Boston College holds off Northeastern in men’s hockey showdown

Senior center Julius Mattila scored twice and freshman goaltender Spencer Knight posted 27 saves as No. 6 Boston College edged No. 10 Northeastern, 3-2, before 3,054 Matthews Arena fans Thursday night in the opener of its home-and-home Hockey East series.

“I thought it was a pretty good college hockey game with a playoff-type atmosphere,” said BC coach Jerry York. “Tight checking, lot of good plays made on the ice. I thought our second period was our best 20 minutes of hockey and I liked our ability to close the game. You knew that there was going to be push-back. You just have to manage that. Down the stretch. I think we’ll have five more of these.”

BC (20-8-1, 13-6-0 HE) entered tied with idle UMass (18-9-2, 11-6-2 HE) for first place in Hockey East, with the Eagles holding a game in hand. NU (17-9-3, 10-8-1 HE) sat in sixth place and in dire need of points to move up. BC’s win elevated the Eagles at least temporarily into first place.

“I thought BC was the better team tonight. They skated well. They’re well-balanced from the goal on out. Our effort wasn’t good enough for 60 minutes,” said NU coach Jim Madigan. “We weren’t at the net nearly enough. We weren’t heavy down low. This team might have won the Belpot (in Belfast, Northern Ireland) and the Beanpot but we haven’t won anything yet. We measure ourselves by what we win at the end of the year.”

Both teams were without key personnel. NU sophomore star Tyler Madden injured his left hand against UMass-Lowell and is expected to be out 2-3 weeks. BC wing Patrick Giles is out for the season with a dislocated shoulder.

Each team scored in the first period. NU senior wing Matt Filipe used his speed to swing the BC net. Filipe, who missed the previous three games with an upper body injury, tried to stuff the puck and it caromed off a BC defender and in behind the Eagles’ Knight, the Florida Panthers first-round draft pick. The goal was the seventh for Lynnfield’s Filipe, whose pro rights belong to Carolina.

NU goalie Craig Pantano (31 saves) of Bridgewater, who won the Eberly Award for his work in backstopping NU to a first-ever third consecutive Beanpot triumph earlier this month, came up with a clutch stop against BC forward Marc McLaughlin after the North Billerica product intercepted a pass.

BC knotted the score late in the stanza when senior captain David Cotton brought the puck over the blue line and dropped the puck for Mattila. The senior from Tampere, Finland, rifled a shot that beat Pantano for his ninth goal at 18:42.

At 2:11 of the second, three Eagles converged on the doorstep in front of Pantano and a flurry of four shots ensued. None connected.

The Eagles were relentless with offensive zone time in the second period, boasting an 18-6 edge in shots, and took a 2-1 lead at 10:45. Freshman forward Alex Newhook fed the puck to late-arriving freshman defenseman Marshall Warren pinching deep on the left side. The Minnesota Wild draft pick found the target for his fifth goal and first in 11 games.

The teams were skating 4-on-4 when NU captain Ryan Shea was caught too deep. BC broke out 2-on-1 with Mattila and junior right wing Logan Hutsko (2 assists) executing a perfect give-and-go. Mattila buried the return feed for his second goal of the game and 10th of the season at 16:38. NU’s Pantano prevented the deficit from growing by stoning BC senior Graham McPhee backdoor at 18:20.

The Huskies remained close at 6:47 of the third after fourth-line center Biagio Lelario took up position near the crease and refused to be moved. Lelario poked home the short rebound of a blast by freshman defenseman Jermey Bucheler as the Dog House student section roared its approval.

Knight saved BC’s bacon when he stopped Filiper’s re-direction bid with 5:30 to go. NU’s Pantano looked to the bench and got the signal to come off for an extra skater with 1:30 to play but NU couldn’t draw the equalizer.

With the win, York now has 30 seasons with 20 or more wins behind the bench, including 20 times for BC in a stellar 47-year overall career with stops at Clarkson, Bowling Green and BC. Four other times, his teams have won at least 19 games.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2T8xcXU