Terriers fall 4-1 in opening game of Boston College series

CHESTNUT HILL — After Boston College’s second empty-net goal of the night, its fans, who had waited in line for more than an hour in the rain to get into Conte Forum, got their moment to relish in a win now undoubtedly in-hand. 

Chants of “overrated” rained down on the No. 1 ranked team in college hockey as they played out the final seconds of a 4-1 loss at the hands of their most-hated rival Friday night. 

“We’re right there, we hit a few posts, we have to clean up a couple things, going back home, we know they’re a good team, but we’re a good team too,” BU head coach Jay Pandolfo said postgame. 

The Terriers played from behind for most of the game, after two goals from BC in the second period. 

“They’re a very good team and they don’t need a lot of chances to score,” Pandolfo said. 

The 292nd meeting of the Battle of Comm Ave saw an even start for the two teams, with the Eagles leading 12-10 in shots on goal at the end of the first frame. 

The period began with the Terriers as the aggressor, getting a handful of quality opportunities including one by senior forward Nick Zabaneh where he nearly knocked in a rebound but was stopped by BC freshman goalie Jacob Fowler. 

Fowler, who had 26 saves in Friday’s game, credited his performance mainly to the defensemen in front of him. 

“We had a really good PK to start the period and I think our team built off that momentum and brought with us for the rest of the 60, so credit to those guys they played really well in front of me,” Fowler said. 

This rivalry’s usual chippy nature made its arrival near the end of the period after a roughing call against graduate defenseman Cade Webber with less than two minutes left in the first.

More extracurriculars would follow as the Terriers closed out the period on the penalty kill.

The Eagles got to the scoresheet first, finding the back of the net with a shot from freshman forward Ryan Leonard. Leonard got the puck in the left circle from senior defenseman Eamon Powell and fired it past BU goalie Mathieu Caron. 

BC’s fan section whipped into a frenzy as they watched the puck bounce around in the back of Caron’s net.  

The Terriers were in disarray in the minutes following Leonard’s goal, trying to cook up a response in a hurry, but fell behind in shots on goal by the midway point of the second. 

Freshman Eagles forward Gabe Perrault extended BC’s lead to 2-0 at 2:45 of the second period. Kid-line center Will Smith dished it to Perrault, who wristed it into the right corner of the net. 

BC head coach Greg Brown highlighted the play of his freshmen, with the qualifier that the first-year second line has been stellar all year. 

“They start to read each other and they can throw some confusion on the defense with some overlaps and cutbacks. They know how to find each other so well in space, so they created some great chances,” Brown said. 

Despite outshooting BC 12-8 in the second, the Terriers left the period down a pair of goals. Although it had a lot of openings, BU couldn’t translate its many chances into quality shots, and entered the second intermission with a lot of ground to make up. 

The Terriers got their first goal of the night off a shot by junior forward Jack Hughes 13 minutes into the third period. After a flurry of passes, the puck found Hughes who then shot it through a netfront crowd to score, cutting BC’s lead in half, 2-1. 

Four minutes later, in desperate need of an equalizer ahead of a faceoff in its offensive zone, BU decided to remove Caron from net with less than three minutes remaining in the period. 

The Terriers won the faceoff but couldn’t get to the net. The puck slid behind BC’s net after a bad pass by senior forward Luke Tuch, where it was picked up by freshman Eagles defenseman Aram Minnetian. 

BC got the puck down ice and in the hands of sophomore forward Cutter Gauthier who scored the first of two empty-net goals by the Eagles to close out the game. 

“I wouldn’t have pulled [Caron] later,” Pandolfo said postgame. “I didn’t love our decision on the goal they scored, I think we got to make sure they make better decisions there.”

BU has an immediate chance to get the sour taste out of its mouth in the second game of this Battle of Comm Ave series Saturday night at Agganis Arena. A galvanized Terrier team is something that Fowler says the Eagles have to be ready for. 

“On the other end of it for [BU] it didn’t go the way they wanted it to. They’re gonna come out pretty hard tomorrow, we’ve got to be ready to match that and play even better than that,” Fowler said. 

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the Boston Hockey Blog will have full coverage of the matchup, so be sure to follow along on Twitter (X) @BOShockeyblog and Instagram @boston.hockey.blog.