After having six members of the Eagles’ roster win a gold medal in the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, it seemed that No. 2 Boston College men’s hockey had just about figured it out going into Friday night’s matchup against unranked Merrimack.
But it wasn’t so simple for the Eagles as they dropped their first home game since December of 2023 in front of a stunned crowd in Conte Forum.
Merrimack’s five unanswered goals, three of which came in a 4:17 span, and BC’s sloppiness when handling the puck resulted in the Warriors (8–10–1, 4–5–1 Hockey East) pummeling the Eagles (12–4–1, 6–3–1) 5–2.
“Clearly not nearly as sharp a game as we wanted to play,” BC head coach Greg Brown said. “Thought we started okay the first few minutes—kept it simple, kind of got our feet wet—but then it seemed like right after we scored, our choices started to get really suspect.”
Merrimack was not clobbering BC for the entire game, though. In fact, for all of the first frame and half of the second frame, the Eagles controlled possession.
Following a few rather silent opening minutes, it appeared as if the Eagles had found their footing when Aram Minnetian created space for BC’s first successful drive on net.
“Aram was solid—had good leads,” Brown said. “Weren’t sure all the guys coming back how their legs would be—they played a lot of hockey—but he had his legs for sure. He finished the tournament very strong for the US, and it looked like he carried that hockey right back with us.”
Off a saved Minnetian shot, Oskar Jellvik rattled one in off the rebound, putting the first point on the board and giving BC a 1–0 lead.
BC built on that lead as Brady Berard notched his first goal of the season, short-handed, a little under eight minutes into the second period.
What seemed like a smooth sailing journey for BC, rapidly capsized.
Just 32 seconds later, the Warriors sent the puck soaring past the normally steady and reliable Jacob Fowler.
Merrimack wasn’t done yet. In a little over three minutes, the Warriors would not only tally three goals but also snatch BC’s two-goal lead.
“I think we forced a ton of things that were low percentage plays, and started to turn over way too many pucks, and really got Merrimack probably feeling pretty good about their game because they were causing a lot of turnovers and getting a bunch of odd-man rushes,” Brown said. “We weren’t playing winning percentage hockey, and we tried to force way too many plays that weren’t there.”
Down by just one goal at the beginning of the final frame, BC needed to get going—fast.
No matter what the Eagles tried to do, though, Merrimack did it better.
“Merrimack started to clog it up,” Brown said. “And then when we did create some chances on their goal, they made some key saves. Right when we started to take a little bit of momentum, they either got a block or a big save, and then we got careless, usually after that.”
When it felt like BC’s night could not be any more sloppy, it was. The Warriors tacked on two more goals before the game clock sounded and BC fell to a three-goal loss.
“We have to do a better job in all areas,” Brown said. “We had a long time off, but we’ve practiced enough in the last two weeks that we should be making better decisions than we did tonight.”
That, combined with Merrimack’s ability to shut down any BC advance on net, culminated in BC ending its 18-game home winning streak.
“Well every game in Hockey East is a battle and it’s unique,” Brown said. “[Merrimack] has been playing very well, and they are on a hot streak. They were sharp again tonight, especially their pushback after we scored. And when they got ahead, they managed the puck well … You can see they played with the right amount of desperation and intelligence and limited our chances.”
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