 BC's John Muse collects one of his 26 saves against UMass in Saturday night's 3-2 loss. The Eagles jumped out to an early, 2-0 lead but could not hold it.
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After racing to a 2-0 lead in the first period, the Boston College men's hockey team surrendered three goals in six minutes en route to a 3-2 loss against Massachusetts on Saturday night.
The Eagles' winless streak now stands at five games.
"[Tonight was] probably an indication [of] just how tight this league is going to be," said BC head coach Jerry York. "No one's going to run away with this league."
BC controlled play in the opening minutes, and Ben Smith opened scoring with a power-play goal just six minutes into the game.
UMass would find scoring opportunities soon enough, mostly during a five-on-three opportunity after BC's Andrew Orpik was ejected from the game for a hit from behind. Freshman goaltender John Muse, however, led the Eagles to a successful penalty kill that kept BC in front.
BC would find the net again with 2:18 to go in the first period, when Matt Lombardi scored his first goal of the year on a one-timer from Benn Ferriero. Nathan Gerbe later came within inches of putting the Eagles ahead 3-0 when he fired a shot off the right post with 15 seconds remaining in the first.
Things began to fall apart for the BC defense midway through the second period.
With only five defensemen dressed to play (in addition to two suspended players, Nick Petrecki was out with mononucleosis), BC started to fatigue.
UMass' David Leaderer opened up scoring for the Minutemen with a slapshot that appeared to go over Muse's right shoulder 10 minutes into the second.
The BC coaches protested; as the puck rebounded quickly out of the goal.
Yet it was unclear whether the puck hit the support bar in the back of the net or the crossbar outside of it.
"I think, [if you] take a look at that first goal, it hit the crossbar and came out," York said. "It's just another indication that we'd like to see video [reviews inside the arena]."
Just three minutes later, a poor clearance from BC's Mike Brennan came directly to the stick of UMass forward James Marcou, who fired the puck by Muse to even the score at two.
2008 Woodie Awards
