There were a combined six goals scored in the first 20 minutes. But it was only the one goal in the next 40 minutes that actually counted, as the Boston College men's hockey team (2-1, 1-1) managed to slip by Merrimack College, 4-3, on Friday night.
With a little over 10 minutes left in the second period, junior Brian Gibbons won the faceoff in Merrimack's zone and passed the puck to forward Ben Smith on the right side of the net for a quick wrist shot past goalie Joe Cannata. After taking the 4-3 lead, the Eagles defense, which struggled in the first period, continued to hold off a relentless Merrimack Warriors offense.
"The last three or four minutes Merrimack made a great surge," said head coach Jerry York.
Even though Merrimack had a slight size advantage throughout most of its lineup, it was the Eagles' speed that controlled the game. And with that speed, the Eagles both prevented the Warriors from scoring within the final few minutes of the contest and kept the pressure off of freshman goalie Parker Milner, who made his first career start in net.
"It's really important for us to develop some depth in goaltending, and he had a rough first period, but he stayed there and kept his composure and made some good saves, especially down the stretch of the game," York said. "I think he got his baptism of fire in Hockey East tonight, and he'll be a lot better goaltender because of it."
The first period, in which Milner struggled, was played in stark contrast to the way the Eagles wanted. Instead of playing with an even tempo and controlled style, the first 20 minutes amounted to a frantic back and forth. Both BC and Merrimack heated up the ice early on by scoring three goals in less than a minute. The two squads couldn't find the net again until the final scoring explosion with three minutes left in the period, when three more goals were tallied.
"It was kind of a whirlwind," said senior captain Matt Price. "You never want to trade goals back and forth. Obviously we want to play up-tempo, but there wasn't much system, it was just run-and-gun hockey."
The first goal to kick off that whirlwind came only three minutes into the period, when sophomore forward Jimmy Hayes took a pass from fellow sophomore Paul Carey and banked in a shot off of the right post to give BC a 1-0 lead. Only 40 seconds later, Carey followed with a goal of his own, collecting the puck off of a rebound and driving it in on the right side, to put the Eagles up 2-0.
At that point, it looked like BC was ready to roll over a typically last-place Merrimack squad. But the improved Warriors had an answer this year, and a fast one at that.
Just 20 seconds after the Eagles took the 2-0 lead, Merrimack sophomore Jeff Velleca scored off of a nice assist from freshman Stephane Da Costa. After a lull in which both offenses struggled with passing and setting up shots down low, the scoring started up again. This time it was Merrimack who struck first.
Milner, who was screened by his own defensemen, tried to wave him out of his line of sight, but it was too late. Merrimack freshman Kyle Bigos had already ripped a spot-on shot from just in front of the blue line. It flew past Milner to knot the game up at 2-2. Then, in quick succession, Merrimack's Brandon Brodhag cut loose on a breakaway, deked to the right, and then scored with a backhand shot to give his team the 3-2 lead.
The Eagles came rushing back a minute later. Sophomore Cam Atkinson blazed down the right side of the ice, past the Warriors' skaters, with senior defensemen Carl Sneep following him down the left side. Atkinson faked a shot and then made a quick pass to Sneep who went top shelf, placing the puck perfectly over the goalie's shoulder to tie the contest up, 3-3, at the end of the first period.
With Smith's goal midway through the second period, the Eagles permanently took the lead. Even though BC pulled out the win, they were still zero for seven on power-play opportunities, bringing them to one for 19 on the season. They also outshot Merrimack 36-18 and took a total of 53 shots, but did very little with all of those extra chances.
"We moved the puck very, very well, but we have to get more shots on net," York said. "A lot of our attempts were wide and became breakouts for the other team. So we really have to concentrate on great puck movement like we had tonight, but we have to get more pucks to the net."
Ultimately, the Eagles still did enough to come away with a win in their home opener.
"Anytime we win in our league, we're extremely excited about it," York said.
Yesterday, in the second leg of their home-and-home with Merrimack, the Eagles lost, 5-3, snapping a 20-game undefeated streak (16-0-4) against the Warriors dating back to 2003.
BC goalie John Muse conceded five goals in defeat.
Ben Smith scored 4:39 into the first, but John Jamieson evened it up at one 45 seconds later with the first of five unanswered Merrimack goals. Brian Gibbons and Jimmy Hayes added the consolation goals for the Eagles.
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