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Why Boston College Men's Hockey Will Play With 'Hunter' Mentality Against UConn: The Rundown

The winner of the Eagles-Huskies semifinal will play either Merrimack or UMass in the 2026 Hockey East Tournament Championship.
Graham Dietz|
Boston College men's hockey (@BC_MHockey) via X.

Boston College men’s hockey coach Greg Brown is not blind to the fact that physicality plays a crucial role in playoff hockey.

He saw it play out last Friday in the Eagles’ 5-0 victory over Maine in the Hockey East Tournament quarterfinals.

BC came out flying in the first period, which set the tone for the rest of the game. The Eagles were not afraid to put their bodies on the line when they needed to, but they also did not overdo the checking, either.

That goldilocks state between using the right amount of aggressiveness while also keeping their fundamentals sound is exactly what Brown is looking for from BC in Friday’s semifinal contest against UConn, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at TD Garden.

"That has to be part of the equation,” Brown said after Tuesday’s team practice. “We're never going to be like a run-you-out-of-the-building physical team, but you still have to be physical, especially in the playoffs. It means you're skating. It means you're hunting."

Brown continued: "It means you're on your toes. Like all those things are the result of having the thought of physicality in your game, and it makes you do everything faster. If you're doing it effectively, you're turning pucks over, you're creating offensive chances."

"Your forecheck is effective. You're hunting on the back check and eliminating guys, so then your breakouts are better. It really leads to so many positive results if you have that mentality."

It goes the extra mile if the players who display that physicality happen to be the seniors, which is exactly how it unfolded in the shutout of the Black Bears.

Senior captain Brady Berard, for instance, looked terrorizing on the ice, especially for a fourth-liner.

Frankly, Maine looked scared when Berard was on the ice, and it seeped into other parts of the Black Bears’ game, making their state worse by the minute.

"I think the leadership and the mental strength of everyone to believe that we didn't have to change our game that much, we just had to execute it at a little bit higher of a level, really showed, and the confidence they showed in that Maine game hopefully will carry,” Brown said.

"I think they're doing a great job of keeping that part out of their process. They seem to be really excited to get to the Garden on Friday and see what we can do."

It was not just Berard who provided that type of effort in BC’s first playoff win of the year.

But carrying that additional sentiment of win or go home certainly applies to his position more so than the majority of his teammates, and its impact was evident.

The Rundown: Wedesday, March 18, 2026

  • Boston College football had a special visitor on Tuesday, welcoming back former defensive end Zach Allen of the Denver Broncos to speak with the team after practice ended.
  • Boston College baseball picked up a 5-4 win in its 2026 home opener against Sacred Heart to improve to 12-8 on the year. It wasn't necessarily Florida-esque weather just yet, but the Eagles prevailed.
  • It seems likely that the next head coach of the Boston College men's basketball team could be announced within the next few days.

Boston College Eagles Tuesday Scores:

Boston College Eagles Wednesday Schedule:

  • Baseball vs. UMass Lowell at Harrington Athletics Village in Brighton, Mass. | 2 p.m. ET | Watch | Live Stats

Countdown to Boston College football's season opener:

171 days.

Boston College Quote of the Day:

[On “The run that launched Leahy"] “It was a Tennessee play we couldn’t stop in our practices. A single-wing play with the tailback taking the snap, starting around right end, raising his arm as if to pass, then tucking it away, cutting it back inside the end, running parallel to the line of scrimmage. “Every time we ran it in practice, it worked. We decided to put it in our game plan, just in case.”

- Frank Leahy

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Graham Dietz
GRAHAM DIETZ

Graham Dietz is a 2025 graduate of Boston College and subsequently joined Boston College On SI. He previously served as an editor for The Heights, the independent student newspaper, from fall 2021, including as Sports Editor from 2022-23. Graham works for The Boston Globe as a sports correspondent, covering high school football, girls' basketball, and baseball. He was also a beat writer for the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer of 2023.

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