AMHERST, Mass. – No. 11/10 University of Massachusetts hockey and No. 1 Boston College were level at 1-1 midway through the contest, but the Eagles responded with two tallies in the second and two in the third, which included an empty netter, to best the Minutemen by a 5-1 margin at the Mullins Center on Friday night. The setback leaves UMass at 16-8-3, 9-6-2 in Hockey East, while the Eagles improve to 22-5-1, 14-3-1 in league action.
 
“It wasn’t our best game, but I thought we played well enough,” said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. “Two fluke goals against are tough, against a really high-flying offensive team. You know, they’re going to get a fair number of grade A’s, but I thought we had a fair number of grade A’s and just didn’t put ours in. It’s unfortunate. You know, it’s a game we could have had, but the puck just wasn’t bouncing our way.”
 
After the Minutemen hit two posts in the first, Boston College opened the scoring at the 14:58 mark. Andrew Gasseau found Cutter Gauthier in the slot off an outlet feed from Oskar Jelvik and Gauthier’s shot redirected off a Minutemen stick and in.
 
Junior Lucas Mercuri managed to tie things up at 1-1 at the 6:32 mark in the second with a power-play goal. Sophomore Cole O’Hara collected a pass from freshman Dans Locmelis, stickhandled down the half wall and fed Mercuri at the near post for the finish.
 
The Eagles were quick to pull back in front, however, as Gauthier added his second of the night 8:46 into the frame from the right point off a feed from Jelvik and Fortescue.
 
Just before the close of the period, Ryan Leonard increased the margin to 3-1 for BC, picking up a drop pass from Eamon Powell in the neutral zone and skating in on UMass netminder Michael Hrabal for the tally at 17:21.
 
Leonard later added a second from Will Smith and Gabe Perreault on an odd-man rush late in the third and Andre Gasseau capped the scoring with an empty net goal in the final minute of play.
 
The Minutemen finished with a 26-25 shot advantage and went 1-for-2 on the power play, while the Eagles were 1-for-3.
 
Hrabal had 20 saves on the evening and Jacob Fowler turned aside 25 shots for Boston College.
 
The teams will meet for game two of the weekend set on Sunday, February 18, at 1 p.m. in Chestnut Hill.