rasanen. While the line didn’t have much success in its first game, Newhook did score a power play goal and BC held on for a 3-2 win. Over the next two-plus months, the new third line would have tons of success and lead the charge in a season-long, 10-game winning streak.
November 8 vs. UConn: Newhook (almost) scores tacos - For those of you that don’t know, BC and Anna’s Taqueria ran a promotion where fans would get free tacos if the team scored three or more goals. Newhook almost took care of that himself, scoring two of BC’s first three goals while having the third initially credited to him before it was credited to Connor Moore. It should’ve been double tacos, because BC cruised to a 6-0 victory.
November 9 at UConn: Another Finnish Hatty - While Newhook came up just short of the hat trick in the first half of the home-and-home, Rasanen scored three on the road against UConn. This marked the second straight year where one of BC’s Finnish forwards notched a hat trick at UConn, as Julius Mattila scored three against the Huskies in November of 2018.
November 15 at Vermont: The turnover - This was a wild one. I’m not talking about the game, BC cruised to a 5-1 victory. But there was a play by the ever-active Knight that caught my attention. He tried to play the puck at the dot and turned it over. Then a chaotic play ensured. Just watch this and experience it for yourself.
November 16 at Vermont: Giles and McLaughlin combine for a beauty - Knight was great in this game. BC was badly outplayed in the first, and Knight gave the team a chance to get its bearings by turning away all 17 shots he faced in the first. In the second, BC rebounded and scored two late in the period. The second goal came with BC on the kill. As UVM led a breakout in the neutral zone, Marc McLaughlin poked the puck loose to Patrick Giles. They came in 2-on-0 and went Giles to McLaughlin to Giles for the slick short-handed goal.
November 26 vs. Yale: Hutsko’s goal - How could it be anything else from this game? Even Justin Bieber was a fan of this goal.
November 29 at Harvard: The comeback - I watched the first period of this game before going out to dinner with family. When I turned the game off, it didn’t look good. BC ended the first down 1-0, but the Eagles got just three shots on goal in the first. Harvard tacked on a second at 17:15 of the second, but from there it was all BC. It was one of the first in-game scenarios where the team faced adversity, and they responded well. In the final 2:30 of the second, BC scored three times to come storming back and take the lead. McLaughlin tacked on a short-handed goal in the third and BC won 4-2.
December 6 vs. Notre Dame: Giles’ shorty - The Irish didn’t have that great of a season, but at the time of this matchup Notre Dame was the No. 7 team in the country. BC pounded ND in this home-and-home, outscoring the Irish by a combined 10-1 on the weekend. Arguably the best of the 10 was Giles’ unassisted, short-handed goal. He went in 2-on-1 with McLaughlin to his right, but Giles took it himself and picked top corner over Cale Morris’ right shoulder.
December 8 at Notre Dame: Early scoring - BC only put seven shots on goal in the first, but three of them found the back of the net. Jack McBain started the scoring just 36 seconds in, and Hutsko added another at the 3:11 mark to give BC the quick 2-0 lead. The Eagles cruised to a 6-1 lead and entered the break on a high note.
Nine-straight wins, not a bad to end the first half of the season. Right now, BC is 11-4-0 and ranked No. 10 in the nation. They’ll be back in action January 4th against Vermont, and we’ll be back in a separate article recapping the second half of the season.