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Boston College Wraps Up Regular Season with 3-3 Tie against New Hampshire

The Wildcats outshot the Eagles 50-27 in the regular season finale.

Photo by BCEagles.com

Spencer Knight made 47 saves, and Aapeli Rasanen scored a late, game-tying goal to help the Eagles to a season-ending 3-3 tie against New Hampshire.

The second half of the home-and-home started out just like the first, with two quick BC goals. Mike Hardman, the same guy who scored 59 seconds into Friday night’s game, again got the scoring started with his 12th goal 1:42 into the game. Alex Newhook assisted on the goal, extending his point streak to 12 games. The reigning Hockey East Rookie and Player of the Month has 23 points over that span.

A few minutes later, Logan Hutsko matched Newhook with his 19th goal of the season. Hutsko took a beautiful cross-ice pass from Julius Mattila and just let the puck bounce off his stick and into the net to extend the lead to 2-0.

For as similar both first periods were, the second period Saturday night couldn’t have been any more different than the previous night. UNH more than quadrupled BC in shots in the second, cruising to two goals in a 25-shot period to even the score. Angus Crookshank scored on the power play just eight seconds into the second, setting the tone for the whole period. Justin Fregona added one when he hammered home a rebound for his first goal of the season midway through the second.

UNH’s momentum carried over to the third with Liam Blackburn’s early goal that put the Wildcats ahead 3-2. The goal marked the first time BC had trailed in five games and the latest the Eagles had trailed in a month.

The Eagles showed more life following the goal, but Mike Robinson continued to stand tall in net. Finally, with five minutes left, BC broke through and evened the score on Rasanen’s goal. Jack McBain made a strong zone entry and centered the puck for Rasanen, who slid it past Robinson. The goal, Rasanen’s 11th of the season, was just his third since the calendar flipped to 2020.

Knight ensured the game would go past 60 minutes with a few huge saves in the waning moments of the third.

With just 20 seconds remaining before the game would go down as a tie, Eric MacAdams appeared to have won it for the Wildcats when he carved up the BC defense in the neutral zone and pushed the puck over the goal line after an initial save by Knight.

As UNH celebrated a walk-off end to their season, Knight remained in the blue paint and the officials went on their headsets. A quick review deemed that MacAdams had initiated contact with Knight on the initial shot, negating the rebound goal.

The fans voiced their displeasure with the call, but play continued on for the final 20 seconds before the overtime horn sounded, signaling a tie.

Both teams came into the weekend with a lot on the line. For UNH, the Wildcats entered one point out of eighth place in the Hockey East standings. The Wildcats needed at least a win and some help to vault into a playoff spot. BC already had the first spot locked up, but the Pairwise ranking system doesn't take a break, even if the games don’t affect the standings.

Before Friday’s games, Providence, Northeastern, Boston University and UNH were all still options for first round opponents for the Eagles. But BU’s 3-0 victory over Northeastern Friday night eliminated the Terriers from contention for the No. 8 seed.

Shortly before puck drop at Whittemore Center, Northeastern salvaged its season by bouncing back with a 2-1 victory over BU, locking in next weekend’s first round matchups. The Huskies victory booked Providence’s ticket to Conte Forum and ensured Saturday night’s game would be UNH’s last of the season.

Saturday night's tie was technically the Eagles only true tie of the season. They’ll finish with just the one in Hockey East play and two total, with the other coming in the first round of the Beanpot against BU. For Pairwise purposes it was a tie, but BU really won that one.

Now, BC will prepare for the Friars looking to avoid a reverse of last season, when the seventh-seeded Eagles upset the No. 2 Friars to secure a trip to the Garden. BC split the regular season series against Providence, but the two haven’t faced off since November 2nd.

It’s kind of poetic that the regular season ends at UNH and the second season begins with Providence. That November 2nd game in Providence saw a reeling Eagles team sitting at 4-4 kick off a 10-game winning streak. The 3-2 win over Providence came 24 hours after a 1-0 shutout loss at the hands of UNH had fans questioning the legitimacy of the team’s lofty expectations.

That loss, undoubtedly one of the lowest moments of the season for BC, sparked a season-defining turnaround that began against Providence. The Eagles, who had lost four games during the first month of the season, only lost four more from that point forward, and they finished the season 24-8-2.