UPDATED: Johnny Gaudreau, Eagles soar over Terriers, 5-1

By Tim Healey/DFP Staff

The No. 8 Boston College men’s hockey team is generally regarded as one of the best in the country, and Friday night at Agganis Arena it showed why.

The Eagles (5-2-1, 3-0 Hockey East), powered by junior Johnny Gaudreau’s three-point night, dismissed No. 17 Boston University, 5-1, in the first of three matchups between the teams this season. It was the first time all season the Terriers (4-5, 2-2 Hockey East) allowed more than three goals all season.

“I want it to sting,” said BU coach David Quinn. “We need to feel this pain because it was a mismatch as the game went on. I don’t want to say we quit, [but] I think we got demoralized, especially that fifth goal.”

BC threatened early and often, including on a power play about a minute into the game, but didn’t strike until the 9:10 mark when most eyes were on 2013 Hobey Baker finalist Gaudreau. He found freshman Austin Cangelosi in the right circle, and Cangelosi waited on sophomore goaltender Matt O’Connor before eventually sneaking it through his five-hole.

The second tally came in a similar fashion. Sophomore center Mike Moran failed to clear a rebound in the slot and it kicked out to Eagle senior Bill Arnold in the left circle. He sent it to Gaudreau in the slot, and Gaudreau one-timed it right over O’Connor’s glove-side shoulder for the 2-0 lead at 11:36.

The Terriers converted on one of its five power-play opportunities in the second at 1:59. Freshman wing Robbie Baillargeon, holding the puck in the right circle, fired it into traffic. It ricocheted off of an Eagle stick, off of freshman center Nick Roberto’s stick, off of a pipe and past BC rookie Thatcher Demko (22 saves) to get BU on the board.

The power-play tally was one of 17 shots BU took on the man-advantage, which while impressive was part of a lopsided ratio. The team managed just six shots the other 47:53 of game time.

“It’s frustrating that we don’t shoot the puck enough, don’t have a shooter’s mentality,” Quinn said. “You have got to be paying attention before the puck comes to you, about ready to shoot it. That’s just the mentality. If you’re staring the play down and just paying attention to what is going on around the puck and not aware of the people who are around you and who is ready to step into you or ready to jump on you, then you’re not going to create any offense.”

BC got that lone BU goal back midway through the period, two seconds after freshman defenseman Doyle Somerby’s interference penalty expired. Gaudreau was again the catalyst, this time skating around the BU net and faking a wraparound shot before finding Arnold in the slot. Arnold one-timed it into a mostly open Terrier net at 7:41.

Then special teams again came into play when BC killed a pair of power plays that proved pivotal.

In the final five minutes of the second frame, BU had a 5-on-3 for one minute, then a 5-on-4 for an additional minute. The Eagles, first all three and then all four, stayed packed in close near the net while the Terriers very much stayed around the perimeter. Hesitant to shoot, BU never posed much of a threat.

Then came Gaudreau’s second hooking penalty of the night, the last 1:27 of which spilled over into the third. Despite the 3-1 score at the time the grand opportunity to sway momentum and bring the crowd alive again, BU again came up short.

“It’s disappointing when we had some of the opportunities to climb back in it with some of the power plays we had,” Quinn said.

The rest of the final period was marred by missed chances in the Terriers’ offensive zone and sloppy play in their own end.

BC made it 4-1 with a series of crisp passes from senior Kevin Hayes and freshman Ryan Fitzgerald, a Boston Bruins draft pick. On the rush, Hayes gave it to Fitzgerald in the circle, then Fitzgerald sent it back to the slot for Hayes, who scored at 7:35.

Less than a minute later, junior Destry Straight skated into the crease, deked around O’Connor and easily slid the puck into an empty net for his first goal of the season.

Quinn took some of the blame for the loss, saying he was unhappy with the way he prepared his team leading up to the game as well as some personnel decisions during it. But that did not mask the fact that the Eagles were simply better.

“That’s a really good hockey team we just played. … I just thought they beat us in all facets of the game,” Quinn said. “Then I thought it got too easy for them in our end. I just thought our d-zone coverage [was] really a lot of puck watching, a lot of turnaways.

“Against a team like that, you’re going to pay. And we paid.”