BC Bulletin

Hemming's First Collegiate Goal Lifts No. 14 Boston College Men's Hockey Over Merrimack

The 17-year-old freshman scored the game-winning goal with 36.6 seconds left in regulation.
Graham Dietz|
Boston College men's hockey (@BC_MHockey) via X.

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — There are not many better ways to score your first career goal than with under a minute left to play in regulation, the score tied, and a series loss on the line that could have cost the Boston College men’s hockey program from postseason contention.

That was exactly the situation freshman forward Oscar Hemming, who joined the Eagles over Christmas break, found himself in during BC’s second matchup of its two-game, home-and-away series with Merrimack on Saturday night.

After a rebound came loose inside the crease following defenseman Luka Radivojevic’s one-timer from the point, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Vaasa, Finland, native, shifted his body around a defender and shoved the first goal of his collegiate career past Merrimack goaltender Max Lundgren to give the Eagles their first lead of the game at 3-2.

The crowd inside Conte Forum popped to its feet the moment the puck crossed the goal line, and Hemming’s teammates surrounded him with hands held high in the air to celebrate his heroics — which occurred with exactly 36.6 seconds remaining in the third period.

“[I] just went to the net,” Hemming said. “Like I go to the net, you get goals. And I saw [Radivojevic] come down, shoot it, [I] tried to tip it, turn around, [the] puck was in my plate and I just shot at the net and it went in. I blacked out after that.”

Just over 30 seconds later, senior captain Brady Berard sealed the win with an empty-net goal. Berard chipped the puck in from the very bottom of BC’s defensive zone, and it dribbled in with just two seconds left on the scoreboard to make it 4-2.

The No. 14-ranked Eagles (17-10-1, 11-7-0 Hockey East) entered Saturday’s matchup ranked No. 15 in NPI, the rankings that ultimately decides the 16-team field for the 2026 NCAA Tournament, after suffering a 4-2 road loss to the Warriors (15-13-1, 8-10-1) on Friday night.

After the game, BC head coach Greg Brown said that his players were aware of how important it was to get the win on Saturday and split the series, which likely keeps the program’s place inside the top-16 with just six games on the regular-season schedule remaining.

“The guys know exactly where we are and what we're going to need to do going forward,” Brown said. So you don't want to heap too much. We talked about just focusing on today. We’re going to play this game and let the other stuff kind of play out. If we can go one game at a time and put our best foot forward, hopefully we’ll be in a really good spot at the end.”

The Warriors produced the first goal of the game at the 12:58 mark of the first period when Justin Gill potted his 13th goal of the season from point-blank range on an assist by Nick Pierre.

There was no defender in sight of Gill, who simply tapped the puck in from just above the crease.

The Eagles tied it at one apiece with only 3.6 seconds remaining in the frame as Aram Minnetian crashed toward the net before roofing the puck over Lundgren’s shoulders from the slot. Teddy Stiga and Ryan Conmy provided the assists on the goal — Minnetian’s second of the year.

Merrimack took back the lead with 10:04 left in the second period on the power play after Jake Sondreal was crunched by a hit in the Warriors’ defensive zone, which gave the visitors a brief 5-on-3 advantage as play went on.

Pierre registered the goal — his second point of the contest — on a fiery slapshot from just below the point.

But once again, the Eagles found a way to put the puck in the net in the final 1:30 of the frame, as James Hagens rushed from one end of the ice to the other on a south-to-north breakout before sliding the puck past Lundgren off a defender’s skate, knotting the game up at 2-2.

The goal was scored on the power play — BC’s third of the period and fifth overall — which Merrimack head coach Scott Borek said made the difference.

“They got a lot of them,” Borek said. “And we gave them to them, too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we took some bad penalties. It was on us. But that was the difference, because they didn’t do a lot five-on-five, but they got momentum on the power play and they carried that into their five-on-five play.”

The game went into a stalemate for the first 19 minutes of the third period until Hemming broke the tie, which sent the entire arena into a cheering frenzy.

According to Brown, the development of Hemmning — who did not play in a game since the summer due to a contract dispute with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) — has been stunning to witness.

"It's really impressive how quickly he's adapted, especially not playing, just practicing, this fall,” Brown said. “He hadn't had a game since August I think, so to adjust that quickly, being the youngest guy on the ice and still mentally sees it at the right speed, which is really impressive.”

“And then physically, he’s not just out there trying to slide by. He’s impacting the game. He’s physical when he can be. He gets on the inside, he protects pucks. Like all those things for a 17-year old are really impressive.”

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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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